Coincidence or no?

[MONTANTK]

Oooo - something else caught my eye here if adding more meaty food doesn't have an effect - take your floss offline.

A floss will take out the larger uneaten food particles and the larger dissolved solids/wastes, but will not pull out the amino acids or the phytos (too small). So relatively speaking it's only letting the "High N low P" stuff pass thru and pull out the "High P" stuff.

Yeah but wouldn’t the food breakdown introduce phosphate?

 

[MONTANTK]

I wouldn't be making any drastic changes if I were you. You said your tank was a little over 7 gallons right?

Could have just been a little swing in temp or something out of the norm that made them brighten up. A photo would give some better insight as to what's going on but. If everything looks fine, I'd just leave your routine how it is.

I think for now I’m just going to try and feed a little more and monitor the corals. For some reason the tank consumes a lot of nutrients so it could have just been caused by not feeding for a few days

 

[Dkmoo]

Yeah but wouldn’t the food breakdown introduce phosphate?

Yes but it'll also allow your corals more chances absorb the uneaten food.

Also just to clarify my points a bit - I'm not saying phosphates are bad - your tank still needs it for various processes and that's why other have recommended to "keep a little bit" as detected on our test kits. When it tests 0, the conclusion that your system "needs more nutrient" is a fair one but the challenge is that we are not sure which part of the nutrient process from "when you put food in" to "po4/no3 showing up on test kits" is experiencing deficiency since our test kits is only showing how much po4 is left in the water and not how much P is available for our organisms to absorb at each stage of this process. Since the formation of Po4 happens later in this process and we can't be sure if the deficiency is occurring before or after this step, feed more will ensure that the full process is covered and whatever excess food that the earlier steps can't process will be naturally broken down to no3 and po4 that the later steps needs. Directly dosing po4 will only address the issue of the deficit is occurring on the later steps.

Thats part of the challenge for the reefing hobby - the test kits only show whats left in the water and doesn't really tell us what is really happening in our tank. We have to interpret these results and make educated guesses based on our research. Its this trial and error and you learn along the way but thats what makes this hobby fun. Enjoy the journey =)

 

[MONTANTK]

Yes but it'll also allow your corals more chances absorb the uneaten food.

Also just to clarify my points a bit - I'm not saying phosphates are bad - your tank still needs it for various processes and that's why other have recommended to "keep a little bit" as detected on our test kits. When it tests 0, the conclusion that your system "needs more nutrient" is a fair one but the challenge is that we are not sure which part of the nutrient process from "when you put food in" to "po4/no3 showing up on test kits" is experiencing deficiency since our test kits is only showing how much po4 is left in the water and not how much P is available for our organisms to absorb at each stage of this process. Since the formation of Po4 happens later in this process and we can't be sure if the deficiency is occurring before or after this step, feed more will ensure that the full process is covered and whatever excess food that the earlier steps can't process will be naturally broken down to no3 and po4 that the later steps needs. Directly dosing po4 will only address the issue of the deficit is occurring on the later steps.

Thats part of the challenge for the reefing hobby - the test kits only show whats left in the water and doesn't really tell us what is really happening in our tank. We have to interpret these results and make educated guesses based on our research. Its this trial and error and you learn along the way but thats what makes this hobby fun. Enjoy the journey =)

Ah I understand. It’s so weird, in my previous tanks I have never had an issue managing nitrate and phosphate. I assumed with this little tank the challenge would be keeping it down but it’s the exact opposite. Funny how that works haha

 

[Dkmoo]

Ah I understand. It’s so weird, in my previous tanks I have never had an issue managing nitrate and phosphate. I assumed with this little tank the challenge would be keeping it down but it’s the exact opposite. Funny how that works haha

Yup - smaller tanks are interesting like that.

 

[Sabellafella]

I think for now I’m just going to try and feed a little more and monitor the corals. For some reason the tank consumes a lot of nutrients so it could have just been caused by not feeding for a few days

Could very likely be the reason. Especially if its the only thing done different then what your tank was used to. I would just chalk it up to that for now.

 

[MONTANTK]

Could very likely be the reason. Especially if its the only thing done different then what your tank was used to. I would just chalk it up to that for now.

Hoping it helps. I noticed a few more of my acros starting putting out their feelers (whatever they’re called lol). That’s what happened with the first few so hoping it’s not spreading