- Joined
- Oct 25, 2017
- Messages
- 74
- Reaction score
- 16
So a very long story short:
1) I inherited a 230G tank with fish and some softies 3y ago, super bad condition, including the equipment (had to change all eventually)
2) Started testing things properly a year later, came up with high super high nutriets @ 0.7 phos and 150ish nitrate
3) Tried to reduce the nutrients in various ways, nothing helped, finally started dosing vodka, currently adding 20 mil a day total (2,5ml per 100l). It works, 2nd pic tested yday, nitrates are 5-10 range (in the water column, not implying they are in the whole tank!) and phos been undetectable for a month. The latter of course does not mean they are at 0, since nitrates are still declining
4) Most of my liverock been exposed to a 150ish nitrate and high phosphates for the whole period of me having that tank (3ish years)
5) Bacterial blooms are expected and i'm not worried about cyano all that much, but the GHA i see for the first time in my tank and it's a problem. The rocks are slowly (thank god) browning out and getting covered with GHA. 1 of the rocks i bought from a fellow reefer was the first to burst with GHA, but now i see my rocks doing the same.
6) Sand is sifted by a star and goby, crystal clear and "light" all the way since i got them cleaners.
Now the Questions:
1) When should i reduce the vodka dosage to 25% of what i'm currently administering, until the algae on the rocks is gone or until the nitrate shows up as 0 on the kit? I hear 25% is what should be kept as a maintenance dosage.
2) How long can my rocks leech N and P for? Best guesses?
3) Should i change something drastically now before GHA takes over the rocks?
4) What are the rocks leaching the N or the P? Perhaps i should add P so it'd show 0.03 on the kit, to quicker remove N from the rocks?
@Randy Holmes-Farley
@skimjim
@Flippers4pups
1) I inherited a 230G tank with fish and some softies 3y ago, super bad condition, including the equipment (had to change all eventually)
2) Started testing things properly a year later, came up with high super high nutriets @ 0.7 phos and 150ish nitrate
3) Tried to reduce the nutrients in various ways, nothing helped, finally started dosing vodka, currently adding 20 mil a day total (2,5ml per 100l). It works, 2nd pic tested yday, nitrates are 5-10 range (in the water column, not implying they are in the whole tank!) and phos been undetectable for a month. The latter of course does not mean they are at 0, since nitrates are still declining
4) Most of my liverock been exposed to a 150ish nitrate and high phosphates for the whole period of me having that tank (3ish years)
5) Bacterial blooms are expected and i'm not worried about cyano all that much, but the GHA i see for the first time in my tank and it's a problem. The rocks are slowly (thank god) browning out and getting covered with GHA. 1 of the rocks i bought from a fellow reefer was the first to burst with GHA, but now i see my rocks doing the same.
6) Sand is sifted by a star and goby, crystal clear and "light" all the way since i got them cleaners.
Now the Questions:
1) When should i reduce the vodka dosage to 25% of what i'm currently administering, until the algae on the rocks is gone or until the nitrate shows up as 0 on the kit? I hear 25% is what should be kept as a maintenance dosage.
2) How long can my rocks leech N and P for? Best guesses?
3) Should i change something drastically now before GHA takes over the rocks?
4) What are the rocks leaching the N or the P? Perhaps i should add P so it'd show 0.03 on the kit, to quicker remove N from the rocks?
@Randy Holmes-Farley
@skimjim
@Flippers4pups
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