Lets Discuss the Nutrient Balance

[MikeC]

I would rather add more fish then turn off the skimmer

 

[SteveZ15]

Did u try to grow some Macro Algae ? (Chaeto) if u need i give (free) Vio.

I Cant Seem TO KeeP Cheato It Slowly Fades Away. Ill Try again

 

[SteveZ15]

I Have 8 Fish In 40 For.Some Strange Reason Nitrates Are Really low. I Notice Slight Loss Of COlor So I Have Skimmer Off For A Few Hrs Daily. I Removed The Bag Of Chemi Pure. I Was Doing Good With 5_10 Nitrates. Tested YesT With Redsea Aroun .50 Still Getting Growth Just Slight Fade.I Feed Pellets Oyster And Reeffrenzy. 3X A Day. Im Slowly Learning At Least Everyrhing Is GRowing And Has Color.Im Just Not Sure Where The Nitrate Gets Used. I Use No Gfo Just 2 Part And AcroPower Amino One Cap A Week . Every Once In A While I Do A Water Change With Seawater. Thinking I Can Replenish Trace Elements And Mabe Bacteria I Dont Know About.Im Leary Of Adding Stuff So Im Trying To Keep Everything Simple.

 

[MikeC]

I Cant Seem TO KeeP Cheato It Slowly Fades Away. Ill Try again

"IMOP"

That makes sense cheato needs phosphates to grow.
Why have high phosphates just so you can have cheat grow, so you can remove it later by culling the cheato, so the cheat don't die and release all the phosphate it absorbed back into your tank.

This never made logical sense to me, add more fish, feed more and keep your tank siphoned of detritus.
You not being able to grow cheato it is a good thing lol
feed your fish enough so you get some algae growth on your glass every three/four days and regulate you phosphate that way.
observation is a wonderful thing

 

[SteveZ15]

ITry TO Add More Cromis The Fish Get Territorial But No OneBothers Cromis. The Only Problems I Get Is THat Green Filimant Algae And SOme Reddish Type On The Sides Of Glass . My Phos .05 On Hanna Before Water Change Ill Test Later Since I Chamged Last Nite The Water. I Want TO Add A MangrOve Or Two. I Wanna Uograde to A 75 After Holidays . These Little Tanks SeemLikes Stuff Creeps Up fast

 

[vio]

ITry TO Add More Cromis The Fish Get Territorial But No OneBothers Cromis. The Only Problems I Get Is THat Green Filimant Algae And SOme Reddish Type On The Sides Of Glass . My Phos .05 On Hanna Before Water Change Ill Test Later Since I Chamged Last Nite The Water. I Want TO Add A MangrOve Or Two. I Wanna Uograde to A 75 After Holidays . These Little Tanks SeemLikes Stuff Creeps Up fast

i dont think 0.05 PO4 is the reason, NOT to grow Chaeto, 0.05 cut be 0.09 according w/Hanna 0.04 + and - , i think your sump is the problem, less flow, less room. PO4 build up, by food, fish,water,salt etc. u still add to much stuff any way. May be u Protein Skimmer is over size ?!.

 

[SteveZ15]

Sump Flow Is Good When I Had Cheato It Would Blow To The Baffles. I Want To Change Th Light I Have A Clamp Reptile Style.Fixture With One Of Those Led Bulbs The Light Might Be Too Strong The Cheato Fades And Withers Away . I Had Mangroves That Grew Well When I CleaNed My Sump I Forgot To Put Them Back And Dried Them Up. Slimmer Is Nwb Classic .Reef Octo. At Least Now I Can Tell When Njtrients Are Low By Coral Color .So I Gave Marine Snow. At Least Now I Learned To Read.The Coral.Im.just Glad THe Tank Is Still Doing Good Its Nice To See Growth And Not stn.

 

[vio]

Steve, i don't believe in Baffles, hold more Detritus , i back up my flow (Mag 7) just to go one more time to Protein Skimmer, Sunday my fishes finish the Quarantine, i have to remove all my L Rocks from sump i just miss 2 fish, when i move the Rocks from main tank, i will remove all chaeto , right now i got 0.04-0.06 PO4 . i want to see the dif. , How much PO4 chaeto take ?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1rHBu17a-M&feature=youtu.be

 

[SteveZ15]

That's some set up,your sump is bigger than my tank.

