Sps problems. Help!

Brew12 · Feb 14, 2018

DanielCervantes said:
Skimmer is on 24/7
A lot of Chaeto
Weekly water changes of 15 gallons

Before I worried about adding any chemicals I would start with pruning back that Chaeto. It looks like a nice, healthy nutrient sink.

CoralWealth · Feb 14, 2018

DanielCervantes said:
Skimmer is on 24/7
A lot of Chaeto
Weekly water changes of 15 gallons

yeah that is a ton of cheato for your size tank it looks like. what light are you using and for how long a day?

DanielCervantes · Feb 14, 2018

codydemmel4 said:
yeah that is a ton of cheato for your size tank it looks like. what light are you using and for how long a day?

it runs opposite of my display tank lights

DanielCervantes · Feb 14, 2018

Brew12 said:
Before I worried about adding any chemicals I would start with pruning back that Chaeto. It looks like a nice, healthy nutrient sink.

I’ll chop it up again today I’ll leave 1/4th of it. Or should I leave less?

Brew12 · Feb 14, 2018

DanielCervantes said:
I’ll chop it up again today I’ll leave 1/4th of it. Or should I leave less?

I like small changes. I would pull between 1/4 and 1/3. Its easy to pull more in a week if you need to.

DanielCervantes · Feb 14, 2018

Brew12 said:
I like small changes. I would pull between 1/4 and 1/3. Its easy to pull more in a week if you need to.

I’ll do that today, you wouldn’t dose any additives to get nitrates up?

Reef Jeff · Feb 14, 2018

First let me apologize for not asking more questions about your nutrient export. I don't use a refugium or similar method so it's not something I usually think about. Lesson learned. Fortunately others caught that and gave you good advice. That should help you start maintaining some detectable levels.

Never-the-less, I would still dose NO3 now to get it detectable. There is absolutely no harm in this as long as you are not dumping a bunch into the system. Once you remove the algae your nutrients will start to rise and then you can adjust your algae to control export more precisely and you can stop dosing, or just dose when export is too much.

I get my NaNO3 from ScienceCompany.com.

Kalibur2 · Feb 14, 2018

I also suffered stn from my sps and low polyp extension and color and I also run Chaeto. My nitrates were always close to zero and so where phosphates. Things turned around when I fed heavier and raised nitrates to 3 and phosphate.03. Now I keep things up with amino acids dosing every other day and reef roids twice a week. Reduced lighting period for chaeto from 18 hours to 12. Everything turned around. Still waiting for some to color back up. Careful raising nitrates to fast brown out can happen. Take it slow My experience

Brew12 · Feb 14, 2018

DanielCervantes said:
I’ll do that today, you wouldn’t dose any additives to get nitrates up?

Personally, I wouldn't. I'm am fascinated by the ratio of nutrients in our little reef systems. In theory, if we add natural marine food in, it should export in a good ratio by using Chaeto. When we do carbon dosing we tend to consume nitrates faster than phosphates. If we use GFO, we export phosphates faster than nitrates. The only time this ratio being off causes issues is when we reach a limit AND a bad organism takes advantage of that limit.

Of course, we don't have perfect control over these issues so some times an intervention is required. If your coral were pale and/or you had cyano issues I would make dosing nitrates a priority. These "can" be signs that you are nitrate limited. The fact you are growing chaeto and have relatively high phosphates can also be a sign that you are nitrate limited. That might be justification to dose nitrates and I wouldn't say to not do it. I just prefer a more gradual approach.

I can only tell you what I would do based on the situation you presented. That would be to reduce nutrient export by trimming 1/4 to 1/3 of the chaeto and using a coral food daily. I don't see any harm in dosing stump remover to carefully raise your nitrates. Personally, I like to see mine >3ppm because that can help prevent some strains of cyano from forming mats. Right now mine are close to 1ppm so I pulled some of my chaeto 2 days ago to try and raise it up.

