For the longest time I thought the reason a few of my corals were browning out was due to nitrates being too high. They aren’t super brown but a lot of my montipora has a slight brownish red tint to it and my galaxia turned brown. I just bought a ulr phosphate hannachecker. And was given a Red Sea nitrate rest by a fellow reefer. So after several tests my nitrates are 0 and my phosphate is .058. I have a very small amount of cyano bacteria and I do get a lot of algae buildup on my glass after a week or two. I’m completely baffled by this. It’s a pretty heavily stocked 100 gallon system. I feed 1 cube of mysis or krill daily. I switch that out and feed pellet food a few times during the week. My filtration I thought was sub par. I have a really crappy protine skimmer it’s the seaclone hang on the back one. I also run a filter sock but I get pretty lazy Changing those. I guess the bulk of my filtration is done through my refugium. My sump is a 40b mostly dedicated to a refugium. I have two mangroves in there and grow chato with one of those ufo grow lights off of Amazon. There is also around 100-110 pounds of live rock. My goal is to eventually start growing acros but currently I’ve been getting montipora and birds nest corals that are doing decently well. I eventually want my system to be sps dominante. It is my understanding that these numbers are two low. I would rather not dose nitrate or phosphate. If I start feeding twice a day would that help bring these numbers up? Should I add more fish? Thank you
Water two clean?
- Thread starter BigRed78
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You could also adjust timing on the refugium light instead of adding food (good option, but if fish are healthy and you can adjust your nutrient export try that first). Careful and go slow...you have good numbers but not optimum for you. You don't want to overshoot or get into some see saw situation - too high, then too low, then too high.
Nburg's Reef
High-Rise Reefer
I was in a similar situation a while back and removed the refugium from my setup and things got better. Acros and SPS are pretty good at pulling nutrients out of the water, but not as good as algae. I would recommend feeding a little more, but keep an eye on not letting things get too high. Not saying to ditch the fuge, but a lot of people think they are supposed to run a fuge, but I personally think they are only needed if there is a nutrient problem. I also run an undersized skimmer.
Recently, I moved my corals to a smaller tank while I move and they started to look really good and grow much faster than my old Red Sea Reefer 450... checked the nitrates, and they were 10-15ppm. Before, I had zero-ish nitrates and always less than 2 ppm. It was fine at first, but as the coral grew, so did their demand and I needed to add more fish.
I would try to reduce the fuge light time, feed more and see how that does for a few weeks. Then maybe consider dropping the fuge if it doesn't help, or add more fish.
Recently, I moved my corals to a smaller tank while I move and they started to look really good and grow much faster than my old Red Sea Reefer 450... checked the nitrates, and they were 10-15ppm. Before, I had zero-ish nitrates and always less than 2 ppm. It was fine at first, but as the coral grew, so did their demand and I needed to add more fish.
I would try to reduce the fuge light time, feed more and see how that does for a few weeks. Then maybe consider dropping the fuge if it doesn't help, or add more fish.
SPR1968
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The easiest solution is just add more fish and feed them and nutrients will rise.
Alternatively, or in addition you probably need to cut down on some of the filtration methods and get the nitrates up.
Alternatively, or in addition you probably need to cut down on some of the filtration methods and get the nitrates up.
Thank you for all the quick replies! So I think I’m going to start feeding a little heavier just a snack in the morning and slowly ramp it up from there. I also think I’m going to get a timer for my refugium light. Currently I just turn it on in the morning and just shut it off after I feed my fish. It probably runs for about 14ish hours on adverage. I guess I’ll just cut off like an hour a week until I’m at where I need to be.
Dolelo96
2500 Club Member
I had the same problem with my 425xl. I was was running a skimmer, uv & refugium. It took me a couple months to figure out my problems started when I set up the refugium. I already fed heavy, so I pulled it out and things have gotten much better
I have a Mandarin too, fat and happy. Ok, also eating frozen food, that's why I went for the green dragonet. I'm running without a sump and only turn on the Skimmer in the night, to add oxygen and clean over night. So far this approach has left enough pods. I know you can't shut down your sump, but maybe instead of feeding heavy just shut down any filtration and try out, what you will really need on filtration. With life rock it's much less than one would think
Just give the system time to adjust, don't move too fast 
PatW
2500 Club Member
I dose sodium nitrate to keep my system at 2 ppm. A minor amount of dosing will not hurt. But you could also try more feeding. Some people are really high on fish poo for coral food. Try doubling your feeding and see if that gives you measurable nitrates.
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