Confused about No3/PO4 and other things

[bsstover]

So I've been having a recent bout of RTN/STN of some of my acros. I have lost about 5 pieces over past month or so. I have investigated for AEFW and red bugs, to no avail. I have researched stray voltage. I have concluded it must somehow be my chemistry (even though this is initially what I started to address). Right now my current levels are:
Alk 9.5
Ca 400
Mg 1300
NO3 - 0
PO4 - 0.04 (which I always thought NO3 usually higher than PO4)
Salinity 1.025
LED lights running at 60%

All tests are done with Red Sea kits.

The NO3/PO4 was high-ish 4/0.16 respectively. I had read and been told that high levels would cause this so I slowly decreased these to 0 and I'm still seeing RTN. So my question is, do I stop my biopellets and let these levels rise again? What is a good level to keep them at? How to keep them in this range without overshooting or stripping tank of these products? I have started to lower my Alk as well as most are saying it should be under 9, but previously I always thought 10-11 was ideal for acros.

In addition to this, today I noticed a little cyano showing up. If my NO3/PO4 are truly at 0, how is this happening?

Sorry for the long post and questions, but I'm just thoroughly confused as to whether I need to be treating No3/PO4 or not and if there's something else I'm missing in terms of the source of RTN.

 

[twilliard]

Sounds like STN
What I see is an issue is if your no3 and po4 levels are actually that low with alk that high would be an issue.
There are so many reasons and causes for STN.
The biggest I have seen over the years is this one question :
Are they getting the nutrients required to survive.
You have not listed how many fish, how often you feed and with what.
Bring the no3 up keep the po4 around .014 to .018 with an ALK of about 8 feed the tank and see what happens

 

[brandon429]

Highish alk in the presence of extreme nutrient stripping and bright light is for sure linked with recession or stress that allows infection and it cant be ruled in or out so far, its just a legit factor to consider. need full tank pics for extra details. There are myriad sps tanks running those measures above and doing ok, i think some differences in detail might emerge as we press further.

the kind of nutrient measures you are running require specific dosers/elements/zeovit IMO etc to replace the bare minimum rations or tissue loss will occur. in the wild these sps come from low dissolved nutrient reefs with astoundingly high mixed micron sized living planktors and bacterial aggregates and natural marine snow galore, so they dont ever starve in the presence of low to no detectable P and N species due to constant heterotrophic feeding. Im thinking your tank is lacking suspended, non broken down foodstuffs plus it has very low nutrients. if you'd feed a little better I give you a strong bet.

Your question about cyano is key, huge big threads revolve around that question. if nutrients are zero, how am I still growing any potential invader?
The answer is, every reef organism needing nutrients can find it as needed, in oligotrophic (low nutrient) waters, all day long, for millenia, and nutrient controls are simply one aspect of control that aquarists try to exercise over algae and cyano and it either works or it doesnt.

The reason literally thousands of tank threads exist with an algae problem, and no nutrient issues, bare bottom no dsb, pristinely clean of detritus, not overstocked, and are not helped by further nutrient stripping advice, is because nutrient stripping only works sometimes to control an invader, in the wild nature uses grazers not nutrient restriction.

Pick the most pristine reef on fiji and remove the grazers, you get algae, in pristine waters. thats why you have cyano.

 

[brandon429]

Twilliard nice call we were typing simult

 

[bsstover]

Thank you for all the input. So I will keep my biopellet reactor off and let these levels increase to where they were. I was still having STN with the slightly higher levels. What would one consider to be a healthy level for SPS of NO3 and PO4? I feed 3-4 times per week of Rods Reef and similar products. I have about 10 fish in the tank. Will water changes and skimming alone keep these levels from getting too high in a reef system or do we need to run reactors to strip this and just "overfeed" or dose Nitrates? I will also work on getting alk a little lower by tuning my Ca reactor. Thank you all for input.

 

[brandon429]

Thats also helpful to know as the fish association alone makes many sps reefs not need target feeding, if I had to pick two actions off the info so far it would be to lessen light intensity for a month and to reduce stripping and hold course. I would be doing more water changes during the CPR session replacing the adsorption media and carbon giving pellets as the waste preventing mode during this period of rest

Going back to old school basics w add mass to sps

The fancier techniques w color them back up lol

 

[bsstover]

Thanks Brandon for input.

 

[RareEarthCorals]

Brandon nailed it, he knows his stuff!

 

[reefbeard]

@Russ265 just posted this http://reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-sps-are-paling-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do.210035/#post-2401751 Good info regarding the correlation between NO3/PO4 and healthy coral.

 

[bsstover]

Reefbeard - thanks for the link. Great write up and simplifies a lot of information.