TL;DR - My young (almost 5 months old) primarily LPS reef hit zero nitrates and phosphates. Noticed some corals beginning to struggle and alkalinity begin to rise. Started dosing nitrates and phosphates using Brightwell’s NeoNitro and NeoPhos.
Full Version - Startef a 65g JBJ AIO about five months ago. Dry rock and sand, cycled with Turbo Start and dosed ammonia to 5 ppm. After cycle added first fish (ocellaris clown). From there added a coral (almost exclusively LPS varieties) or fish roughly once a week. Was testing alk, calcium, mag, nitrates, pH weekly and performing 10% water change weekly.
I now have three fish (the clown, a large royal gramma, and a Pygmy wrasse). I feed frozen mysis and reef frenzy twice daily along with several sinking pellets.
About two months ago I noticed the Alk slowly declining so I calculated usage over three days and began dosing Balling method using Aquaforest Components 1+, 2+, and 3+. Kept Alk stable at around 8.5 for a few weeks.
About 3 weeks ago some of my corals began struggling a bit. Specifically, three of the seven acans, one of two hammers, and my candy cane/trumpet colony.
Testing showed two things - nitrates & phosphates had bottomed out at zero AND Alk had began going up (to over 9) even though I had added more LPS.
Spent the next week researching nitrates/phosphates and dosing. Ordered a Hanna phosphate checker and an Aquaforest phosphate test kit to confirm tests with. Also ordered Brightwell NeoNitro and NeoPhos.
That week my gold hammer died.
Decided to try and dose nitrates to get to around 5 ppm and dose phosphates to get to around 0.05. Started dosing last week:
So this is where I’m at as of this morning.
As you can see I dosed nitrates ONCE and got it right to where I wanted it. Have not had to dose again since.
Of interest, it took four days of dosing phosphates before I saw what appears to be a small reduction in nitrates.
I’ve dosed phosphates six times now with no discernible increase in phosphate levels.
Anecdotally, some of my corals do appear to be improving. Some of the acans have really puffed up and several have feeder tentacles out almost all day now. My trachy has colored up a bit more, the torches look wonderful, and the candy cane is a bit puffier (though still looks quite sad).
I’ll continue dosing NeoPhos and testing 24 hours later until I see a measurable amount and get to my target of 0.05.
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to track things here (I’m not expert and definitely still learning)...maybe some of you will find it interesting???
Always open to comments/thoughts as well. Thanks R2R community!
Full Version - Startef a 65g JBJ AIO about five months ago. Dry rock and sand, cycled with Turbo Start and dosed ammonia to 5 ppm. After cycle added first fish (ocellaris clown). From there added a coral (almost exclusively LPS varieties) or fish roughly once a week. Was testing alk, calcium, mag, nitrates, pH weekly and performing 10% water change weekly.
I now have three fish (the clown, a large royal gramma, and a Pygmy wrasse). I feed frozen mysis and reef frenzy twice daily along with several sinking pellets.
About two months ago I noticed the Alk slowly declining so I calculated usage over three days and began dosing Balling method using Aquaforest Components 1+, 2+, and 3+. Kept Alk stable at around 8.5 for a few weeks.
About 3 weeks ago some of my corals began struggling a bit. Specifically, three of the seven acans, one of two hammers, and my candy cane/trumpet colony.
Testing showed two things - nitrates & phosphates had bottomed out at zero AND Alk had began going up (to over 9) even though I had added more LPS.
Spent the next week researching nitrates/phosphates and dosing. Ordered a Hanna phosphate checker and an Aquaforest phosphate test kit to confirm tests with. Also ordered Brightwell NeoNitro and NeoPhos.
That week my gold hammer died.
Decided to try and dose nitrates to get to around 5 ppm and dose phosphates to get to around 0.05. Started dosing last week:
So this is where I’m at as of this morning.
As you can see I dosed nitrates ONCE and got it right to where I wanted it. Have not had to dose again since.
Of interest, it took four days of dosing phosphates before I saw what appears to be a small reduction in nitrates.
I’ve dosed phosphates six times now with no discernible increase in phosphate levels.
Anecdotally, some of my corals do appear to be improving. Some of the acans have really puffed up and several have feeder tentacles out almost all day now. My trachy has colored up a bit more, the torches look wonderful, and the candy cane is a bit puffier (though still looks quite sad).
I’ll continue dosing NeoPhos and testing 24 hours later until I see a measurable amount and get to my target of 0.05.
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to track things here (I’m not expert and definitely still learning)...maybe some of you will find it interesting???
Always open to comments/thoughts as well. Thanks R2R community!