jbird0420
New Member
Hi all,
Question about my ATS. I have a 125g mixed reef with a medium/heavy bio load/ 40g sump/ 250lbs LR in display and 50lbs LR in sump. I feed twice a day with Spirulina Brine Shrimp and Dr G’s mix. I feed with a full 5ml syringe twice a day along with a sheet of nori. The past 2 years I have had pretty good success with keeping my nitrates at 0ppm with the Sulfur Denitrator reactors hooked up to my system. I am really not happy with the denitrators as they keep the PH of my tank low and deplete my alkalinity pretty quickly. I also use GFO for phosphates in a reactor as well. Usually my phosphates hover around .08 with the ATS and GFO. The ATS is a DIY canvas mesh from Michael’s waterfall type with PVC setup since February 2019. Both sides are lit up with 54w par 38 LEDs and I am scraping algae off the sheet every 2 weeks on both sides with constant stream of flow on both sides with 24x7 light, no dark period.
I wanted to experiment and I pulled the denitrators and GFO reactor off my system 2 days ago since then my nitrates spiked to 40ppm and my phosphates are at .30. I noticed the PH has increased without dosing.
I still have my denitrators up and running in a bucket in my garage in case I would have to put them back onto my system and not have to reseed the sulfur. I am going to give it until tomorrow morning and if I still see a spike in both my nitrates and phosphates the reactors are going back on the system.
Based on this what am I doing wrong and why are my nitrates and phosphates still high with a broken in ATS that produces that nasty, slimy green algae every 2 weeks. I would imagine it is working but apparently not.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Question about my ATS. I have a 125g mixed reef with a medium/heavy bio load/ 40g sump/ 250lbs LR in display and 50lbs LR in sump. I feed twice a day with Spirulina Brine Shrimp and Dr G’s mix. I feed with a full 5ml syringe twice a day along with a sheet of nori. The past 2 years I have had pretty good success with keeping my nitrates at 0ppm with the Sulfur Denitrator reactors hooked up to my system. I am really not happy with the denitrators as they keep the PH of my tank low and deplete my alkalinity pretty quickly. I also use GFO for phosphates in a reactor as well. Usually my phosphates hover around .08 with the ATS and GFO. The ATS is a DIY canvas mesh from Michael’s waterfall type with PVC setup since February 2019. Both sides are lit up with 54w par 38 LEDs and I am scraping algae off the sheet every 2 weeks on both sides with constant stream of flow on both sides with 24x7 light, no dark period.
I wanted to experiment and I pulled the denitrators and GFO reactor off my system 2 days ago since then my nitrates spiked to 40ppm and my phosphates are at .30. I noticed the PH has increased without dosing.
I still have my denitrators up and running in a bucket in my garage in case I would have to put them back onto my system and not have to reseed the sulfur. I am going to give it until tomorrow morning and if I still see a spike in both my nitrates and phosphates the reactors are going back on the system.
Based on this what am I doing wrong and why are my nitrates and phosphates still high with a broken in ATS that produces that nasty, slimy green algae every 2 weeks. I would imagine it is working but apparently not.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
