nickmealey
Community Member
I've had my tank (see build thread) setup for about a year now with a few large rocks from an established system to kick things off. I'd say things have gone alright, seeing growth and little fatalities but hadn't seen it really take off yet and recently has taken a turn for the worse. It's hard when I've been in the hobby for a while now (almost 10 years) and still feel like I'm struggling with basic survival issues. The tank has mostly SPS.
Possibly a major missing ingredient this last year - lack of nutrients. I've rarely measured N/P along the way because I hadn't put much stock in keeping levels perfect. I figured with as much as a I feed it would be easy to keep nutrients within acceptable limits. I was growing tired of seeing pale corals and lack of growth so I started taking measurements and found with UL test kits that I was at 0.0 on both Nitrates and Phosphates.
On top of this I started getting more and more dinos and cyano. This led me to really push to get my nutrients up. At first I just started feeding even heavier than I was before (which I already thought was a lot) and I started seeing what I thought was an improvement (better color, visually more healthy). That got my Phophates to an acceptable range but Nitrates undetectable still. I ended up dosing some Nitrate from Fish of Hex and brought levels between 4-5ppm over the course of a few days. Maybe this is where I went wrong, but I also started backing off the feeding amounts. That was a bit over a few weeks ago and the coral have responded poorly. Several losses, some on their way out, and just generally not looking good. Even a green slimer that's been growing well and never skipped a beat is looking stressed. Mostly the acros but also a goni that reseeded heavily. On the bright side, the cyano has really cleaned up since then. All the frags in the tank are at least 5-6 months in the tank, most have barely grown but survived.
My best guess is that the bump Nitrate was a shock to the coral, but most of my research seems that people don't experience such a set back just when increasing Nitrate into acceptable levels like this. At this point I'm wondering if I just need to let things ride or intervene in some way. Also since that dosing I've been measuring and it hasn't dropped at all, still 4-5ppm).
It's worth mentioning the other weird experience I've had with this build is pretty early on without much coral at all, I was experience massive alk consumption (upwards of 250-300ml per day of BRS two part) which was very surprising to me. If I didn't dose heavily, levels would fall below 7dKh. Several months ago that tapered off and I got down to less thank 30ml / day. Maybe that was the new rock? Dinos possibly? All that has created some alk swings, but nothing in excess of between 7.5-9.5dKh. I also will admit life got really busy this last summer and the tank went extended time (~3 months) without water changes.
I'll assume you'll want the basics:
- 1.026 Tropic Marin classic salt
- Lots of flow (2 MP40s and a gyre)
- Average 200-250 par to the coral Orphek Atlantiks full power
- 8dKh
- 0.08ppm Phosphate
- 4.5ppm Nitrate
- Running a UV (which I discovered had been off for a while)
- I had an ICP test done (see results), granted I've done several reasonable large water changes since then
I realize that good things come in time and I'm willing to be patient, but I can't help but think it would seem easier by now
Wait it out and just see how things go? I can snap some photos if that's helpful.
Possibly a major missing ingredient this last year - lack of nutrients. I've rarely measured N/P along the way because I hadn't put much stock in keeping levels perfect. I figured with as much as a I feed it would be easy to keep nutrients within acceptable limits. I was growing tired of seeing pale corals and lack of growth so I started taking measurements and found with UL test kits that I was at 0.0 on both Nitrates and Phosphates.
On top of this I started getting more and more dinos and cyano. This led me to really push to get my nutrients up. At first I just started feeding even heavier than I was before (which I already thought was a lot) and I started seeing what I thought was an improvement (better color, visually more healthy). That got my Phophates to an acceptable range but Nitrates undetectable still. I ended up dosing some Nitrate from Fish of Hex and brought levels between 4-5ppm over the course of a few days. Maybe this is where I went wrong, but I also started backing off the feeding amounts. That was a bit over a few weeks ago and the coral have responded poorly. Several losses, some on their way out, and just generally not looking good. Even a green slimer that's been growing well and never skipped a beat is looking stressed. Mostly the acros but also a goni that reseeded heavily. On the bright side, the cyano has really cleaned up since then. All the frags in the tank are at least 5-6 months in the tank, most have barely grown but survived.
My best guess is that the bump Nitrate was a shock to the coral, but most of my research seems that people don't experience such a set back just when increasing Nitrate into acceptable levels like this. At this point I'm wondering if I just need to let things ride or intervene in some way. Also since that dosing I've been measuring and it hasn't dropped at all, still 4-5ppm).
It's worth mentioning the other weird experience I've had with this build is pretty early on without much coral at all, I was experience massive alk consumption (upwards of 250-300ml per day of BRS two part) which was very surprising to me. If I didn't dose heavily, levels would fall below 7dKh. Several months ago that tapered off and I got down to less thank 30ml / day. Maybe that was the new rock? Dinos possibly? All that has created some alk swings, but nothing in excess of between 7.5-9.5dKh. I also will admit life got really busy this last summer and the tank went extended time (~3 months) without water changes.
I'll assume you'll want the basics:
- 1.026 Tropic Marin classic salt
- Lots of flow (2 MP40s and a gyre)
- Average 200-250 par to the coral Orphek Atlantiks full power
- 8dKh
- 0.08ppm Phosphate
- 4.5ppm Nitrate
- Running a UV (which I discovered had been off for a while)
- I had an ICP test done (see results), granted I've done several reasonable large water changes since then
I realize that good things come in time and I'm willing to be patient, but I can't help but think it would seem easier by now
Wait it out and just see how things go? I can snap some photos if that's helpful.
