Sps high nutrients myth?

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thats it?

nooo.

 

[mdavis735]

Here in Austin we pour nitrates in our tank. Me from a 1 liter Dr Pepper bottle. Ty from a 1 liter bottle from whatever his drink of choice is.

 

[FarmerTy]

Cool! What do you do to keep nitrates down?

I use a biopellet reactor combined with a skimmer rated for 2x the total volume of my tank.

buys more coral.

My nitrates shot up to 20 ppm! Get me 6 new acro colonies stat!

Here in Austin we pour nitrates in our tank. Me from a 1 liter Dr Pepper bottle. Ty from a 1 liter bottle from whatever his drink of choice is.

Haha, I went back to the fish poop nitrate dosing system. I only tell other Austinites to do that so I can watch their tanks blow up with cyano and laugh maniacally! [emoji41] Kidding!

 

[Robthorn]

For the record I do not claim there is a specific number of days or weeks or years. Every tank is different and there comes a different time in every tank where it becomes and starts acting mature. Believe what you want or don't. Stable to me is very different from mature. Not really sure how anyone with thriving sps ever finds stable until the tank is fully grown in and you are fragging daily anyway.

 

[mdavis735]

I'm pretty sure my issue is dino's instead of cyano. It more brown and snotty looking. Knock on wood I've yet to see the classic maroon slime.

 

[FarmerTy]

I'm pretty sure my issue is dino's instead of cyano. It more brown and snotty looking. Knock on wood I've yet to see the classic maroon slime.

Oh my, dinos are the devil! [emoji49]

 

[mdavis735]

I agree. Not 100% sure what it is. To be honest. I hate it though

 

[Salty1962]

I encounter the same scenario occasionally with my species-specific tank. The corals that just don't like my conditions self select themselves out of the equation and the ones that align with it flourish.

Do you have any closer shots of your acros in particular? Or top-down shots? I'm curious of the types you are keeping (I see some stags) and their coloration in closer detail.

Saturday? They're on your doorstep now! Ahhh! [emoji12]

I agree with Ty, your going to get some corals do well under one method and not the other. I 've tried UNLS until 2 mths ago and I was burning through corals like crazy, now I'm keeping more nutrients in my tank. Dosing KNo3 and feeding heavier and now corals that I thought I completely lost are starting to color up and come back.

 

[Salty1962]

I guess this is pertinent to the conversation at hand but when I decided to run fallow for 76 days, I had dosed potassium nitrate to keep my nitrate levels around 5 ppm once I noticed the corals had lightened up.

Upon reintroduction of the fish, I had stopped dosing the potassium nitrate and allowed the feedings and fish poop to supplement nitrate. While maintaining the same nitrate levels, my coral colors took a major leap with the fish back in the tank. My theory is the particulate matter from the fish poop as well as the direct uptake of ammonia/ammonium resulted in the color difference, even though the same nitrate levels were maintained.

Monti's love fish poop.

 

[Salty1962]

and ARID C30 reactor, I just counted 58 fish sorry,

(2) Clown fish false percula (Amphiprion ocellaris)
(1) Coral Beauty (Centropyge bispinosus)
(1) Flameback Angelfish (Centropyge aurantonotus)
(4) Flame Angles (Centropyge loricula)
(1) Regal Hippo tang (Paracanthurus hepatus)
(5) Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis)
(1) Yellow Coris Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus) Lost wrasse on 10/08/2015
(1) One spot foxface (Siganus unimaculatus)
(1) Longnose Hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus)
(8) Yellow Assessor (Assessor flavissimus)
(1) Cleaner Wrasse
(5) Blue Star Leopard Wrasse
(1) Chalk Bass
(1) Hoeven's Wrasse
(2) Wheeler's Shrimp Goby
(13) Tukas Anthias
(10) Blue Chromis

here is a vid of me feeding the tank over the summer

And I thought I had allot

 

[mdavis735]

It must be getting late. I got my D words mixed up. It's diatoms. Not Dino's.

 

[Salty1962]

I tend to disagree with this statement. I've found over the years that at least for keeping SPS, a certain level of stability is achieved after a year and from that point any additions to the tank have no problems surviving. There's a lot of nutrient balance issues and swings in different types of bacterial populations at play that aren't accounted for during the first year. This is with stable measurable parameters the entire time during the first year, no swings of that sort that often plague new hobbyists.

