Mixed reef 50% corals 50% macro. Nitrates?

Subsea

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Gotcha. Wow I have so much to learn, I was 100% sure that if you dose ammonia you could kill all the fish in there. That's cheap though
If you dump it all, you will kill your fish. That’s why Randy suggested using sodium nitrate. I have had 10K gallons of seaweed & live rock in cultivation. Ammonia is economical, but must be used carefully.

I use 1ml per every 10G of tank water. Apply in high flow area. In 25 yrs, I had one mishap when a fish swam to surface drip and liquid ammonia directly hit fish.
 

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Hi all,
I am new to saltwater aquariums and I have been setting up my very first reef tank for a couple of months now.
I have an AIO fluval flex 32g whitout sump. As filtration system I have the original filter from the aquarium and an external filter on top of that, plus some 5-10 cm sand and live+dry rocks.
You can see how is set up my tank: one side corals one side macros.

369373.jpg

Now, I am planning to start stocking with corals in a month or so, but the problem is that no matter how much I feed the tank, I can't raise nitrates/phosphates higher than 0. I am under stocked with only one big watchman goby+pistol shrimp, a tiny hermit and a lot of snails and pods.
I am very undecided on how to proceed, if stocking more fish before corals would solve the problem or starting to dose nitrogen (which would make pointless my original idea to use macros to control nutrients) or even leaving it as it is. I would love to put some duncans/torches/zoas for now but I am worried that if I have 0 nitrates they will starve quickly.
Is anyone here with a similar setup? What do you suggest?
The growth will correspond with nutrients. Harvest some. My tanks have relied solely on algea based systems since the 80s. You'll find the sweet spot by adding a few hardy animals and feed them. To much algea = all 0s. To little and your nitrate goes up. The alge will grow faster and correct that. Also add some red to your spectrum. Maybe just a small refugium light. Nice tank.
 
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KonradTO

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The growth will correspond with nutrients. Harvest some. My tanks have relied solely on algea based systems since the 80s. You'll find the sweet spot by adding a few hardy animals and feed them. To much algea = all 0s. To little and your nitrate goes up. The alge will grow faster and correct that. Also add some red to your spectrum. Maybe just a small refugium light. Nice tank.
Thanks for the input! You all make it sound so easy and smooth
Concerning next species I am quite decided for clownfish but my main interest it's in invertebrates (e.g. more shrimps and lps/soft corals). That's why I want to prepare the parameters for those. But it seems I must stock with fish first if I want to have enough nutrients
 
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If you dump it all, you will kill your fish. That’s why Randy suggested using sodium nitrate. I have had 10K gallons of seaweed & live rock in cultivation. Ammonia is economical, but must be used carefully.

I use 1ml per every 10G of tank water. Apply in high flow area. In 25 yrs, I had one mishap when a fish swam to surface drip and liquid ammonia directly hit fish.
Thanks for the suggestions. I might try at some point when I have more control on the system, If I understand correctly plant would benefit from free ammonia more than nitrates
 

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Thanks for the suggestions. I might try at some point when I have more control on the system, If I understand correctly plant would benefit from free ammonia more than nitrates

Everything will consume ammonia more readily than nitrates. Recently, while feeding ammonia with lights out, to keep macro out of nocturnal feeding, I noted a rapid feeding response of Flower Anemones in the tank.
 
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Everything will consume ammonia more readily than nitrates. Recently, while feeding ammonia with lights out, to keep macro out of nocturnal feeding, I noted a rapid feeding response of Flower Anemones in the tank.
I was reading a paper earlier where they found best growth in Caulerpa sp. and Gracilaria sp. was obtained with relatively high ratio of NH4/NO3. And it seems to vary A LOT depending on the species/genus.
 

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I tried to find a schematic of your tank, can you link me to one? Or to your tank biofiltration description? All I got was it was shallower. Anytime surface area ratio to volume of display increases, it is a good thing if you want to increase gas exchange ratio as well as magnify light at substrate level. Please describe your substrate better as a part of nutrient management in your system.
 

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I was reading a paper earlier where they found best growth in Caulerpa sp. and Gracilaria sp. was obtained with relatively high ratio of NH4/NO3. And it seems to vary A LOT depending on the species/genus.

