Reef looking bad after starting no3/po4 dosing.

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

0-5 is a big jump. Same with 0 to .1

FWIW, it was 0.5 ppm nitrate, and most of the phosphate likely disappeared as it bound to rocks and sand.

 

[archercorals]

FWIW, it was 0.5 ppm nitrate, and most of the phosphate likely disappeared as it bound to rocks and sand.

0.5 and 5 are big differences.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

0.5 and 5 are big differences.

If you mean the suggested jump from 0.5 ppm dosed to 5 ppm dosed, yes, its fairly large. 5 ppm nitrate dosed is not that unusual, however. Starting with 0.5 ppm is low, IMO.

My best guess is that a larger N deficiency brought on by the phosphate dosing is THE problem. If he does not dose enough to offset the phosphate dosed, then I think the problem will remain.

Of course, i recognize that others here disagree with me. None of us know with certainty why his corals look sub par.

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

Well update after getting home today two acro colonies are on the way out. However what is strange is that the are bleaching from the bottoms of the branches. Also theese are not new ones either been here since month 2 will add picture when I can get them

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

Tank is testing g 0 0 again this time via hanna checkers

 

[Troylee]

Well update after getting home today two acro colonies are on the way out. However what is strange is that the are bleaching from the bottoms of the branches. Also theese are not new ones either been here since month 2 will add picture when I can get them

Sounds like stn… any pictures of your tank?

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

Sounds like stn… any pictures of your tank?

I would say rtn being that both colonies had color and healthy last night. I will grab photos here in a few.

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

Set of picture from Monday grabbing today's now

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

As of today

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

More

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There are some reported instances where increasing nitrate may contribute to coral issues:

Addition of nitrate and STN

I decided to write this thread to document my strange experience in which I can only draw theories but may have an answer. Every time I add any form of nitrate manually to my tank it starts an STN event in my sps. I have tried calcium nitrate esv and homemade, potassium nitrate, and ammonium...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[archercorals]

Those are also wild or maricultured pieces, which can be very temperamental.

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

Those are also wild or maricultured pieces, which can be very temperamental.

Frags that are dead where from tck and colonies I'm not sure of

 

[Wiskey]

There are some reported instances where increasing nitrate may contribute to coral issues:

Addition of nitrate and STN

I decided to write this thread to document my strange experience in which I can only draw theories but may have an answer. Every time I add any form of nitrate manually to my tank it starts an STN event in my sps. I have tried calcium nitrate esv and homemade, potassium nitrate, and ammonium...

www.reef2reef.com

I have also had this happen, I started aggressively adding Nitrate to try and maintain levels over 5PPM and I got tip STN all over the tank, thriving colonies loosing tissue from the tip down. I stopped adding it and things seemed to get better, then I would occasionally add by hand and things seemed to do fine,.. then I would put it on a doser and everything went right down hill again.

There is a small part of me that makes me think that somehow the tank didn't like Acropower and NO3 dosed together. I have no basis for that belief other than one or the other seemed fine, but together I had problems. Although, to be fair, I never dosed them alone as aggressively as I did together.

I still don't like the idea of 0, and I think the corals do better with some NO3, both in color and growth. Since I had the issues I took Acropower offline entirely, and I test then dose to about 3PPM NO3 once a week, then leave it alone for the entire week. Usually by the time I test again I'm below 1, sometimes I'm back to 0.

Whiskey

 

[BrokeBudgetReef]

I have also had this happen, I started aggressively adding Nitrate to try and maintain levels over 5PPM and I got tip STN all over the tank, thriving colonies loosing tissue from the tip down. I stopped adding it and things seemed to get better, then I would occasionally add by hand and things seemed to do fine,.. then I would put it on a doser and everything went right down hill again.

There is a small part of me that makes me think that somehow the tank didn't like Acropower and NO3 dosed together. I have no basis for that belief other than one or the other seemed fine, but together I had problems. Although, to be fair, I never dosed them alone as aggressively as I did together.

I still don't like the idea of 0, and I think the corals do better with some NO3, both in color and growth. Since I had the issues I took Acropower offline entirely, and I test then dose to about 3PPM NO3 once a week, then leave it alone for the entire week. Usually by the time I test again I'm below 1, sometimes I'm back to 0.

Whiskey

Thank you for your input here I have been feeling like a fish out of water with what I have been killing off with this whole event.

I'm planning on just backing off the whole dosing together everything was working fine and looking great prior to this. I guess if it's not broken don't fix it.

 

[Wiskey]

Thank you for your input here I have been feeling like a fish out of water with what I have been killing off with this whole event.

I'm planning on just backing off the whole dosing together everything was working fine and looking great prior to this. I guess if it's not broken don't fix it.

I completely understand that, and I did the same for a while. You might give a once weekly dose to something like 1-2ppm NO3 a try after you get things back on track though. I've found it to be a happy compromise that everything seems to like. Usually the nitrate will go up, then the corals/tank will use it all up by mid week. I think that the corals can hold onto nutrients for a time if they are available off and on so I don't need to be adding it 45 times a day or whatever the DOS does by default. As a side note, doing it this way I'm also dosing about ten times less.

Whiskey

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Adding more food diversity has always treated me better than dosing nutrients in the past. Never had good luck doing nutrients for coral health. Dosing po4 kick started my carbon dosing in a huge way but I found better success feeding a mix of frozen/dry adding one more feeding time in addition to previous.

 

[Dburr1014]

How many fish do you have?
I would feed more often if possible.
If you do need to dose I would do it daily until you see a rise. 1 ppm nitrate and 0.05 po4. When you start seeing them rise, back off individually.
But, I think feeding more is the best plan.