Nutrient control question......

[TD13]

The nopox is growing cyno because your po4 and no3 are out of whack. Carbon dosing and nopox only work when both are present, otherwise you get crazy algae and cyno blooms. When you test for no3 and po4 what results do you get? In summation to everyone's posts and answer to your question; all tanks are different. The only constant is "stuff" in the water and where you wanna keep it. Ideal parameters are even "rules of thumb". What works for me may wipe your tank out, but in general you should look to your fish and coral for feed back. If things are colorful,happy, and growing, then it ain't broke. Don't fix it.

 

[Gwitness]

The nopox is growing cyno because your po4 and no3 are out of whack. Carbon dosing and nopox only work when both are present, otherwise you get crazy algae and cyno blooms. When you test for no3 and po4 what results do you get? In summation to everyone's posts and answer to your question; all tanks are different. The only constant is "stuff" in the water and where you wanna keep it. Ideal parameters are even "rules of thumb". What works for me may wipe your tank out, but in general you should look to your fish and coral for feed back. If things are colorful,happy, and growing, then it ain't broke. Don't fix it.

I couldn't agree with you more!! So my nitrates read 5 on salifert test and phosphates are consistently reading 0.0 to 0.03 consistently but as of late has been reading 0 consistently and that's why I took off gfo and now recently started to stop nopox because of low phosphate readings and cyano showing up.....randomly about a week ago my anemones all started to move and hide, sps turned paler and Zoas closed up and won't open.....didn't change anything with the tank either....really weird! But I stopped dosing nopox for two days now and I think I'm gonna stop for good right now....how do u get phosphates and nitrates back where they should be? Technically they are in correct ranges but obviously out of whack like you said.....fish seem great and happy, lps are looking better now and sps I don't have many but are still pale and no polyp extension....I literally rarely have a coral grow but they do open and sps definitely don't grow or color up great.....thanks so much for your previous response and help!

 

[twilliard]

This is what I mean. No one knows about this. I learned the hard way. If you want to try something, I would set up a new tank, 10g if you have around. Move the gorgs to this tank. Do not add it to the current system. You will need carbon and good circulation for the gorgs. You will need food and of course the LR too.

Next, run a new batch of carbon through your system and change after one week. This should help sort out the toxins. You should begin to see improvements in your corals within a week or two. I began my 40g because of this. I moved corals that were not doing well, receding and just all around not happy and within a week of being away from the gorgs, they were happy, growing and colorful.

Carbon will only help control the toxins with these guys, not eliminate it.

I am interested in what you have to say.
I have 1 large gorgonia in my tank.
I have struggled with my acros from day one and know there is some sort of chemical warfare going on. I just couldn't pin it to one type of coral.
I have a diverse mixed tank.
Insight?

 

[Pete polyp]

Got any fish in it? : )

Yep

 

[Pete polyp]

Holy crap!!! How and what do you do to keep nutrients under control?

Very good live rock

 

[Gwitness]

Very good live rock

Very interesting and awesome....what kind of rock? What size tank? And is the rock all in the main tank or main tank and sump?

 

[Pete polyp]

I have 2 tanks, a 29 without a sump and a 40 with a sump. I don't skim in either tank. I actually dose nitrates in both tanks because they are nutrient deficient. Both tanks have tukani live rock in them, and the reason for no nutrients. I have fed the tanks way way way more than what I should and never saw an increase in nitrate. At 1 time I had 13 fish in the 40 and still had no nitrate.

 

[Gwitness]

I have 2 tanks, a 29 without a sump and a 40 with a sump. I don't skim in either tank. I actually dose nitrates in both tanks because they are nutrient deficient. Both tanks have tukani live rock in them, and the reason for no nutrients. I have fed the tanks way way way more than what I should and never saw an increase in nitrate. At 1 time I had 13 fish in the 40 and still had no nitrate.

That is absolutely insane!!! Is that rock pretty expensive?? I might look into getting some and putting in My main tank or sump....what are tie thoughts on that to help me with my issue?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am interested in what you have to say.
I have 1 large gorgonia in my tank.
I have struggled with my acros from day one and know there is some sort of chemical warfare going on. I just couldn't pin it to one type of coral.
I have a diverse mixed tank.
Insight?

