Turn your skimmer off and start feeding your fish multiple times a day. Zero no3/po4 is a death sentence if your not heavy feeding and heavy supplementing. Elevated no3/po4 will not kill sps but zero will.
Red planet is dying
- Thread starter Debbie12
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Cyano is better than a bunch of dead corals
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
@Chaswood79 is right on this. @Debbie12 needs some Nitrates and phosphates as the coral is starving. Cyano wouldn't be that much of a worry with the proper export method such as a refugium with macro.
Going from 0 phosphates to .03-.05 and upping nitrates .10ppm will not create an issue with algae.
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
That’s not going 0-100. In your case, sounds like nothing was there to export the excess nutrients.
In OPs case, that’s not even bleaching as has been established by now. I don’t even think raising nutrients will stop that TN
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
That's correct. I dont think the cause of the TN is from low nutrients. I think it was from parameter swings. However, if there were more nutrients then the corals tend to handle the swings better than the ULN systems.
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
Ok. How old is your system? I had an issue with low nutrients within the first 6 months. I had to manually dose Sodium Nitrate and Trisodium Phosphate to raise nutrients from 0. I still have to manually dose Nitrates every other day to keep them up. I have a fuge with macro and mangroves that keeps my system low.
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
I wouldnt sweat it. Start feeding more and get the nutrients up. Believe it or not but corals love a "dirty" tank. When I transferred into my new tank 6 months ago my ALK was way off. I lost a couple acros and almost lost my Garf Bonsai. It had TN and I thought for sure it was a goner. I left it alone and it is come back and growing over the dead areas. You cannot even tell that it happened. Take it slow, keep it stable and it will turn around.
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
Don't be afraid of a little bit of algae...but you don't want excess nutrients, but it's a fine balance if that makes sense. Realistically anything more than you need is excess. You need to export what you import. To give you an example I have 35 active fish in a 240 gallon tank and I feed 4 to 5 times a day and my NO3 is no higher than 1.0 ppm and my PO4 is 0.10 ppm when I don't change out my rowaphos on time. I run that, chaeto, and a sulfur reactor but I have to because I feed so much. I do have some random algae but the benefits far outweigh the negatives. Try skimming dry too. Here's an example of the algae I leave be until it's WC time.
Cherie cook
Cherbear
I always thought red planet was pretty invincible. Bought a nice frag from LA last week...died almost immediately.
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
No problem at all! Hope everything turns out ok. Keep us posted.
bluprntguy
Well-Known Member
I've always heard that too, but I've killed at least three frags of it, so I don't even bother anymore.
I'm able to keep pretty demanding SPS alive, but I can kill a birdsnest faster than anyone, so maybe Red Planet is just too easy for me to keep it alive...
Either feed an extra time or double the amount your feeding. More food equals more fish poop equals happy sps.
When I noticed it was suffering, I started target feeding it daily. If I'm understanding the other reefers, I need more nutrients anyway and our other SPS may be at risk so now I'm target feeding everyone daily and the fish aren't really sure what's happened to me, but they're on board for the upswing in goodies.
Thank you
LARedstickreefer
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I agree with raising nutrients. I’ve seen many corals come back from the brink.
Cyano and algae are always going to be a fact of life. Get more snails.
Cyano and algae are always going to be a fact of life. Get more snails.
