A couple of observations

[Funwithreefer]

So I’m 2 months in and I think I’ve been successful to date. I had a moderate outbreak of Dinos and I beat them by manually sucking them out and letting my water get a little “dirty”. I have been doing 25% water changes twice a week. The last couple weeks I cut that back to one a week. Nitrates have been up and holding steady around 20 ppm and phosphates are still 0. I feed fish pellets in the am and a medley of Mysis and bribe shrimp when blue lights come on. I would say this past week I’ve noticed the most coral growth among my zoas, hammer, frogspawn and Acan.

Seems like dirty water may be better than super clean water. I’m kind of wondering if I should just not do water changes as long as all parameters are in check and nitrates don’t go above 20 ppm. Other parameters have been steady as follows:

ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 20 ppm
SG 1.026
PH 8.2
Phosphates 0 (can’t seem to get this up a little)
ALK 9-10
Calcium 440

many thoughts?

 

[motortrendz]

20ppm on nitrates is a little high. I'd shoot for below 10 if possible. Closet to 5 is even better. Balancing that with phosphates around .1 is gonna help keep your dinos in check. And you'll see more color from your corals with some phosphates in your water. If you cant get to rise you can always get some seachem flourish which is po4 in a bottle

 

[SDK]

You will get more help, incuding suggestions on your zeroed out phosphates with a complete description of your tank and filtration. I’m curious as to what you are using for nutrient export to have no PO4 in a tank that new. Running GFO or Chemi Pure?

 

[Funwithreefer]

You will get more help, incuding suggestions on your zeroed out phosphates with a complete description of your tank and filtration. I’m curious as to what you are using for nutrient export to have no PO4 in a tank that new. Running GFO or Chemi Pure?

so It’s a biocube 32 and I’m running the stock activated carbon, filter floss and then Purigen. Also give the corals reef Roids once or twice a week.

 

[Funwithreefer]

20ppm on nitrates is a little high. I'd shoot for below 10 if possible. Closet to 5 is even better. Balancing that with phosphates around .1 is gonna help keep your dinos in check. And you'll see more color from your corals with some phosphates in your water. If you cant get to rise you can always get some seachem flourish which is po4 in a bottle

Yeah I don’t like the nitrates being that high. Corals have all looked good, open and growing so I haven’t been too worried. But I am going to try and get them down more.

I think I’ll try the flourish.