55 gallon sps help

ok I finally got my apex hooked up and from the 24th till today my tanks temperature average is 78.93 its minimum is 77 and its max is 81.1 it is normally at 78-79 normally staying at 79 so I was wondering if that was good
 
How long have you been dosing vodka? Some swear by the nopox, there's a thread floating around that it vodka/vinegar/with a touch of methanol, I think.
It takes a bit for any carbon dosing to work... So you could try a different source but it may not make any difference
 
ive been doing it for almost a year and its brought it down but it seems to me like it brought it down and than once ive started the maintenance dosing and it seems it has gone up
 
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How is your skimming? I have been using Red Sea NoPox for about 3 months and my nitrates are zero and now trying to get it up some. My understanding you have to have a really efficient skimmer to remove the bacteria that is removing the nitrates and phosphates. My I had to dial in my skimmer to skim wet and when I did I saw a big difference in algae and nitrate reduction. In the process now of removing plants out of my sump.
 
Cleaning your skimmer neck daily can help. I keep a spatula by the skimmer, and swipe the gunk out of the neck daily, has helped my skimmate production
 
It seems there is a bunch of weird input on this thread. for starters, as for your water sorce, getting saltwater for your water changes is fine provided it is a credible store. topping of water with tap water is a mistake, sorry. I would suggest buying either distilled or purified water from the grocery store if you don't have a purification method, or buy rodi from your lfs. your tank probly doesn't evaporate more than a gallon per day so at most it will cost you 50-75 cents per day. also an auto top off is quite important as is a calibrated hydrometer.
As for your water chemistry, your alk is quite high. you would be able to keep it that high as long as you were to keep your phosphate and nitrate from becoming undetectable. no3 ~2-10ppm and po4~.03-.11 if you are carbon dosing and trying to keep a low nutrient level system~no3 0.2-1.5 and po4.005-.02 you will need to keep your alk at a lower dkh ~7-8.5 to keep from having rtn or stn from alk burn aka tissue narcrosis from tips.
once you get everything in range and happy, Stability Promotes Success!
also, good quality GAC would be a wonderful idea to make up for protein skimmer inefficencys. also getting a dark tea collered wet skim is also a good idea while carbon dosing, and don't run GFO if your phosphates are zero
 
well ive got my nitrates down to zero and has been down to zero sense Tuesday and I have been using only rodi sense last week and I have a hydor smart level. I always thought if its stable it should be fine for alk
 
It has been observed that low nutrient sps tanks run a lower kh. High kh will stress corals without enough nutrients in the water. At least that was last time i checked. ...
 
As long as you're using RODI water you'll be fine. Sorry, but SPS can't grow in tap water or even anything at the store. RODI water has zero inpurities. All the brown algae in your tank is from tap water. I use to use tap water. Never again. You might as well throw your tank away or just start flushing hundred dollar bills down the toilet. All the dosing and all that crap is unnecessary unless your system is huge. Water changes weekly in a 55 gallon system is sufficient. Good blue LED, RODI WATER, and water changes once a week is a good start. Be careful with a new skimmer. You can actually start skimming all the nutrients out of the water and do more harm than good. Just make sure your skimmer is raited for your size system. Do not overkill the skimmer. I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse.
 
Not even worth the time. Look man I'm not just gonna throw a bunch of numbers at you and try to sound smart. Obviously your levels are unbalanced. Stick to the basics. I've never crashed a tank, not sure most of these guys on here can say the same. Good luck
 
I get my rodi water from my lfs and they just changed their filters the other day I just tested my calcium and alk today and my calcium is actually a lower than what it has been its at 320 and my dKH is still at 12. I was going to dose my two part which is reef fusion 1 and 2 but idk if I should with my dKH being so high.
 

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