The gorgs will take time to eventually kill off the other corals. Took mine a year to finally wipe out most of my fleshy lps completely. Took longer on the hammer and frogspawn. I think those two would have been okay longer had one of my tiny gorg frags (3" max) fell on a colony of frogspawn, softball sized and wiped it out in 12 hours or less.

My friend just noticed that his corals were not happy, acans mostly. He figured it could be gorgs as he knows my struggles and pulled them out and gave to me. His tank got better.

I could not keep favias, trachys, playts, scolys, acans, or any sps too close to a gorg. Then they would destroy over time anyway. As I said, I moved the other corals to a 40g and they are thriving now (the ones I got in time).

Maybe I should write an article up about my experience with gorgs over the past 3 years. At least take it off this thread.

 

[Pete polyp]

I got mine from a lfs for $5/lb. Salty supply has a 45lb box priced around $130... so pretty darn cheap

 

[twilliard]

The gorgs will take time to eventually kill off the other corals. Took mine a year to finally wipe out most of my fleshy lps completely. Took longer on the hammer and frogspawn. I think those two would have been okay longer had one of my tiny gorg frags (3" max) fell on a colony of frogspawn, softball sized and wiped it out in 12 hours or less.

My friend just noticed that his corals were not happy, acans mostly. He figured it could be gorgs as he knows my struggles and pulled them out and gave to me. His tank got better.

I could not keep favias, trachys, playts, scolys, acans, or any sps too close to a gorg. Then they would destroy over time anyway. As I said, I moved the other corals to a 40g and they are thriving now (the ones I got in time).

Maybe I should write an article up about my experience with gorgs over the past 3 years. At least take it off this thread.

I would be interested if you started a thread on this to keep OP on topic. Please tag me if you do so.

 

[Gwitness]

I got mine from a lfs for $5/lb. Salty supply has a 45lb box priced around $130... so pretty darn cheap

Okay tHank you!! What makes this type of rock that much better than others?

 

[Pete polyp]

Okay tHank you!! What makes this type of rock that much better than others?

I can't say with certainty. But I believe it's because of the porosity and the diverse life in and on the rock. Mine has breeding populations of snail, chiton along with the usual. There are so many micro stars in the rock it looks hairy at night. There's lots of diversity on algae on this rock too. I think it's a combination of everything that makes this rock the way it is

This rock has been in my tank for 3 years when I took this picture

 

[Gwitness]

I can't say with certainty. But I believe it's because of the porosity and the diverse life in and on the rock. Mine has breeding populations of snail, chiton along with the usual. There are so many micro stars in the rock it looks hairy at night. There's lots of diversity on algae on this rock too. I think it's a combination of everything that makes this rock the way it is

This rock has been in my tank for 3 years when I took this picture

Wow that rock looks great!!!!! I will definitely look into it for sure....buying more rock would definitely help with nutrients right?

 

[Gwitness]

So is adding more live rock equivalent to carbon dosing or gfo?? But just a different method of removing nutrients?

 

[Pete polyp]

If it's good live rock it should help bring nitrate down some. Make sure any rock you add is fully cured so it doesn't add to the problem. I cure my rock in a Rubbermaid tub with a powerhead at room temperature until it's ready.

 

[Gwitness]

If it's good live rock it should help bring nitrate down some. Make sure any rock you add is fully cured so it doesn't add to the problem. I cure my rock in a Rubbermaid tub with a powerhead at room temperature until it's ready.

Okay cool I'll probably do that for sure then....how do you know if it's done curing? And also how often do you change out the water in the Rubbermaid tub for the live rock?

 

[Pete polyp]

You don't change the water. You test the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You want to have a source of nutrients for it to process, I always feed it a little frozen food every couple days. You should see the ammonia rise and start to fall. At that time nitrite will start to rise. After that the ammonia will become undetectable and the nitrite will start falling. This is where you start to see nitrate rise. Once the ammonia and nitrite are undetectable the nitrate should start to fall. At that point the rock is fully cured and ready to add to the tank.

 

[Pete polyp]

There's many different ways to cure rock. Do a little bit of searching for the different ways and pick one that you're comfortable with.

 

[Gwitness]

There's many different ways to cure rock. Do a little bit of searching for the different ways and pick one that you're comfortable with.

Okay great sounds like a plan...thanks for the help...either way it will benefit my tank better no matter whAt