Accidentally doing well - Need help to continue

[Bando]

Hello all,

I have a 20L tank that is 13 weeks old with two juvenile Ocellaris Clownfish (~1.5") with CUC. I added a small Pocillopora frag four weeks ago, and it is doing really well. I decided for a Pocillopora because Delbeek and Sprung (1994) suggest Pocillopora is an easier SPS (and it was cheap). The tank lighting is an AI Prime HD. My test results by Salifert are undetectable amounts of Nitrate or PO3. I believe it because my HOB refuge with Chaeto has basically stopped growing in the past 3 weeks. My salinity has been stable at 1.0265, using Kent Reef Salt, which is measured with a refractometer. According to my API tests my pH is 8.3 and a kH of 8.5. Regarding maintenance, I usually change about 4 gallons of water a week.

Now my question is as my Clownfish grow and mature, will the system become more difficult for the SPS to grow because there is a greater about of waste being produced? I am figuring with larger fish comes more nutrients and these extra nutrients could possibly harm my Pocillopora.

Thanks for taking the time to read

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Fish poop is great food for corals. Just keep alk, cal and mag stable.

 

[W1ngz]

A few things.
1, welcome to the party.
2, a lot of people have their own way of reefing and it works for them. Whatever you're doing works for you, so RESIST. If things are working for YOU then you don't need to change anything just because someone on the internet told you to.

More fish, bigger fish really just amounts to more stuff going in, so you balance with what you're taking out. Water changes do that, so does your chaeto and skimmer (if you have). Undetectable nitrate and PO4 will eventually be problematic for a lot of corals, so you may need to tweak a little bit what is coming out. Maybe trimming a bit off your water change volume will help them stabilize at just detectable levels of around 5ppm nitrate and lower than .03 or so for phosphate.