Sps high nutrients myth?

[FarmerTy]

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

Just my own personal opinion but I'd still slowly add some more fish, never shut off the skimmer (it provides a great source of dissolved oxygen too), feed heavier, and never worry about too low of phosphates. I'd keep using some type of phosphate remover... But thats really just me being paranoid about phosphate. Really, you could also just do nothing. 2-3 ppm of nitrates is not bad at all. [emoji4]

 

[FarmerTy]

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?

7.5 dKh, and honestly, the main reason I leave it around here instead of a higher number is because many reefers keep theirs in the 8-9 dKh range, at least in Austin they do. Maricultures come in around 6 dKh so for me, keeping it somewhere in between allows me easier acclimation for both mariculture colonies and frags from other hobbyist. My reasons have nothing to do with tank chemistry, just ease of acclimation. [emoji4]

 

[fragit]

7.5 dKh, and honestly, the main reason I leave it around here instead of a higher number is because many reefers keep theirs in the 8-9 dKh range, at least in Austin they do. Maricultures come in around 6 dKh so for me, keeping it somewhere in between allows me easier acclimation for both mariculture colonies and frags from other hobbyist. My reasons have nothing to do with tank chemistry, just ease of acclimation. [emoji4]

This I find interesting. So when you get frags or your maricultured colonies what is your acclimation process like. Do you drip acclimate, or put them in a holding tank with 6dkh and slowly bring up the entire water volume until it matches your DT?

 

[FarmerTy]

This I find interesting. So when you get frags or your maricultured colonies what is your acclimation process like. Do you drip acclimate, or put them in a holding tank with 6dkh and slowly bring up the entire water volume until it matches your DT?

I've never found that they needed drip acclimation. I have a pretty rigorous dipping process that involves 10 mins of Bayer, 1 hr of Interceptor, and 1 hr of a potassium dip (increasing potassium from 400 ppm to 1600 ppm with potassium chloride... Water softener pellets). While the coral goes from one treatment batch to the other, I'll slowly mix more of my DT water in each tray so by the final one, it is mostly just my DT water. I do two additional trays of just tank water as rinse stations to not bring any Bayer into the DT. I also cut off the giant mari plugs and put them on new, dried out mari plugs to avoid bringing anything in on the plugs. I also do a very careful examination of the coral flesh to look for bite marks or pests. I find having them directly under your lighting best to do this.

Lastly, I put them right into higher par lighting, 300-400 par, as I feel they lose less color this way. Only exception being I'm pretty sure I nuked a lower light mari this way once so tread lightly on this method.

 

[Robthorn]

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[fragit]

I've never found that they needed drip acclimation. I have a pretty rigorous dipping process that involves 10 mins of Bayer, 1 hr of Interceptor, and 1 hr of a potassium dip (increasing potassium from 400 ppm to 1600 ppm with potassium chloride... Water softener pellets). While the coral goes from one treatment batch to the other, I'll slowly mix more of my DT water in each tray so by the final one, it is mostly just my DT water. I do two additional trays of just tank water as rinse stations to not bring any Bayer into the DT. I also cut off the giant mari plugs and put them on new, dried out mari plugs to avoid bringing anything in on the plugs. I also do a very careful examination of the coral flesh to look for bite marks or pests. I find having them directly under your lighting best to do this.

Lastly, I put them right into higher par lighting, 300-400 par, as I feel they lose less color this way. Only exception being I'm pretty sure I nuked a lower light mari this way once so tread lightly on this method.

What's the interceptor and potassium chloride for?

 

[FarmerTy]

Interceptor for red, gray, and black bugs and potassium as another overall "kill them all" dip, though it is pretty harsh.

 

[JBNY]

@JBNY

Out of curiousity what CaRx media were you using, and what did you switch to before you stopped using the CaRx all together? I ask because TLF Reborn has trace elements, and I wonder if that wasn't enough for your system.

I had been using ARM for years, then switched to Koralith that I had used in the past, and finally tried Dastaco. I had pretty much the same experience with all of them.

 

[JBNY]

Stability I have stated for years and years is about the owner not so much the tank. You can have a rock solid stable tank in a few weeks. But most people are not disciplined enough to know how to test and correct effectively in the beginning to keep the tank stable. But it is really a matter of test and correct until you get the same reading every day, then every week, then every month.

+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;)

That is the sweet spot for SPS tanks. They almost all look great at that point. It's enough time for corals to grow and color up but not enough time for husbandry problems to start showing up. Generally, but not always, by year 3 you start seeing the same tanks start having algae and STN problems.

