Moving On From BioPellets - Need Help

[reefer1]

I need some guidance. I tried everything to boost the nutrient level in my reef tank without any luck. So, a few days ago I took my biopellet reactor offline. No more. It just stripped all the nutrients out of my tank. Arghhh.
Anyway, my 100g reef tank includes filter sock, rowaphos (2 little fishies reactor), and Tunze skimmer in a 20g sump for filtration. Lots of live rock and plenty of flow (2 MP40's in anti-sync reef crest mode at about 85%). I have some acropora, favia, chalices, and a few zoas. I target feed them phyto and oysterfeast every 2-3 days with pumps off.
Salinity is 1.026
I dose the big 3
alkalinity =7.5ppm, calcium =425ppm, and magnesium = 1350ppm
Water temp is 78
pH=8.1

Now how do I transition my reek tank to a healthy, low nutrient level?
Is the water completely stripped or will it recover? (I did a 20g water change on Sunday. Should I do more?)
Are there additives (amino acids, trace elements, ...) that should be added?
Any other advice?

Thanks!

 

[maroun.c]

What fish do you have in the tank and what is your feeding regimen? a couple of small feedings per day would boost your nutrients level. or maybe add a couple more fish and feed a bit more.

 

[Downbeach]

How much pellets are you using? Have you tried to reduce the amount you're using?

 

[reefer1]

I have five fish - 3.5" tomini tang, 4" radiant wrasse, 3.5" yellow wrasse, 3" clown, and 2.5" clown. Fish have been in the tank over 1-1/2 years. I thought of adding a couple of fish (possibilities include cherub angel, potters angel, anthias, wrasse, or chromis). Not sure how the new fish will be accepted though so I've been hesitant.
I typically feed frozen spirulina/mysis combination 1x/day and pellets 2x/day.
I did try to reduce the pellets and the flow, but it didn't make much of a difference. They are no longer part of the system now.

 

[maroun.c]

adding a few Anthias, wrasses shouldn't be an issue, would advise to quarantine and treat for external and internal parasites befor e and make sure they are disease free before introducing to your tank to avoid any risk on your well established fish.
those need to be fed 4-5 times per days and would definitely add to the nutrient level in your tank.

 

[reefer1]

I'll start looking for fish, but this will take at least a month (to find healthy fish and then quarantine).
Is there anything to do now to improve water quality/nutrient level and help bring back/feed corals?
Thanks

 

[maroun.c]

Adding Amino Acids should do it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Adding Amino Acids should do it.

I agree, aminos (assuming adequate purity) are a good choice if the goal is boost nitrate and not phosphate.

 

[Russ265]

I received the advice of dosing amino acids and ended up with a cyano disaster due to po4 being out of whack and dissolved carbon everywhere.

The only thing that brought things around was to get nitrate above po4 (Redfield Ratio), run gfo, carbon and then dose seachem's flourish nitrogen (Potassium Nitrate).

I will never overfeed a tank again after that mess.

I only dose to get 2-5 ppm nitrate.
once po4 is 0 or 0.02 cut GFO off. As long as nitrate>po4 it will keep po4 in check and you wont be buying buckets of GFO to keep po4 out of the system.

I have to run gfo once every 2 weeks for 3 hours to get my po4 back down from .06 (.02 increase a week)
nitrates decrease 1 ppm weekly

 

[maroun.c]

its a personal choice, personally i would sacrifice a 15-20 % improvement in colors and avoid going ULNS which is too much work to get there, then takes a lot of effort to stay at the sweet spot where there is just enough nutrients as needed for optimal colors.
this is a personal preference, and in OP case the tank is in ULNS and corals are displaying the effect so the condition needs to be dealt with before he starts loosing corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I received the advice of dosing amino acids and ended up with a cyano disaster due to po4 being out of whack and dissolved carbon everywhere.

Maybe you dosed too much?

 

[Russ265]

Maybe you dosed too much?

Yeah. I gave the original doseage of Acropower, waited a week and received no traceable nitrate. So i double dosed the next week. Thats when cyano hit, BUT my nitrates never increased more than 1.5 ppm via Red Sea Pro kit (confirmed by my other 2 nitrate kits)

When you have Cyano, that stuff photosynthesizes quickly and will bind up no3 like no one's business. I had to drop in 75 ml of seachem's flourish nitrogen just to hit 5 ppm no3 due to cyano binding it.

I ran like 4 liters of GFO and 2 liters of phosguard in my tank for 2 weeks (this is with a 6250 gph pump on a manifold). Kept dosing potassium nitrate, mb7 and stability to outcompete cyano, and pulled out cyano physically.

Its gone now but wow... stuff is tenacious.

My corals are coloring up from their pale deathly state just by dosing the flourish and leaving gfo off.

 

[reefer1]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I will pick up some amino acids and seachem's flourish nitrogen and start adding them to my tank.
Hopefully, the nitrogen will keep the algae and cyano in check.
Thanks Again!

 

[Russ265]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I will pick up some amino acids and seachem's flourish nitrogen and start adding them to my tank.
Hopefully, the nitrogen will keep the algae and cyano in check.
Thanks Again!

word of caution

Seachem's flourish nitrogen has .0001% Copper. That equates to 1ppm in the bottle. It would be in the PPB+ in your tank... but you ARE introducing it. I havent had any bad effects from it so far, but i feel it would be disingenuous not to let you know.

A more pure form of it is saltpeter or you can get pure potassium nitrate from ebay/amazon.

 

[reefer1]

Got it. Thanks.