Help!....... corals not looking good

[Cooperbuddy]

So I was testing my Nitrates and phosphates the other day (with Salifert test kits ) and found my levels were very high..... 1.0 phosphates and close to 100 nitrates. So I started a reactor with GFO and carbon and also dosed NOPOX...... 4 days later and my corals look sad...(acros lose color, zoas all closed up, etc)...... tested again and phosphates are now zero and nitrates are about 35...... did I drop too quick?..... I shut off reactor and stopped dosing NOPOX. Also started getting Dinos on the sand. Was thinking of a big water change tomorrow....... any other suggestions?

120 gallon mixed reef
2 clowns, 2 wrasse, fox face rabbit , tomini tang, coral beauty and a blue damsel
Salinity: 1.024 , Alk: 10.4 , Calcium: 450 Mag: 1250

 

[Uncle99]

Is this a new tank?
As suggested by Red Sea, Nopox should not be used in combination with GFO.
Way, way, way, too fast.
I have never seen Nopox reduce nitrates that much in four days, it took me 4 months.
Nitrates in 2-10ppm and phosphates in the 0.03-.1 ranges and stable is a good area to shoot for

Yes, I would consider multiple water changes over several days.

 

[Cooperbuddy]

No it’s two years old..... going to let it go up some and then dose slower or do you suggest getting a nitrate reactor?

 

[andrewey]

Unfortunately you dropped your phosphate too quickly. First and foremost, I would discontinue any GFO/nopox/ I also wouldn't do any water changes- that might make your dinos worse if they are infact dinos. There's a chance you may lose some corals due to the shock of dropping your phosphate so quickly, but don't worry- there's hope! First and foremost, you have to go against every instinct you have and do nothing! Your corals were used to having a ton of phosphate and they're shocked by dropping so low. Some have theorized that you could dose phosphate to get a bit closet to the level, but I'll leave that to any members who have done that (I haven't). What I can tell you is that the corals are vulnerable and shocked right now and the last thing you should do is make any more changes. I would simply continue what you had been doing before putting the GFO on. This will allow your rocks to leach phosphate back out, thereby "naturally" increasing the phosphate, and hopefully your corals will make a full recovery in time.

 

[andrewey]

As for the dinos, it's possible that you did create a dino outbreak by dropping your phosphate to 0. First, before you take any advice or make any changes, I would grab a microscope and confirm you are infact dealing with dinos (if you don't have a microscope, I'd be happy to ID them if you can get me a sample). If they are dinos and you can figure out what species, I can help you start to combat them. However, your first goal right now should be to not make the problem any worse.

 

[Cooperbuddy]

Thank you for the advice!..... you said continue the GFO in the reactor? Or did you typo and mean to say stop using it.

 

[andrewey]

Sorry- typo! Discontinue the GFO

 

[andrewey]

Once your rocks finish leaching phosphate back into the water (plus the phosphate from the fish food), you can retest and assuming you're not dealing with dinos at that point, you'll want to lower your phosphate very slowly in the future. I think the normal dosage to start is 1TBSP per 8 gallons of water, but you might want to go half that to start and see how your system handles it. The good news is that your coral are likely acclimated to high levels of phosphate and although high levels can impact the rate of coral growth, it's not going to be harmful for your corals to spend a few extra weeks/months at those levels. The real danger, as you saw, is lowering them too fast before the corals have time to acclimate slowly to lower levels of phosphate in the water.

 

[Joedubyk]

GFO is the absolute WORST, IME. It crashed my tank -- bad. It will bring phosphtes down too fast and too low. You just starved your corals. It may take awhile for them to recover.

 

[Cooperbuddy]

Thanks again for the advice!..... one more question.... what’s your thoughts on a nitrate reactor once things level off?

 

[andrewey]

No worries! Hope everything settles down in time. I've been in your shoes quite a few times when trying to fix one problem, I create two others

As far as nitrate reactors, I'm probably not the right person to ask. I know they can work and have seem them on a few people's setups years ago, but I've never actually run one, so I can't really comment on their pros/cons. I think it might be one of those situations where there's a ton of ways to skin a cat with regard to nutrient export and it just comes down to time, maintenance, space, etc.