Current nutrients

[Max93]

Currently, I have no issues in my tank except 1 millie that’s not really showing PE.

All other acros have very healthy PE and are noticeably growing. I have:

Walt Disney
Green slimer
Tricolor
Voodoo
Solar flare millie (the one not doing well).

now I’m not going to go and change my tank immediately because of 1 acro doing this, maybe since I got it recently (3 weeks ago) it just didn’t like my tank. The Walt Disney came from the same tank.

my zoas are growing like wildfire.
My clam is doing great.

I run two 400w halides and 4 led reefbrite strips. The par is anywhere from 300-600 throughout the tank. I have two mp60s at 100%, and two op4s at 100%.

I use a 200int reef octopus skimmer at 100%, correct water level and I pull out a cup of mud a week.

I feed 1 sheet of nori a day and 1 cube of frozen at night.

I have about 20 fish. Four tangs and one foxface for the big fish:

1 convict tang
1 hippo tang
1 yellow tang
1 Kole tang
6 lyretail anthias
Couple clowns
Couples gobies
Couple wrasses

I have about 200 snails. Yes 200. My trochus snails reproduced I only had 15 or so at first.
I have a 220g waterbox so total gallons based on my measurements is around 187g.

I run kalkwasser.

I’ve done so many water changes, see screenshot. I’ve done like 6-7 changes of 55g each over the last few weeks to get nutrients down (gravel vac the entire 55g). I have no algae in my tanks except coralline algae.

Why are my phosphates so high, could it be the snails? I mean I literally don’t care if it isn’t a problem I’m not trying to chase numbers, but trying to prevent future issues if any are to show up.


Hannah test kits

 

[blaxsun]

I don’t necessarily think your nitrates and phosphates are overly high (my reef tank runs similar levels, and my SPS all do really well).

The only difference is that my PAR levels are a lot less, I don’t dose kalk and I don’t do water changes.

 

[Max93]

I don’t necessarily think your nitrates and phosphates are overly high (my reef tank runs similar levels, and my SPS all do really well).

The only difference is that my PAR levels are a lot less, I don’t dose kalk and I don’t do water changes.

Do you think I may just need more biomass to let it come down naturally? For example adding more corals to help consume more of the nutrients in the water?

 

[blaxsun]

Maybe. I dose a small amount of NOPOX every weekend just to help keep everything in-check. I have a fairly well-stocked mixed reef with 42 fish. I also run a fleece roller and a lit of bio media.

 

[BoriReefer]

Those are actually pretty good numbers. Higher ALK requires higher nutrients. I’d bump up the MAG to 1350-1400 you may see more coral growth and nutrient consumption. I wouldn’t sweat the PO4. You have a nice Nitrate to PO4 balance atm in my opinion.

 

[Max93]

Maybe. I dose a small amount of NOPOX every weekend just to help keep everything in-check. I have a fairly well-stocked mixed reef with 42 fish. I also run a fleece roller and a lit of bio media.

Makes sense. So the NOPOX to not have to do as many or any water changes in your case, and you also run the roller plus bio media to help bring it down.

What do you think about adding marine blocks? I stopped running my filter socks because they would clog almost daily. I also fed a lot more back then though. What do you mean by bio media?

 

[Max93]

Those are actually pretty good numbers. Higher ALK requires higher nutrients. I’d bump up the MAG to 1350-1400 you may see more coral growth and nutrient consumption. I wouldn’t sweat the PO4. You have a nice Nitrate to PO4 balance atm in my opinion.

Thank you. I should retest my magnesium, but I use salifert for that one - I’ve read too many mixed reviews about the Hannah checker. I’ll test it now and repost.

 

[blaxsun]

Makes sense. So the NOPOX to not have to do as many or any water changes in your case, and you also run the roller plus bio media to help bring it down.

What do you think about adding marine blocks? I stopped running my filter socks because they would clog almost daily. I also fed a lot more back then though. What do you mean by bio media?

The NOPOX is just to manage the nutrients as the filtration is now 200 instead of the previous 100 microns.

I run MarinePure 8x4x4” blocks, 1.5” spheres snd PolypLab Genesis blocks.

 

[Max93]

Magnesium 1230 (salifert)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The 8/29 numbers do not look like a big issue to me, but if you want to lowering phosphate a bit, a little GFO will do the trick.

 

[Max93]

Ok cool, I figured it wasn’t an issue. I’m not going to dose/add anything since everything looks good. I’ll just take it easy and let everything come down on its own as the tank matures.

 

[Max93]

I think I’m right on the money now. Water change tomorrow to be safe bring phosphate down a bit more. But things appear to be holding and consistent.

the millie is still doing the same but not any worse.
I did add 8 new sps and a new millie, they’re all doing excellent.
I also increased my halides to 6 hours instead of five, just to see how they react.