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

It depends on your tank really. Some people can get away with just feeding more and others need to add more fish, and some people need to still dose on top of that. Mostly it is about how efficient at processing nitrates to be when you designed your tank when you set it up. I have 568 fish right now feed 12 cubes of frozen food, and 6 big pinches of pellets a day. I still have to dose KNO3 to keep nitrate in the tank.

This I find interesting. So when you get frags or your maricultured colonies what is your acclimation process like. Do you drip acclimate, or put them in a holding tank with 6dkh and slowly bring up the entire water volume until it matches your DT?

I have moved literally hundreds of frags in and out of my system over the years. I stopped acclimating SPS well over 10 years ago. just pull them out of the bag, leave them out for 3-5 minutes then put them in a dip, then rinse them off and put them in their holding tank. I have not lost a frag in I don't know how long. I keep my tank at 7.7 dKH but frags or colonies coming from high alk tanks I do the same and never had a problem.

 

[fragit]

I've always just temp acclimated corals and then into the tank also. This tank everything is going to be dipped in bayer also.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I've always just temp acclimated corals and then into the tank also. This tank everything is going to be dipped in bayer also.

Bayer doesn't kill alages.

Interceptor for red, gray, and black bugs and potassium as another overall "kill them all" dip, though it is pretty harsh.

I believe the concentrated potassium, does.

 

[fragit]

Bayer doesn't kill alages.

Correct for AWEF.

 

[JBNY]

I've always just temp acclimated corals and then into the tank also. This tank everything is going to be dipped in bayer also.

you don't even need to do that. Years and years ago before we knew about even red bugs, I would come back from a swap meets in the winter with frags that had been sitting in bags for hours with no heat packs, I would pull them from the bag and let them sit on the counter for about 5 minutes and pop them in the main tank. Never had a problem.

 

[FarmerTy]

you don't even need to do that. Years and years ago before we knew about even red bugs, I would come back from a swap meets in the winter with frags that had been sitting in bags for hours with no heat packs, I would pull them from the bag and let them sit on the counter for about 5 minutes and pop them in the main tank. Never had a problem.

JBNY, I'm curious what is your reasoning for the 5 minute sit out method? Wondering if it's something I need to add to my arsenal.

 

[EJReef]

Interceptor for red, gray, and black bugs and potassium as another overall "kill them all" dip, though it is pretty harsh.

I thought bayer killed red bugs too?

 

[FarmerTy]

I thought bayer killed red bugs too?

Not successfully and consistent enough to trust. Those buggers are tough.

 

[JBNY]

JBNY, I'm curious what is your reasoning for the 5 minute sit out method? Wondering if it's something I need to add to my arsenal.

it gives them enough time to get a little slime coat going before they go into the tank. The thought is that the slime helps them acclimate, fight off bad bacteria etc, when put in the water. I used to wait till they would slime up and then put them in the tank. After a while I got tried of observing them every few minutes and settled on 5 minutes. But in a rush I have put them in 2-3 minutes or so and forgotten about them and left them out for as long as 20 and they were still fine.

If you are used to doing some kind of acclimation it takes some getting used to, but it works every time.

 

[fragit]

it gives them enough time to get a little slime coat going before they go into the tank. The thought is that the slime helps them acclimate, fight off bad bacteria etc, when put in the water. I used to wait till they would slime up and then put them in the tank. After a while I got tried of observing them every few minutes and settled on 5 minutes. But in a rush I have put them in 2-3 minutes or so and forgotten about them and left them out for as long as 20 and they were still fine.

If you are used to doing some kind of acclimation it takes some getting used to, but it works every time.

Very interesting method you got there. I may have to give it a shot sometime.

 

[FarmerTy]

it gives them enough time to get a little slime coat going before they go into the tank. The thought is that the slime helps them acclimate, fight off bad bacteria etc, when put in the water. I used to wait till they would slime up and then put them in the tank. After a while I got tried of observing them every few minutes and settled on 5 minutes. But in a rush I have put them in 2-3 minutes or so and forgotten about them and left them out for as long as 20 and they were still fine.

If you are used to doing some kind of acclimation it takes some getting used to, but it works every time.

Thank you for sharing! That's definitely very interesting.

The potassium dip I do causes them to slime up as well. I wonder if that's an added bonus right there.

 

[fragit]

Lets get this train back on track! Nutrients (nitrates and phosphates), Alk, Flow, Lighting....GO