I'm not sure what to do...

[The new fish on the block]

Hi everyone!

I have been struggling with extremely high nutrients in my Reefer 350 for about a year if not longer, and I'm at a loss for what to do next.
My current nutrient levels are:

P04: 0.37 ppm via Hanna Checker HR Previously: 1.5ppm
N03: 74.8 ppm via Hanna Checker HR Previously: 100+ ppm

Here's what I have done so far (In chronological order):

• Several large WC's
• Phosphat-E + WC

^Above Did Not Work^

• Complete Tank Reset ( 90% new rocks, new sand, 30G new water)
• Added a Refugium w/ Chaeto and Red Gracilaria

The last 2 helped tremendously and my phosphates have slowly decreased after the refugium addition, but my Nitrates have been increasing which I thought the refugium was supposed to help with that?

What am I doing wrong?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Hi everyone!

I have been struggling with extremely high nutrients in my Reefer 350 for about a year if not longer, and I'm at a loss for what to do next.
My current nutrient levels are:

P04: 0.37 ppm via Hanna Checker HR Previously: 1.5ppm
N03: 74.8 ppm via Hanna Checker HR Previously: 100+ ppm

Here's what I have done so far (In chronological order):

• Several large WC's
• Phosphat-E + WC

^Above Did Not Work^

• Complete Tank Reset ( 90% new rocks, new sand, 30G new water)
• Added a Refugium w/ Chaeto and Red Gracilaria

The last 2 helped tremendously and my phosphates have slowly decreased after the refugium addition, but my Nitrates have been increasing which I thought the refugium was supposed to help with that?

What am I doing wrong?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Tell us a little more about the tank.

How many fish/types
What do you feed and how much?
How many corals do you have?
Do you have a skimmer? If so, what is the model

Full tank shot will help, also.

In addition, I would suggest getting the water tested by an LFS to confirm your numbers, just to be safe.

 

[Aaron75]

What kind of stock do you have? How much and what do you feed? Filtration? Any sponges or floss or anything, those can retain nitrates.

 

[The new fish on the block]

Tell us a little more about the tank.

How many fish/types
What do you feed and how much?
How many corals do you have?
Do you have a skimmer? If so, what is the model

Full tank shot will help, also.

In addition, I would suggest getting the water tested by an LFS to confirm your numbers, just to be safe.

@Eagle_Steve @Aaron75
Fish:
2x Wyoming White Clowns, 1x YE Kole Tang, 1x Powder Brown Tang, 1x Coral Beauty, 1x Pink Damsel, 1x Yellowfin Damsel, 4x Kupang Damsels

Food:
I mainly feed flake food 1x Pinch ( Tetra Marine Large Flake) once a day and 1/3 sheet of nori for the tangs.

Coral:
3x Toadstool Leather Coral ( 1 Colony + 2 Frags)

Skimmer:
Bubble Magus Curve 5

 

[The new fish on the block]

Oops for got FIltration:

Filtration:

2x Mesh filter socks

Refugium

Protein Skimmer (BM Curve 5)

 

[davidcalgary29]

Food:
I mainly feed flake food 1x Pinch ( Tetra Marine Large Flake) once a day and 1/3 sheet of nori for the tangs.

Hey, I love flake as much as anyone, but you should really move on to frozen food (rinsed and thawed) and other quality feed.

That's a pretty heavy bioload. I've got an equally heavy load with a Lamarck's angel, a regal tang, a yellow tang, and four small fish in my 350. My nutrients are pretty high, too, and I cultivate chaeto in the sump. I've decided that the tank is best off as a FOWLR until I can upgrade it for the tangs.

 

[Cthulukelele]

That little feeding with that high of nutrients is shocking to me. I'd try a different flake food/switch to something frozen.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@Eagle_Steve @Aaron75
Fish:
2x Wyoming White Clowns, 1x YE Kole Tang, 1x Powder Brown Tang, 1x Coral Beauty, 1x Pink Damsel, 1x Yellowfin Damsel, 4x Kupang Damsels

Food:
I mainly feed flake food 1x Pinch ( Tetra Marine Large Flake) once a day and 1/3 sheet of nori for the tangs.

Coral:
3x Toadstool Leather Coral ( 1 Colony + 2 Frags)

Skimmer:
Bubble Magus Curve 5

Thinking the flake food may the source of the nutrients.

I would suggest feeding frozen or marine pellets and feeding no more than they eat in a few minutes.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I probably feed 4-5 cubes of frozen and some flake/pellet every day to my tank (120 w 200gal total volume) and my nutrients hover at less than a tenth of that. It absolutely has to be something about that particular food

 

[gbroadbridge]

Tell us a little more about the tank.

How many fish/types
What do you feed and how much?
How many corals do you have?
Do you have a skimmer? If so, what is the model

Full tank shot will help, also.

In addition, I would suggest getting the water tested by an LFS to confirm your numbers, just to be safe.

How often and how much water are you changing?

10% a week is normal.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How are you measuring nitrate and phosphate?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Are the fish consuming all the flake?

 

[The new fish on the block]

How often and how much water are you changing?

10% a week is normal.

I try to do 32gal once a month

 

[The new fish on the block]

How are you measuring nitrate and phosphate?

Hanna Checkers

 

[DanyL]

Skimmer should be enough to handle the amount of fish you have.
You may want to adjust for wet skimming which would pull more nutrients faster.

Also, Nori is extremely high in phosphates, and Iodine.
I would stop feeding with it unless it's absolutely necessary for a picky fish that won't eat nothing else.
You might also want to switch from feeding this flake food to a frozen food instead, rinse it first.

 

[bushdoc]

Dry foods increase phosphates more than frozen food. suggest using frozen food and rinse it before feeding.
Your rock probably doesn’t harbor many denitryfying bacteria. That’s might be part of the problem. Not familiar with your skimmer, but good skimmer is half of the success. Perhaps large bio-block could help, they supposedly can decrease nitrates.

 

[The new fish on the block]

Dry foods increase phosphates more than frozen food. suggest using frozen food and rinse it before feeding.
Your rock probably doesn’t harbor many denitryfying bacteria. That’s might be part of the problem. Not familiar with your skimmer, but good skimmer is half of the success. Perhaps large bio-block could help, they supposedly can decrease nitrates.

I also have a bag of Seachem Matrix in the sump as well.

 

[fity2pounder]

Are you changing your filter socks frequently enough?

 

[Max93]

Just a thought - vodka dosing?
I’ve had great success, just started it again after my 220 that runs:

GFO
Turf scrubber
Oversized skimmer
Biweekly 20% water changes

cannot keep up. I barely feed my fish. Few frags in the tank. Nitrate always at 30-40. Phosphate at .1 most of the time.

so, I’m running vodka now with all these things at the same time. Once I get nutrients down I’ll remove the turf scrubber and keep running GFO as needed