Help water parameters for SPS (especially PO4)

Buraccha · Feb 19, 2018

hi,

i just got my first sps frags in my red sea reefer nano and i want them to grow.

i test my water today and i would like to know how do you guys think:

Temp: 25 Celsius
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Ammonia and nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate (with hanna checker): 0.24
Alk: 9,2 dKh
Ca: 450 ppm
Mg: 1280 ppm

i only have 2 yellowtail damsel and i feed only 1 daily.
The only problem is my phosphate is pretty high (0,24 ppm) and im only running Nopox. Should i inevitably run GFO with a reactor or water change gonna lower my po4?
My frags are doing well with no color loss and i have no algae (from the start).

How bad 0,24 ppm of PO4 can affect my corals in long term?are they gonna die?

thank you

tdileo · Feb 19, 2018

I think people overstress numbers when it comes to SPS. “SPS frag” is also very generalized. Most acropora are a lot harder to care for than montipora or seriatopora for example. I believe that stability in terms of parameters are more important than an exact number.

rob safron · Feb 19, 2018

You will find folks all over the place on some parameters especially Nitrate and Phosphate. I personally would try and get your phosphate down to 0.02-0.04. You can increase nitrate to 5 or so. Some like to run ultra low, myself I keep nitrate to 2-3 and phosphate around 0.01 and feee very heavy. GFO is what I tend to use but there are other things people do. You may start to see some good amount of alge at that current level.

Anirban · Feb 19, 2018

Dose some NO3 in the tank and keep dosing the NOPOx. Your PO4 will come down automatically. Just hold the NO3 at certain level. Your PO4 is not getting down as the system is NO3 limited.

Buraccha · Feb 19, 2018

rob safron said:
You will find folks all over the place on some parameters especially Nitrate and Phosphate. I personally would try and get your phosphate down to 0.02-0.04. You can increase nitrate to 5 or so. Some like to run ultra low, myself I keep nitrate to 2-3 and phosphate around 0.01 and feee very heavy. GFO is what I tend to use but there are other things people do. You may start to see some good amount of alge at that current level.

its been 2 month that my tank is running and i had no algae.
But, my goal is to get my PO4 level around 0.04

Buraccha · Feb 19, 2018

Anirban said:
Dose some NO3 in the tank and keep dosing the NOPOx. Your PO4 will come down automatically. Just hold the NO3 at certain level. Your PO4 is not getting down as the system is NO3 limited.

how can i dose NO3? is there a product or just feeding?
So basically, water change is not gonna help on the long term?
Can i run gfo and nopox in same time?

Anirban · Feb 19, 2018

Buraccha said:
how can i dose NO3? is there a product or just feeding?
So basically, water change is not gonna help on the long term?
Can i run gfo and nopox in same time?

You need stump remover or potassium nitrate. You can find the thread here and dose it slowly to increase the NO3. Dont add GFO now just increase the NO3 and wait.

pdiehm · Feb 20, 2018

When my NO3 was over 5, my slimer browned out. Only since it's been under 3 has the color started to come back. PO4 bounces from 0 to 0.01. Can't remember the last time it was 0.02 or higher.

Buraccha · Feb 20, 2018

ill stick with nopox for a while and see

markalot · Feb 20, 2018

PO4 probably should be lower, but it won't kill acros, it may brown them out though. I know of an SPS tank that runs higher than that and has colors I would love to have. Biggest lesson with Acros is to make everything as stable as you can. Everything, including PO4, lighting, KH, etc. Make all changes very slowly. This way if/when something does go wrong your acros are healthy due to the stability and can usually tolerate an oops.

Personally I like the following params.

KH 7 (bad things seem to happen slower at KH levels closer to NSW)
PO4 .05 to .1 (assumes you have herbavores to eat algae. If you measure high PO4 but little algae I can't help but wonder if test was off)
NO3 - .5 to 5

I rarely test calcium and do all dosing with 2 part based on Alk test. Equal amounts both parts.

I use Lanthanum to lower PO4, PhosphateRx is the product I use. 2 drops daily plus 10ml NOPOX daily brought both PO4 and NO3 to near 0, not a god thing. Double check your test, make sure test bottle is clean and you get a 0 reading with just tank water. Make sure to test in the morning before feeding. Make sure to mix well, but not so much you get bubbles on the vial.

Buraccha · Feb 22, 2018

I did a water change cause its been a while hope that gonna help. where can i buy phosphateRx? im from Canada

pdiehm · Mar 24, 2018

Tested today for first time in 2 weeks.

Things look good! Still trying to dial in my 2part but things are doing awesome...well for me.

pH: 8.2
Temp: 78.4
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: *8.6 (will retest at 9pm like I usually do)
Cal: 440
Mg: 1360
NO3: ~4ppm
PO4: 0

Ideally trying to run this at 8.0 alk, but has been 8.2-8.3 recently.

Seeing all kinds of coralline growing now. Good growth on my stylophora, the cliffs acro from @BoomCorals broke off the plug but has since encrusted the plug completely and seeing little spikes of growth upwards. Another piece that broke off is turning green and hoping that it encrusts the section that lost flesh over time. My encrusting nauti is looking really good, and the sunset montipora is on an encrusting mission. Things aren’t growing fast but they are growing. My purple/green slimer also from @BoomCorals is fully green though I don’t ever see the polyps out. It was brown about 2 months ago.

Been about 6 months since I put these in, and tank been up since July. Haven’t changed much but I have my LED’s to come on and off. No ramping and I stopped putting my hands in the tank unless I am blowing off the rocks. Nitrates are a little high (would like to run at 1-2) but am ok with them there.

First time I had sand, massive failure. No sand this time, one less variable to account for and working like a charm.