Frustrated today :(

[CanadianReefer]

So I noticed that some of my coral colonies were looking a bit unhealthy, and I took to doing some testing. Sure enough, my once stable parameters have changed. Previously I was able to keep my nitrates steady at 2 and my phosphates at .05. Not ideal, but it was steady.

For some reason, my nitrates bottomed out. Completely 0 Also there was a small change in phosphates to .07. No algae outbreaks.

I've heard of dosing potassium nitrate but I don't like the idea of dosing when I can avoid it.

It's a very odd result. I have a well-stocked (some may say overstocked) 300g system and I FEED... nori a few times a day + a large helping of frozen foods once a day. I also feed reef roids once a week.

My current system includes a large skimmer, filter socks, a large refugium, marine pure balls and a media reactor that uses aquaforest products (about 1/4 of the recommended amount of zeolite, 1/2 of the recommended amount of phosphorous minus and a full amount of carbon). It was established last July, but established with rock, corals and fish that I already owned from other systems.

I could take out the zeolite completely, but I really don't have much in there. If I feed even more, it may only serve to increase my phosphates. It's just one of those days.... and I'm worried about a few of my colonies - especially my acans and blastos... They are looking terrible!!

Any thoughts ??

 

[hatfielj]

Just take your media reactor off line until the nitrates and phosphates come back to where you like them. It's not always necessary to run carbon and other filter media like that.

 

[John3]

Well acans and blastos can be pretty forgiving if you catch a change like this early. Do you have sps in there as well? My acans look terrible if I let my nitrates drop below 10, but I only have a couple easy forgiving sps that don’t seem to mind the slightly higher nitrates.

 

[Cory]

Heres a good choice

https://www.butcherspantry.com/curing-ingredients/fccusp-food-grade-potassium-nitrate-kno3-saltpetre

Or you cab look at a local butcher shop

 

[CanadianReefer]

Well acans and blastos can be pretty forgiving if you catch a change like this early. Do you have sps in there as well? My acans look terrible if I let my nitrates drop below 10, but I only have a couple easy forgiving sps that don’t seem to mind the slightly higher nitrates.

I do have SPS in there too, hence why I try to keep it a bit lower - but bottoming out was not in the cards since nothing benefits at 0!

I sometimes find it a bit funny when people say that keeping an SPS tank is really hard - I'd take an SPS tank over my reef tank any day! It's so hard to find a balance that works for both SPS and LPS!!

I' actually going to start a separate SPS only tank to make things a bit easier, then I might turn this into an LPS dominant reef. I already have a softie tank, which is super easy to care for, so why not habe one of each? (Lol says the girl who is having a super frustrating day because of my tanks!)

 

[Jwheld]

I use food grade NaNO3 and Na3PO4 to raise nitrate and phosphate. I had a hard time raise when I had Marine pure balls in my sump so I took them out.

 

[CanadianReefer]

Heres a good choice

https://www.butcherspantry.com/curing-ingredients/fccusp-food-grade-potassium-nitrate-kno3-saltpetre

Or you cab look at a local butcher shop

I assume you've used this? What's been your experience thus far?

 

[CanadianReefer]

I use food grade NaNO3 and Na3PO4 to raise nitrate and phosphate. I had a hard time raise when I had Marine pure balls in my sump so I took them out.

Really? I had assumed the opposite (It could trap nitrate producing matter). Interesting. I don't mind taking it out - I'll just put it in my softie tank sump and see what happens...

 

[Jwheld]

These are what I use.
[URL]https://www.amazon.com/TriSodium-Phosphate-Na3PO4-Ultra-Pure-powder/dp/B00ILIO85Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1516844672&sr=8-3&keywords=trisodium+phosphate[/URL]

https://www.modernistpantry.com/sodium-nitrate.html

 

[Jwheld]

Really? I had assumed the opposite (It could trap nitrate producing matter). Interesting. I don't mind taking it out - I'll just put it in my softie tank sump and see what happens...

My sump has low turn over so I think they Had anerobic bacteria consuming the NO3 and producing nitrogen.

 

[Cory]

I assume you've used this? What's been your experience thus far?

No i just use stump remover from home depot. But this one is 99.9%

 

[NS Mike D]

with a large fuge, I'll just this out there , what about removing the filter socks - you need a good deal of rock, but would the marine pure balls do the same thing,

here is the thread on the subject

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/no-filter-sock-in-sump-why-randy.346993/

It started with a question to Randy Farley-Holmes why he doesn't use filter socks.

here are some quick take aways that caught my attention in additional to Randy's experience that filter socks remove coral food - BRS experiments concluded that that changing socks less frequently that 2x week would not reduce PO4. Member experienced drop in PO4 after removing socks.

I have an overstocked and since adding filter socks (among other things) my NO3 has dropped to very low to zero, while phosphates hoover about 0.04 - 0.08

I am leaning towards using the socks only after blowing the detritus off the rocks during my weekly maintenance. Admittedly, I prefer nutrient recycling over dosing so I may be impartial, but figured that thread is worth a read for anyone using filter socks and experiencing low nutrients

 

[Reef Able]

I hear your sentiments CanadianReefer...i completely agree the biggest challenge in this hobby is to maintain a mixed reef....sps only or softy only tanks are much easier to maintain as you pretty much know what they need but merging them togather is always a task for the sleeves...hope your parameters get back to where you would like them to be....more and more people are now talking about removing filter socks which honestly makes sense...the filtration equipment in today’s market is very strong and hence strip our tanks with useful coral food...filter socks IMO was ok to use in the earlier stages of the hobby when the filtration mechanism was not well advanced....good luck...

 

[Bronc]

I’ve removed my filter socks as well. My Nitrates now are steady at about 4ppm and I feed light.

 

[CanadianReefer]

I think I'll remove the socks, although I actually am one of those people who change them out 2-3 times a week. I also think that before dosing anything to raise nitrate levels, I'm going to reduce the grow time on my fuge and perhaps put my media reactor on a timer so that it doesn't run all day long and we'll see what the result is. If you saw how many fish I have and how much I feed them, you'd be baffled as to how my nitrates could have ever bottomed out - especially since I'm not carbon dosing or doing anything extreme in terms of nitrate removal. The joys of reefkeeping ... lol

 

[rkpetersen]

If you saw how many fish I have and how much I feed them, you'd be baffled as to how my nitrates could have ever bottomed out - especially since I'm not carbon dosing or doing anything extreme in terms of nitrate removal.

You've probably already considered this, but make sure your nitrate test kit is working properly; might be worth checking it with fresh reagents, or against a different brand kit.

 

[CanadianReefer]

You've probably already considered this, but make sure your nitrate test kit is working properly; might be worth checking it with fresh reagents, or against a different brand kit.

I always do 1 test with my aquaforest and one with an API kit to be sure. I had that problem with an alk kit once and it was disastrous so I learned from my previous mistake