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[HotRocks]

So it’s out there, but at this point I have no other explanation.

I’ve been trying to bulk up my pod pop in both tanks heavily the past month.

I have been feeding about 5ml of live pods to the 10g frag tank and about 20ml to my 65g dt (100g volume) every night for the last month.

What if something happened water chemistry wise that hit my pods and I’ve been feeding phytos so aggressively to a tank where there isn’t much that will feed on them other than mycoral?

Phytos of course consume a fair amount of nitrate and phosphate.

I know it’s a little wild but something is sucking The nutrients out of my tank at an insane pace. I feed and dose the tank so much that this shouldn’t be happening without something actively feeding on the nutrients.

A fuge photoperiod of 16 hours is probably enough to suck the nutrients from the tank with ease. I have a decent bio load on a 112g system that’s all SPS. My photoperiod varies from 4-6hrs in order to keep nitrate at 5ppm. If I raised it to 16 hours my nutrients would be flat within a day or two I’m certain.

 

[living_tribunal]

I feel your pain I went through the exact same thing. Do you have a main tank you can use water from to do a WC? Or nutrients are low there too???

The main thing I found useful was not trying to chase numbers exactly, you will drive yourself insane. For nutrients just dose enough N and P to keep them registering on the test kit. Keep ALK stable. I didn’t worry too much about calcium and magnesium. The smaller the frag tank the more difficult it is to keep everything stable if you have a fair amount of consumption.

I do have a display but it’s experiencing something similar albeit to a less extreme degree.

I also don’t consider myself a number chaser, I was pretty lax before I had a Dino outbreak. That changed my entire perspective on nutrient control.

So many things, biodiversity wise, rely on phosphate and nitrate including corals. If I allow my frag tank to stay at 0njtrate and phosphate for more than a few days I know they’ll stop growing and eventually bleach out, or worse get Dino again.

I’ll be happy with any reasonable phosphate and nitrate levels if I can just somehow get them to a consistent and more natural pace/rhythm.

I definitely won’t side idle while my levels zero out every day, I have several expensive frags in there at the moment and can’t risk their health.

 

[HotRocks]

I do have a display but it’s experiencing something similar albeit to a less extreme degree.

I also don’t consider myself a number chaser, I was pretty lax before I had a Dino outbreak. That changed my entire perspective on nutrient control.

So many things, biodiversity wise, rely on phosphate and nitrate including corals. If I allow my frag tank to stay at 0njtrate and phosphate for more than a few days I know they’ll stop growing and eventually bleach out, or worse get Dino again.

I’ll be happy with any reasonable phosphate and nitrate levels if I can just somehow get them to a consistent and more natural pace/rhythm.

I definitely won’t side idle while my levels zero out every day, I have several expensive frags in there at the moment and can’t risk their health.

I get it completely is the fuge on the frag tank or just the main system?

Also how new is the frag system?

 

[living_tribunal]

A fuge photoperiod of 16 hours is probably enough to suck the nutrients from the tank with ease. I have a decent bio load on a 112g system that’s all SPS. My photoperiod varies from 4-6hrs in order to keep nitrate at 5ppm. If I raised it to 16 hours my nutrients would be flat within a day or two I’m certain.

I think you’re right, the only thing is I removed about 90% of my micro fauna several days ago. I also cut the photoperiod down to 8 hours. It has started to help slightly but something is still going on sucking more nitrate and phosphate than I can deliver feeding. I’ve even started turning off my skimmer and return pump to feed my fish twice a day to boost nutrients, it’s maybe helped and I need to do a full week of it to see if it’s reliable.

This might have started when I added a huge order of tang heaven to my fuge in the dt. It was a massive amount and it started causing my Chaeto to die off. All of that has been given away.

I’m hoping this at least kind of solves the issues in the dt. I still have absolutely no freaking clue what’s going on in my fragvyank.

 

[HotRocks]

I think you’re right, the only thing is I removed about 90% of my micro fauna several days ago. I also cut the photoperiod down to 8 hours. It has started to help slightly but something is still going on sucking more nitrate and phosphate than I can deliver feeding. I’ve even started turning off my skimmer and return pump to feed my fish twice a day to boost nutrients, it’s maybe helped and I need to do a full week of it to see if it’s reliable.

This might have started when I added a huge order of tang heaven to my fuge in the dt. It was a massive amount and it started causing my Chaeto to die off. All of that has been given away.

I’m hoping this at least kind of solves the issues in the dt. I still have absolutely no freaking clue what’s going on in my fragvyank.

What’s going on with your frags? Pale? STN/RTN?

Are you dosing N and P proportional to one another. Dosing Nitrate lowers phosphate. So if dosing more nitrate than phosphate it will reduce your phosphate overall.

 

[living_tribunal]

I get it completely is the fuge on the frag tank or just the main system?

Also how new is the frag system?

Just on my dt system. My rink a dink frag tank that has been going super well for about 5 months is a stand-alone entity with essentially no real filtration.