+1, I've had many reef tanks and none of them did well until @1.5 years. That is my corals and livestock. I believe some of it has to do with the reefer maturing as well

 

[EJReef]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/5/aafeature

http://packedhead.net/2015/triton-lab-icp-oes-testing-of-a-certified-artificial-saltwater-standard/


This should help answer your concerns about aluminum. Also, based on the second link, the Triton test may not be all that accurate for some elements.

Totally off-topic but my aluminum level with my marine pure blocks was 20x the recommended level by Triton with no issues.

I see what you're saying but not sure what can be done about it. How are we to affect change in really looking into issues versus the blanket statement of, oh, your tank is to new and not mature yet. Seems just like human nature. It's the same when a tank crashes after 5 years of running smoothly with no changes... Old tank syndrome, of course! When really, it was probably reefer apathy towards his tank. Less testing, less careful about maintenance, lack of attending to detail... But when it's easier to explain off, people will tend to head towards that option as an explanation.

 

[FarmerTy]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/5/aafeature

http://packedhead.net/2015/triton-lab-icp-oes-testing-of-a-certified-artificial-saltwater-standard/


This should help answer your concerns about aluminum. Also, based on the second link, the Triton test may not be all that accurate for some elements.

Thanks. I'm a nerd and have already read both of those articles but I appreciate you linking them! I had no concerns on the Al level in my tank and they've pretty much stayed there since I don't do water changes. That's why I told everyone in the Marine Pure thread, keep on trucking folks. No ill effects here. [emoji4]

 

[EJReef]

Thanks. I'm a nerd and have already read both of those articles but I appreciate you linking them! I had no concerns on the Al level in my tank and they've pretty much stayed there since I don't do water changes. That's why I told everyone in the Marine Pure thread, keep on trucking folks. No ill effects here. [emoji4]

No problem. I was freaking out about the marinepure in the past when I saw posts online about it leaching aluminum. I haven't bothered to test because I haven't had any problems I can attribute to it.

I have had problems with SPS coloration due to low nutrients though! My coloration is better with over 5ppm nitrate. I stopped carbon dosing because it was causing more harm than good.

 

[dave57]

Would you guys suggest adding more fish to increase nitrates and phosphates rather than dumping more food? Or KN03 Or all three ?
Currently my nitrates read around 2.5ppm, phosphates at 0.03.. I feed everyday tons of reef roids and LRS, however I stop feeding one day and my phosphates drop to undetectable.. I had to turn off my skimmer I no longer use it at this moment.. I have about 5 small chromis, 1 flame angel, two clowns, blue tang (small) yellow tang(medium) six line wrasse, sailfang tang. All in my 525xl..
I'm up for suggestions

 

[chema]

Would you guys suggest adding more fish to increase nitrates and phosphates rather than dumping more food? Or KN03 Or all three ?
Currently my nitrates read around 2.5ppm, phosphates at 0.03.. I feed everyday tons of reef roids and LRS, however I stop feeding one day and my phosphates drop to undetectable.. I had to turn off my skimmer I no longer use it at this moment.. I have about 5 small chromis, 1 flame angel, two clowns, blue tang (small) yellow tang(medium) six line wrasse, sailfang tang. All in my 525xl..
I'm up for suggestions

How old is the tank?

 

[dave57]

5 months

 

[fragit]

Let's talk alkalinity in higher nutrients SPS systems. I was trying the ultra low route, and have killed or severely damaged a bunch of frags. I'm going back to my old practice. At any route I've always tried to keep alkalinity between 8-9. Low nutrient reefers tend to go between 6.8-7.3ish. I know of at least one person who has gone as low as 5.3dkh or at least claims that and with no issues. What are your numbers folks?

 

[edosan]

No problem. I was freaking out about the marinepure in the past when I saw posts online about it leaching aluminum. I haven't bothered to test because I haven't had any problems I can attribute to it.

I have had problems with SPS coloration due to low nutrients though! My coloration is better with over 5ppm nitrate. I stopped carbon dosing because it was causing more harm than good.

I have (and many others too) a frag tank sps dominated with nothing but MarinePure, and ceramic frag rack. No live rock, no sand.
80g tank. Sorry no pics for the moment. MP is a great biomedia product.

The tank on my signature have 4 blocks of MP, and corals are better than ever. CERO live rock, only dry tonga and pukani and bottle bacteria (one & only).

I use the big blocks only and they are very VERY easy to cut, just with a PVC saw and you are done.

Regarding Aluminum, I have test my 5 tanks with Triton Labs, and no relevant Al, and I use MP in all of them. I have been using MP since 2013, with CERO issues.

Donno why (well maybe I do know) some guys rant so hard against MP.