Ultimately, the tank is yours. You need to do what you feel comfortable with. If you feel you have the time for a slow change, take it slow. If you feel your tank needs more proactive action, dose some stump remover. You have the best view and knowledge of your system.

DanielCervantes · Feb 14, 2018

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

DanielCervantes · Feb 14, 2018

Reef Jeff said:
First let me apologize for not asking more questions about your nutrient export. I don't use a refugium or similar method so it's not something I usually think about. Lesson learned. Fortunately others caught that and gave you good advice. That should help you start maintaining some detectable levels.

Never-the-less, I would still dose NO3 now to get it detectable. There is absolutely no harm in this as long as you are not dumping a bunch into the system. Once you remove the algae your nutrients will start to rise and then you can adjust your algae to control export more precisely and you can stop dosing, or just dose when export is too much.

I get my NaNO3 from ScienceCompany.com.

Thank you, I’ll be ordering some to keep on hand.
Just trimmed a lot of the Chaeto and I have acropower, reef roids, and coral frenzy on hand. What would you to raise nitrates?

DanielCervantes · Feb 14, 2018

Brew12 said:
Personally, I wouldn't. I'm am fascinated by the ratio of nutrients in our little reef systems. In theory, if we add natural marine food in, it should export in a good ratio by using Chaeto. When we do carbon dosing we tend to consume nitrates faster than phosphates. If we use GFO, we export phosphates faster than nitrates. The only time this ratio being off causes issues is when we reach a limit AND a bad organism takes advantage of that limit.

Of course, we don't have perfect control over these issues so some times an intervention is required. If your coral were pale and/or you had cyano issues I would make dosing nitrates a priority. These "can" be signs that you are nitrate limited. The fact you are growing chaeto and have relatively high phosphates can also be a sign that you are nitrate limited. That might be justification to dose nitrates and I wouldn't say to not do it. I just prefer a more gradual approach.

I can only tell you what I would do based on the situation you presented. That would be to reduce nutrient export by trimming 1/4 to 1/3 of the chaeto and using a coral food daily. I don't see any harm in dosing stump remover to carefully raise your nitrates. Personally, I like to see mine >3ppm because that can help prevent some strains of cyano from forming mats. Right now mine are close to 1ppm so I pulled some of my chaeto 2 days ago to try and raise it up.

Ultimately, the tank is yours. You need to do what you feel comfortable with. If you feel you have the time for a slow change, take it slow. If you feel your tank needs more proactive action, dose some stump remover. You have the best view and knowledge of your system.

I trimmed about 1/3 of the Chaeto just now.
I have acropower, coral frenzy, reef roids and reef frenzy on hand what would you use to start getting some nitrates.
I’ll be getting some stump remover tomorrow just to have some kind of nitrates for the corals to feed on.

Brew12 · Feb 15, 2018

DanielCervantes said:
I trimmed about 1/3 of the Chaeto just now.
I have acropower, coral frenzy, reef roids and reef frenzy on hand what would you use to start getting some nitrates.
I’ll be getting some stump remover tomorrow just to have some kind of nitrates for the corals to feed on.

I wish my chaeto looked that nice! Mine always grows hair algae in it!

The only one I have ever used is Coral Frenzy, but I'm not sure you can go wrong with any of them. If you aren't currently using any of them I would pick one and use it for 3 or 4 days. Then rotate in a different one for a few days. For some unknown reason, some of these products work better in different tanks than others. One or more of them could cause a cyano bloom. By using a single product for a few days you can isolate which one may cause you a problem and stop using it.

The other option is to go on a rotation using 1 product in the morning, 1 in the evening and rotating them to the 2 remaining products the next day. I feel variety is very beneficial and should be the end goal. I feed PE Calanus, PE Mysis, LRS Fish Frenzy, Red Algae, Green Algae, Coral Frenzy, BRS Reef Chili, and Algae Barn's Phyto. Not every one every day, but on a good rotation.