Water parameters driving me crazy

[Raysup88]

So first off levels are as follows
Calcium 480
Nitrate 80
Ammonia 0
Kh 161
Phosphates 2

so I’ve been doing some changes to my 65gal set up. I’ve added some snails of different sorts to clean last week. Just under 2 weeks ago I’ve added a 20 gal long sump with 3 chambers. Filter sock and carbon bag/refugium/return. No skimmer yet stupid stand isn’t big enough inside which new stand possibly being built this weekend. So just a filter sock with carbon bag in first one. In center/refugium just 5 days ago added dry rock rubble and marine pure plate then 3rd chamber return pump. About 3 days ago added trigger copepods to refugium with a ball of chaeto and sea grape wrapped together from lfs. Today I added some live phytoplankton to refugium. Also when I added the dry rock rubble I also added about 9 more lbs of that same dry rock to the dt to get me to close to 60lbs rock in dt. I know this is all slow process with tanks. Should I be worried about my levels especially my phosphate levels? First time I’ve got to check anything besides my nitrate as I finally got a reef test kit.

 

[Raysup88]

I also add 4ml of reef energy plus AB daily

 

[Raysup88]

Salinity is 1.024
Temp 78

 

[Matt1997]

Stop adding AB+

 

[Raysup88]

Stop adding AB+

Really? I have a couple frags in the tank figured it would be good for them. Ricordea zoa and just added a purple hammer. Figured they would love it

 

[Dkmoo]

the phos and nitrates are really high. even if the softies can tolerate "dirty" water, general recommended levels are 20-30ppm No3, and 0.02ppm phosphate. Looks like your nutrient export mechanism are fully online yet. so agree with above, stop dosing coral food. all that excess nutrient can lead to a lot of problems either now or down the road. Once the nutrients gets converted to waste no3/po4, corals do not readily absorb them anymore but algae, diatoms, cyano will gladly gobble it up and explode in your tank.

the coral food you are dosing is mostly amino, dissolved organics, and protein, so the fact there's so much no3/po4 left suggest that corals are not absorbing all that "food" and the excess is being eaten by other filter feeders and converting to no3/po4 waste. so you might get a big growth of filter feeders too - some are good, some are bad, so there's that too.

 

[Uncle99]

How long has this system been running.
Hope you mean 0.02 or even .2, cause 2ppm would be a problem

 

[Raysup88]

the phos and nitrates are really high. even if the softies can tolerate "dirty" water, general recommended levels are 20-30ppm No3, and 0.02ppm phosphate. Looks like your nutrient export mechanism are fully online yet. so agree with above, stop dosing coral food. all that excess nutrient can lead to a lot of problems either now or down the road. Once the nutrients gets converted to waste no3/po4, corals do not readily absorb them anymore but algae, diatoms, cyano will gladly gobble it up and explode in your tank.

the coral food you are dosing is mostly amino, dissolved organics, and protein, so the fact there's so much no3/po4 left suggest that corals are not absorbing all that "food" and the excess is being eaten by other filter feeders and converting to no3/po4 waste. so you might get a big growth of filter feeders too - some are good, some are bad, so there's that too.

Thank you for the info much appreciated will stop on the reef nutrition.

 

[Greg P]

Really? I have a couple frags in the tank figured it would be good for them. Ricordea zoa and just added a purple hammer. Figured they would love it

Your N&P are high enough to feed your corals, and then some.

 

[blasterman]

Well, the cheato is happy at least with those nutrient levels. Any bets on how fast it grows ?

As others have said, knock off the nutrient supplements because they are just producing waste. You add coral foods when your nutrients are much lower.

Not sure of your fish load but a skimmer might be a good idea.

 

[Raysup88]

How long has this system been running.
Hope you mean 0.02 or even .2, cause 2ppm would be a problem

2

Well, the cheato is happy at least with those nutrient levels. Any bets on how fast it grows ?

As others have said, knock off the nutrient supplements because they are just producing waste. You add coral foods when your nutrients are much lower.

Not sure of your fish load but a skimmer might be a good idea.

haha I hope it grows fast right now led light on it for about 16hrs a day roughly. Starting to see white tips on the sea grape which is odd in itself but the actual chaeto itself is looking healthy nice dark green. Never had macro or a refugium itself so should be an interesting one lol