I enjoy growing ornamental & utility macros in my systems without sumps. In those systems, fish are not the emphasis. I prune macros from those systems and feed herbivores in other systems or compost tomatoes.

ReefCleaners has grouped macros into three categories and recommends all three.


Our Philosophy:

You want both consistent nutrient uptake and pulse nutrient uptake macros and saltwater plants in your tank.

Here is what I mean by those terms: (They use similar terminology in phycology by the idea is exactly the same)

Consistent Macros- Macros that need nutrient at a high levels, all the time to thrive. They filter out nutrients quickly and are effective at dealing with established nutrient problems.

Pulse Macros - Can handle periods of low nutrient levels well, and are long lived plants

Middle of the Road Macros - as you may have guessed, these macros and plants are somewhere in the middle. They grow quickly in high nutrient tanks, but can endure longer periods of low nutrition as well.
 
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KonradTO

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I tried to find a schematic of your tank, can you link me to one? Or to your tank biofiltration description? All I got was it was shallower. Anytime surface area ratio to volume of display increases, it is a good thing if you want to increase gas exchange ratio as well as magnify light at substrate level. Please describe your substrate better as a part of nutrient management in your system.

I have at the moment the stock filtration system slightly modified to increase flow in the filter. I also have a canister filter (tetra ex600) coupled with the stock one. 15kg more or less of dry+live rock and 5-10cm of sand which I never clean (but my goby does..).
I don't have a build thread going yet, I am waiting to get all the basic items I still do not have (wavemaker, proper lighting).
 

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Im not home now but hopefully this afternoon I'll take a pic of how I use macro and various other algea as primary filtration. It's much more efficient and adapts to changes in bioload better than using bacterial nitrification as your main filtration.
Thanks for the input! You all make it sound so easy and smooth
Concerning next species I am quite decided for clownfish but my main interest it's in invertebrates (e.g. more shrimps and lps/soft corals). That's why I want to prepare the parameters for those. But it seems I must stock with fish first if I want to have enough nutrients
 

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The growth will correspond with nutrients. Harvest some. My tanks have relied solely on algea based systems since the 80s. You'll find the sweet spot by adding a few hardy animals and feed them. To much algea = all 0s. To little and your nitrate goes up. The alge will grow faster and correct that. Also add some red to your spectrum. Maybe just a small refugium light. Nice tank.
 
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KonradTO

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Here's the scrubber for the 30. I harvest a big handful every week.
Wow that looks insane! At the moment I cannot add quickly fish to the system so I decided to dose some N/P and slowly decrease the amount while I increase the animals in the tank. Only problem of dosing and harvesting macro is that I am having a lot of red stuff growing on rocks and sand and I am a bit confused. Some people say increase N/P some say decrease food. Wouldn't decreasing the amount of macro give the red stuff (I guess dino/cyano) an advantage?
Or they are growing because I created an imbalance? I had no red stuff until I dosed micro/fe and started to increase food for nutrients. Then I started with N and tomorrow I will get some P for dosing (Right now N is 5-10 ppm and P 0 ppm)
 
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KonradTO

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And this with the red stuff on rocks and sand. It looks a bit like coralline but appeared within few days
IMG_20211024_200605.jpg
 

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Wow that looks insane! At the moment I cannot add quickly fish to the system so I decided to dose some N/P and slowly decrease the amount while I increase the animals in the tank. Only problem of dosing and harvesting macro is that I am having a lot of red stuff growing on rocks and sand and I am a bit confused. Some people say increase N/P some say decrease food. Wouldn't decreasing the amount of macro give the red stuff (I guess dino/cyano) an advantage?
Or they are growing because I created an imbalance? I had no red stuff until I dosed micro/fe and started to increase food for nutrients. Then I started with N and tomorrow I will get some P for dosing (Right now N is 5-10 ppm and P 0 ppm)
The different macros have different requirements. The beauty of algea based systems is quick change. If you have animals now then stop dosing. The algea growth will match the nutrients available. If you dose how long dose it take to reach 0? Is there any nitrate being produced? If your algea is healthy with proper lighting you could just add some hardy live stock. I believe you are on the right track. The animals will dose for you.
 

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