Pristine water, unhappy tank?

Pete polyp · May 19, 2015

I had to dose nitrates in my tank to get dirty enough for sps to live. I used potassium nitrate (kno3) which came from Spectracide stump remover. I ended up having good results with it until I could add more fish to my tank. I now have 13 fish in a 40 breeder and plan to add more. If course the fish I have are not as big as yours, but you get the picture. I tried overfeeding with no results other than phosphates rising (I fed 6-8 times daily).

haleyf1024 · May 19, 2015

I will be getting fish tonight. But, they will be in QT first. Should I start out QT medicating them? Or just doing a bath/fresh water dip? What will be the quickest, yet safest way to QT them that will insure they do NOT bring any disease into my DT (including ich. My tank has no ich in it and I will not bring it in again)? The only thing I am not willing to use is copper. Prazipro? Ich-X if that's not copper?

cincyreef · May 20, 2015

I was using RO water to calibrate my refractometer for awhile as well. Recently just bought some Pinpoint 53.o mS calibration fluid, and my salinity in my tank was off big time compared to the fluid. Just a thought. Good luck

Trex · May 20, 2015

cincyreef said:
I was using RO water to calibrate my refractometer for awhile as well. Recently just bought some Pinpoint 53.o mS calibration fluid, and my salinity in my tank was off big time compared to the fluid. Just a thought. Good luck

That is what I was going to post.

When using RO to calibrate, you are calibrating it to zero, but need to have it calibrated to 35, which is what you will be shooting for, otherwise your reading has a great chance of being off.

kacrocorals581 · May 20, 2015

sounds like water to clean needs some nutrients in the water all corals use them in way or another and when not enough are present you get fading and even bleaching if a rapid drops happen ask all those who went from no gfo to using to much at once so in short feed more and amino acid well help acro power works great for all corals and you could also send off to triton and get a full water test cause just cause your cal alk mag po4 and no3 reads good" as you would say dose not mean there is something else in there that could have adverse effects

4FordFamily · May 20, 2015

That's perplexing.

I might also add that if you test at the same time of day, you may be missing small parameter swings (such as PH) throughout the day. Not sure what other parameters could be somewhat unstable, but less than one year is not "established", IMO. That is not to say that you should not add fish and coral, but it's just something to be mindful of. Older systems are generally more stable, and the coral show it.

haleyf1024 · May 20, 2015

I take measurements at all different times, sometimes its before noon, other times it's 2,5 or 10-11 PM.

Farhaan khan · May 20, 2015

Try sum live feedings to ur fish.. mysis , fish eggs , brineshrimps .. nutirients lvl will increase plus happy fishes ...

rlman41299 · May 20, 2015

0 nitrates and 0 phosphates will starve your corals. I recently just went through it by using biopellets. I stripped my system too much and all my corals perished.

hejjo · May 20, 2015

+1 on the Hanna checker. I love them and wish I had got them sooner.

Wiinberg · May 21, 2015

acolotto said:
Red Sea have great test kits so you should be good there. But if I was you id invest in a Hanna Phosphate Checker, it will give you the most accurate phosphate readings, as well as being able to tell when its at 0 or 0.2, and it does it for you! Its a lot easier then comparing colors. If it was me id get this before adding more fish, youd be able to see the impact of more feeding or adding a fish has on your system, accurately too

That is simply not true about the Hanna checker. It is well established that the Hanna checker gives 10 different readings on the same water if you measure 10 times. You will never know if your reading is correct.

kevinsmixed90 · May 21, 2015

how long is your photo period? should not be longer than 10 to 12 hrs. max. also, I agree that you need some phosphates, and the Hanna tester IMO is the best.

hejjo · May 21, 2015

My hanna is on point no matter how many times I check it. It's as accurate as your going to get. I can watch my phosphates rise by .01 and know when it's getting time to change gfo. As for the calcium Hanna checker it came with a larger syringe which could be slightly inaccurate. Anyone that has a calcium Hanna checker can call Hanna instruments and they will send you a smaller more accurate syringe for your calcium checker for free. Other than that they are great.

Retromagnolia · May 21, 2015

Have you been dosing the tank or even better, target feeding your corals live phytoplankton or zooplankton? I run a 0 nitrate/phosphate tank as well, using the triton method. The low nutrient water is actually ideal imo, but in order to really replicate the oceans' waters we have to make sure there is free floating plankton in the water for the sps. They're a bit pickier than lps and usually prefer the plankton vs brine shrimp. Plankton in particular do not last long in a tank because of the protein skimmer and other filtrations that collect them. Also, trace elements? If there's a gfo reactor at work it can tend to absorb the trace elements as well as phosphates. I usually dose the trace about 1/3 more per week than what it says on the bottle to compensate.

hejjo · May 21, 2015

Y does it say [emoji173]️Roberchristoph under my post Lol

143MPCo · May 21, 2015

hejjo said:
Y does it say [emoji173]️Roberchristoph under my post Lol

It means the post was "like" (liked) by the user next to it.

haleyf1024 · May 21, 2015

Farhaan khan said:
Try sum live feedings to ur fish.. mysis , fish eggs , brineshrimps .. nutirients lvl will increase plus happy fishes ...

My fish get live, enriched brine shrimp every 1-2 weeks

haleyf1024 · May 21, 2015

Retromagnolia said:
Have you been dosing the tank or even better, target feeding your corals live phytoplankton or zooplankton? I run a 0 nitrate/phosphate tank as well, using the triton method. The low nutrient water is actually ideal imo, but in order to really replicate the oceans' waters we have to make sure there is free floating plankton in the water for the sps. They're a bit pickier than lps and usually prefer the plankton vs brine shrimp. Plankton in particular do not last long in a tank because of the protein skimmer and other filtrations that collect them. Also, trace elements? If there's a gfo reactor at work it can tend to absorb the trace elements as well as phosphates. I usually dose the trace about 1/3 more per week than what it says on the bottle to compensate.

The tank is being dosed for Mg, Ca, and KH, and corals get live phytoplankton (DTs and marine snow).