 

[living_tribunal]

What’s going on with your frags? Pale? STN/RTN?

Are you dosing N and P proportional to one another. Dosing Nitrate lowers phosphate. So if dosing more nitrate than phosphate it will reduce your phosphate overall.

So most are doing very well but my sensitive monti cap has started to bleach. That and the results from my hanna phosphorous kit show very low and bottoming out nutrient levels.

That’s some very helpful information.

How would you approach dosing in this situation? Maybe the nitrate dosing is lowering the phosphate i put in right before.

 

[living_tribunal]

What’s going on with your frags? Pale? STN/RTN?

Are you dosing N and P proportional to one another. Dosing Nitrate lowers phosphate. So if dosing more nitrate than phosphate it will reduce your phosphate overall.

I forgot to actually provide the ratio. I do a ratio of 1.3 nitrate to .013 phosphate. That’s a lot more nitrate than phosphate. This is super helpful.

From my understanding, many hobbyists aim for the 15/1 ratio or something like that. Is this a good target?

 

[HotRocks]

I forgot to actually provide the ratio. I do a ratio of 1.3 nitrate to .013 phosphate. That’s a lot more nitrate than phosphate. This is super helpful.

Bleaching can be obviously multiple things. Too much light, not enough nutrients or a combo thereof etc etc

You don’t have to dose them equally as far as 1ppm:1ppm.

I used both brightwell products for N and P when I was dosing it in a fishless frag setting. I dosed equal amounts of each product which I believe equates to 1ppm nitrate to .1ppm phosphate. I’d have to read the bottles. It’s been several months.

I first started dosing nitrate only and doing so it completely bottomed out my phosphate after researching I learned that adding nitrate alone will naturally reduce phosphate. I am not a chemist by any stretch and @Randy Holmes-Farley can likely elaborate.

 

[living_tribunal]

Maybe I should basically cut most of my nutrient export out for 3-4 days in order to get a baseline of how much nitrate and phosphate I’m adding via feeding without dosing.

I can turn off my skimmer and cut my fuge ohoto period to something like 4 hours. This will give me an indication of just how much is being added each day. After several days of measurement I can slowly work in more and more hours with my skimmer on until I hit the sweet spot.

If this pans out and I get my levels at a decent and consistent pace I can at least transfer water from my dt to frag tank every few days for wc.

 

[HotRocks]

Maybe I should basically cut most of my nutrient export out for 3-4 days in order to get a baseline of how much nitrate and phosphate I’m adding via feeding without dosing.

I can turn off my skimmer and cut my fuge ohoto period to something like 4 hours. This will give me an indication of just how much is being added each day. After several days of measurement I can slowly work in more and more hours with my skimmer on until I hit the sweet spot.

If this pans out and I get my levels at a decent and consistent pace I can at least transfer water from my dt to frag tank every few days for wc.

I would definitely cut the export back until you can get it registering on a test kit naturally. Sounds like a plan to me. Do you have a decent amount of fish in the 65? Maybe increase your feeding some as well, as long as the fish are eating everything you add to the tank.

 

[sfin52]

Empty your dt skimmer into the frag tank

 

[living_tribunal]

I would definitely cut the export back until you can get it registering on a test kit naturally. Sounds like a plan to me. Do you have a decent amount of fish in the 65? Maybe increase your feeding some as well, as long as the fish are eating everything you add to the tank.

No I don’t, only a pair of clowns. I am putting in the order for my next two fish this week (which were shamefully purchased for the sole reason of pooping in my tank).

They will be in the display after a month of qt.

 

[living_tribunal]

Empty your dt skimmer into the frag tank

Well I’m not even getting skimmate... in all fairness, it’s a new skimmer and is still being worked in. I’ll dump in what I can when I get the tank at a steady run rate. That’s a good idea

 

[living_tribunal]

I would definitely cut the export back until you can get it registering on a test kit naturally. Sounds like a plan to me. Do you have a decent amount of fish in the 65? Maybe increase your feeding some as well, as long as the fish are eating everything you add to the tank.

These guys could eat a steak if I fed it to them.

They spend their days sitting this corner no scoping pods when they’re not easing mysis.

Just started twice a day feedings and they seem rather happy about it.

 

[sfin52]

Well I’m not even getting skimmate... in all fairness, it’s a new skimmer and is still being worked in. I’ll dump in what I can when I get the tank at a steady run rate. That’s a good idea

Till than use water change water from dt for your water change in frag tank

 

[Suggsreef]

Find a way to bottle fish poop for my frag tank.

I’ll give you a lot of business.

I promise.

I’ll sell you all you can handle.

 

[Thaxxx]

Recycling skimmate works.

 

[shred5]

Feed your corals...
They can get their nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and amino acids from food.

 

[living_tribunal]

Feed your corals...
They can get their nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and amino acids from food.

I feed my coral aminos daily and target feed mysis and roids once a week. It hasn’t been enough to even sustain nutrients.