Biocube 32 - No Nitrates?

[Aquaman6410]

I have 32 gallon Biocube and its been setup for around 6 months. I started the tank with a bunch of dry rock from Reefcleaners and some "live" sand (fiji pink). Everything has been great. The tank has been upgraded to use the Nanobox Retro LED kit so lighting is way more powerful. Ecotech Vortech MP10 added to the tank and only runs at about 50% or less without blowing corals around. I have two black ice clowns and yellow watchman goby. For inverts I have 5 astrea snails, 4 nassarius snails, 2 pom pom crabs, fire shrimp, and candy pistol shrimp. I also have a handful of coral frags. I have about 6 acan frags, largest has 6 polyps, a torch, a hammer, couple zoa frags, largest being 9 polyps, trumpet (3 polyp), duncan (1 polyp), orange ricordea, and a flower anemone. Everyone is growing and happy!

The concern I have is this. In the beginning, I battled some nasty dino/crysophyte looking stuff. My tank was still new-ish and it turned out my nitrates/phosphates seemed to have bottomed out. I was also doing 20% water changes a week. (I come from the discus hobby so you can never change enough water!!) I think the lack of bioload and my excess water changes caused the issue. I eventually backed off water changes and had to dose some nitrates/phosphate as my corals were starting to wither away and shrink. Sure enough, that all worked, corals bounced back fast and dino/algae went away. I added a few pieces of really purple live rock from my LFS owners personal tank (it was some awesome stuff). That also seemed to help and now I have coraline starting to grow on the back wall, powerhead, and a little on the rocks. Things are doing great, some corals like my torch are getting HUGE. Here is the issue...I'm nervous about getting the dinos/crysophytes back. I backed off on water changes. I do have an auto-top off but I have done maybe a 20% water change each month. I'm coming up on 3 weeks since last water change and nitrates are undetectable, phosphates as well. All parameters look great. Calcium, KH, Magnesium all at the optimal ranges that my salt mixes at (I use Fritz RPM so it matches those parameters, can't think off hand). Should I still do water changes regularly like each week? I'm worried lack of water changes is going to cause some issues. I actually like doing water changes. I don't have any other nutrient export like refugium, skimmer, etc... Not sure why my parameters are staying undetectable. Is this normal? Should I still do water changes without fear of causing things to bottom out? I won't lie, last few water changes I did, I dosed some nitrates and phosphates out of fear. Is this unnecessary? Is this normal to have nutrients being taken up without water changes, refugium, etc. Again, corals are eating a ton (reef roids, reef chili about twice a week, mysis another 2 times roughly for the ones who will eat it). Fish get fed mysis a couple times a week and NLS pellets on the other days. I feed everybody once a day. Corals are all open and growing. Last time I had the dino issue, zoas stayed closed and hammer almost withered away completely back to skeleton but no corals are like that. I'm just so confused as to why my nitrates are undetectable. I'm using a brand new Red Sea Test Kit and it registers when I dose. Again, I wish my Discus 125g could be that low in nitrates!

Thanks all

 

[John3]

What is your filter setup since your not running a skimmer? I would guess you have some filter floss, you can change that out less often. Food and poo that it catches will decay into nitrates.

You are correct that the corals you have need nitrates. Mine get mad if I let them drop below 10 ppm.

I’m not sure how you are keeping the nitrates so low without a skimmer. Are you using any type of resin filter media? Could be as simple as needing to feed more or add another fish.

 

[Aquaman6410]

My filter is simply filter floss first, bag of carbon that I haven't changed in weeks, and a bag of purigen about 2 months old but not that browned off yet. Then the extra space left has a bunch of marine pure spheres. I was changing floss once a week. I've let it go a few weeks now.

 

[John3]

Hhmmm it’s surprising your at zero. Easiest place to start is to feed a little heavier. Do you rinse your frozen food? If so stop and add the juice as well.

 

[mcarroll]

My filter is simply filter floss first, bag of carbon that I haven't changed in weeks, and a bag of purigen about 2 months old but not that browned off yet. Then the extra space left has a bunch of marine pure spheres. I was changing floss once a week. I've let it go a few weeks now.

I would remove all of the extra filtration. No purigen, no marine pure.... Filter floss and carbon should both be unnecessary too. Only do enough water changes to maintain values like nitrates, don't take things to zero. You may have to dose ca/alk/mg more.

Instead, if you are not already running a protein skimmer, get one of those for some filtration and aeration.

Don't overfeed, don't underfeed – just make sure you are feeding the correct amount and with enough frequency. (We are not trying to create a fish problem or cyano problem after all. )

 

[Michael Llabona]

In order to raise nutrients I would leave your floss in a little longer for nitrates to build. Maybe feed more frequently . Not more just a 2 more feedings a week. Do not remove the spheres or purigen. It may do more harm than good. Removing the spheres may stir up the detritus in the Chambers causing a spike. Also you'd be getting rid of a lot of beneficial micro fauna by doing so. You don't want to shock the system.