 

[vio]

That's some set up,your sump is bigger than my tank.

is 90 gal. Acrylic Fish Tank, if u like Chaeto , i will give tomorrow, just call me.

 

[frag apple]

the nutrient balance on my tanks or pretty simple: run bare bottom, huge amount of flow ( 4x wp40's on else on both, over skim total system volume (700ltr and 500ltr, skimmer size on both 1200ltrs-2000ltr), bio pellets and rowa phos! I also doing 100ltr water changes weekly! Too balance I either heavily feed my fish or use rain water to top up the tanks or both! I'm not suggesting this to anyone but it's just how I do things!

 

[jackson6745]

Frag apple what does the rain water do in the nutrient balance?

 

[vio]

the nutrient balance on my tanks or pretty simple: run bare bottom, huge amount of flow ( 4x wp40's on else on both, over skim total system volume (700ltr and 500ltr, skimmer size on both 1200ltrs-2000ltr), bio pellets and rowa phos! Too balance I either heavily feed my fish or use rain water to top up the tanks or both! I'm not suggesting this to anyone but it's just how I do things!

Simple , is nice , in special when you do the right way. I go back on BB also, i was make a mistake, by using wrong sand (bigger the sugar size) accumulate lots of Detritus, i decide to remove, list for now, i run also 4 x MP 40 + one Tunze + one Sicce (1600 Gal.) + 1.600 Gal. return pump, still confuse about " rain water" you ever test the PO4 in that ? is full, then BioPeletts and Rowa is NOT the best choice , in my opinion, but if you said work for you , good you happy. Vio

 

[frag apple]

rain water in north qld is very high in po4 up around the 0.1pmm sometimes higher! using rain water in my case acts as buffer with po4 stability because my export is a little over aggressive! the po4 and no3 are tested with saliferts on both tanks while using rain water bp and rowa held steady at po4 0.05ppm/ no3 5ppm also I was heavily feeding at the time!

 

[jackson6745]

That's interesting frag apple. Sounds like you have a good balance going on. I would love to see some pics of your corals. Usually, heavy fed tanks with good parameters have great colors Certainly sounds like you are in this category.

 

[frag apple]

hahaha yeah some days! it's not as easy as it's sound still dialling the tanks after moving them! take in the frag tank!

 

[Metrokat]

Hello. Just found this thread. I was looking for more for sale threads by Jackson and landed here.

I have a nutrient rich nano. In fact I've been known to feed my corals with a shovel. I always show low levels of nitrates and phosphates on test kits. However, I use my eyes and visual clues in the tank as a guide to my nutrient levels rather than rely on test kits alone. I run GFO and like to liberally add bottled baterias.

Red Sea Max 34G, with custom sump that has a display fuge. The fuge: Used to be very pretty when I first started but looks like a bomb went off in it after that. It's the real workhorse, works to keep the bad algae and crap out of my display.

I feed about 20 kinds of foods, I rotate, no 2 days are alike. I also have a heavy fish load. On top of that I like supplements, acro power and other aminos, potassium, lugols, vitamin c, i throw in a little bit of everything. I have SPS, LPS and polyps.

Pictures.
Katropora (A. Subulata)

Myagi

Red planet and some others

Darth Maul porites, a super rich fuscia color

 

[SteveZ15]

Wow Really Nice Tank. Does The Acropower Raise Your Potassium.?

 

[Metrokat]

Wow Really Nice Tank. Does The Acropower Raise Your Potassium.?

It doesn't, but then I use it sporadically. I dose potassium by itself. Actually I just got some lab grade potassium to mix up into a solution just this week. But my potassium is on the low end, 350ppm. Trying to raise it but very very slowly, after listening to Justin Credible.

 

[sapseven]

I'm curious if having undetectable phosphates and having 10-20 ppm of nitrates allow you to keep sps colored up, or do you need to have "some" phos.