Controlling nutrients

[ggm]

I've been battling high nutrients for a little while now and I'm curious about how you guys run your tanks and control nutrients without a fuge, what you dose & other methods you use to control nutrients in your tanks?

When I initially setup my tank (over a year ago) I added some chaeto to the sump but didn't get any growth whatsoever and it slowly started to disappear. I have since tried several times to grow chaeto & other kinds of macroalgae but they just end up dying and now GHA has taken over the sump.

I'm planning to redo my sump as what I've got in place at the moment isn't working so I wanted to reach out on the forums and get some advice!

My PO4 is at 0.42 and NO3 is at 20PPM currently.

 

[ndrwater]

Not rediculous high, but a good bet is the GHA is taking up much more.
Make sure to use high quality source water like RODI for water changes, manage feedings to a minimum, and shy away from adding unnecessary chemicals. There really isn't a magic bullet when dealing with GHA, just water changes, manual removal and keeping nutrients from being added unnecessarily

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Is the high nutrients causing an issue in your display? If not, I wouldn't chase numbers. If it is, what are the issues that it is causing? What are your normal maintenance routines? Water changes? I run a skimmer and have auto water changes on my tank. Seems to do the trick.

 

[PatW]

Chaeto can be tricky. If you have strong lights in your display, you will need a strong light over your Chaeto. Also it can lower the nutrients quickly and then die for lack of nutrients. I run chaeto and add some nitrate and phosphate daily to keep a low nutrient level in my tank.

 

[jtl]

I have 0.5 NO3 and 0.024 PO4 and my chaeto just hangs in there, not dying off but not growing. It is a pretty small piece.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I've been battling high nutrients for a little while now and I'm curious about how you guys run your tanks and control nutrients without a fuge, what you dose & other methods you use to control nutrients in your tanks?

When I initially setup my tank (over a year ago) I added some chaeto to the sump but didn't get any growth whatsoever and it slowly started to disappear. I have since tried several times to grow chaeto & other kinds of macroalgae but they just end up dying and now GHA has taken over the sump.

I'm planning to redo my sump as what I've got in place at the moment isn't working so I wanted to reach out on the forums and get some advice!

My PO4 is at 0.42 and NO3 is at 20PPM currently.

When my nitrates hit 20 ppm. I get out the big guns. Big Bertha. Sulfur denitrator. Small in size but what a punch.

 

[ggm]

Is the high nutrients causing an issue in your display? If not, I wouldn't chase numbers. If it is, what are the issues that it is causing? What are your normal maintenance routines? Water changes? I run a skimmer and have auto water changes on my tank. Seems to do the trick.

Well the display isn't overrun by GHA or anything, there's a bit here and there but nothing major. The nutrients started climbing after I came back from a 2 week holiday and had someone looking after the tank, the tank just hasn't been able to recover since. What's concerning me is the corals, I've noticed that both of my acan's tissue is starting to recede exposing the skeleton around the edges.

I don't know if this is being caused by the water quality or by my new lights which I upgraded a few weeks back to Maxspect RSX 200. Both corals are placed on the sand bed, I'm not sure I'll just try to do regular water changes and hopefully they bounce back.