Increasing nutrients remove refugium?

Ling_Thing · Oct 8, 2018

my reefer 450 has been up and going for 6 months and I’ve slowly been adding more and more coral, mixed reef with all acro’s up top. My problem is I know I don’t have enough fish to support the coral nutrients I need. I currently have a hippo, yellow tang, orchid dotty back, pair of false clowns and a pajama cardinal. Currently have 4 green chromis, shark nose goby and six line in QT right now and even those small fish aren’t going to make a difference I suspect. I have to add neophos and me coral n03 every day if not every other day to keep my nutrients in detectable levels I’m wondering if I should take my “refugium” or macro department offline. I have a section in the sump where I have chaeto and sea lettuce going on reverse photo period and aquamaxx fc80 really skims the tank well, maybe too well. Should I take the macro algae offline or the skimmer offline to increase my nutrient load so I don’t have to dose nutrients every day, getting annoying and expensive and I can tell instantly when my n03 and p04 flatline with my acros. I shoot for .02-.04 p04 and 1-2 ppm n03 and I keep my alk around 8.5 thanks

Vahanyos · Oct 8, 2018

I had my skimmer off and refugium online only and my nitrates were climbing.

I would try turning the skimmer off for a little bit. I think keeping the refugium thriving will be a better option

landlubber · Oct 8, 2018

I had a similar situation and eventually resorted to dosing PO4 and NO3 with varying results. I personally started feeding more and shortened the photoperiod on my refugium but would definitely do the same to my skimmer to find that balance if my corals became pale.

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 8, 2018

keep the fuge for sure. if you have corals, start feeding oyster feast and reef chili 2 or 3x a week. your problems of not having enough nutrients will quickly be gone.

Ling_Thing · Oct 8, 2018

You thinking turning the skimmer off at night while the fuge is going will be a good start? I feed reef energy every other day and rotate with Acro power and I feed flakes and pellets every day and mysis and rods food every other day still eating nitrates and phosphates like you wouldn’t believe

Vahanyos · Oct 8, 2018

I had my skimmer off and refugium online only and my nitrates were climbing.

I would try turning the skimmer off for a little bit. I think keeping the refugium thriving will be a better option

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 8, 2018

man, I wish I had this problem. you must have some fast growing corals or something. I'm curious, what in the tank is growing like mad?? I mean, the nitrogen is not just being consumed by microbes, especially in a 6 month old tank..

Ly78 · Oct 8, 2018

Dont have turn off skimmer....just remove the cup n let it overflow if only for extra aeration

Kirschy17 · Oct 8, 2018

On that matter, i have a aio tank with a small diy refugium in one backchamber. I tried keeping chaeto there but its dead within a few weeks. I have very low levels of nitrate and phosphate to the point where i cant measure it with my testkits. Can that cause the chaeto death or do you think my lighting might be insuficient. I use some small led aquarium fixture.

Ling_Thing · Oct 8, 2018

Brian Bieger said:
man, I wish I had this problem. you must have some fast growing corals or something. I'm curious, what in the tank is growing like mad?? I mean, the nitrogen is not just being consumed by microbes, especially in a 6 month old tank..

My acans are popping new heads every day, my favia is spreading like crazy, acros all lying down bases, everything took off when I added the aquatic life T5 hybrid hydra 26’s alone very slow growth and yes I have a par meter

Ling_Thing · Oct 8, 2018

Kirschy17 said:
On that matter, i have a aio tank with a small diy refugium in one backchamber. I tried keeping chaeto there but its dead within a few weeks. I have very low levels of nitrate and phosphate to the point where i cant measure it with my testkits. Can that cause the chaeto death or do you think my lighting might be insuficient. I use some small led aquarium fixture.

Yes I have found chaeto needs reasonably high phosphate to grow and flourish dosing iron will help Too but it needs n03 and p04 to grow. Hence why I’m starting this thread

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 8, 2018

how much macro algae do you have in your fuge?

Justfebreezeit · Oct 8, 2018

Just make slow changes. Either reduce photo period on refugium or put the skimmer on a schedule instead of 24/7. Then give it time.

My ATS is down to 6 hours a night and I might reduce it further.

Ling_Thing · Oct 8, 2018

Brian Bieger said:
how much macro algae do you have in your fuge?

I would say it’s a ball of chaeto like a softball maybe a little bigger and softball size of sea lettuce, the brown film algae actually grows more in the algae section than the macro does itself lol but it does stay nice and lush green from me dosing n03 and p04 but it’s counterintuitive

shred5 · Oct 8, 2018

I am still a believer in feeding corals.
If people fed their corals again like we used to the coral would get their nutrients from the food and not pale so much.
Also by feeding the coral you are increasing nutrient in the tank vs dosing phosphorus and nitrogen.
I would bet allot of the loss in corals is because they are starving. Ever watch a video of a reef? See how much plankton floats by? Yea those reefs are nutrient poor but the corals are not pale because of food.

People need to ask why what has changed in the hobby that we are all of a sudden seeing these low nutrients and pale corals in so many tanks?

So many keep our tanks to clean and also stopped feeding corals.

Add amino acid and food, and you wont have pale corals, corals will grow faster, and no longer low nutrients.

Ling_Thing · Oct 8, 2018

shred5 said:
I am still a believer in feeding corals.
If people fed their corals again like we used to the coral would get their nutrients from the food and not pale so much.
Also by feeding the coral you are increasing nutrient in the tank vs dosing phosphorus and nitrogen.
I would bet allot of the loss in corals is because they are starving. Ever watch a video of a reef? See how much plankton floats by? Yea those reefs are nutrient poor but the corals are not pale because of food.

People need to ask why what has changed in the hobby that we are all of a sudden seeing these low nutrients and pale corals in so many tanks?

So many keep our tanks to clean and also stopped feeding corals.

Add amino acid and food, and you wont have pale corals, corals will grow faster, and no longer low nutrients.

I feed my corals everyday, reef energy, Acro power, reef Roids, Rods food, live phyto when I can get it. I’m now starting to feed my fish 2-3 times a day instead of once and I always have nori piece on a IM grazer for the tangs all day. I read the thread that vivid aquariums started about part time skimming and it’s very interesting. I’m going to take that approach and see if I can get my nutrients up.

Subsea · Oct 9, 2018

Kirschy17 said:
On that matter, i have a aio tank with a small diy refugium in one backchamber. I tried keeping chaeto there but its dead within a few weeks. I have very low levels of nitrate and phosphate to the point where i cant measure it with my testkits. Can that cause the chaeto death or do you think my lighting might be insuficient. I use some small led aquarium fixture.

Chaeto needs elevated nutrients. It will grow in low light, just not as fast.

Ling_Thing · Oct 9, 2018

So I’ve had my skimmer off for just over 24 hours, I noticed my p04 rised a little and my nitrate actually went down. I did notice extreme PE this morning when the lights started to come on so the Cora’s are definitely responding. I’m keep my “refugiun” going and just going to let the skimmer stay off until the n03 raised to 1-2 ppm and stays there and then maybe I’ll go back to part time skimming but it’s my understanding this is the true paletta method? I have all macro and miracle mud in my sump and no skimmer running.