SPS success in high nutrient systems

[Tonycass12]

Everything looks great. How long has your tank been running?

Up and running in this tank for almost a year. I moved into this tank near the end of February 2023. Moved rock and corals in from an established system I had up and running for a couple years and from another tank breakdown. I'm very happy with how far this system has come, and it's maintained high nutrients the whole time.

2/26/23

12/2023

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

This system spends most of its time with nitrates 25-50 and phosphates 0.2-0.6+ (max of the tester). I will give the caveat that this is a very established system with even more so established LR and micro biome. I don’t think those numbers are going to turn out great (for a year or two anyway) in a sterile new tank started with dry rock.

 

[Lavey29]

You guys are making me want to stop worrying about phosphate.

 

[Ishy]

Mixed reef but check out the ICP numbers.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

You guys are making me want to stop worrying about phosphate.

GFO and LaCl, two common ways to control phosphate other than refugiums, have the potential to cause many more problems than just leaving high phosphate alone. SPS hate GFO in my experience, and it drops phosphate quickly in an uncontrolled fashion, and leads to PO4 instability as it slowly becomes exhausted between changes. Stopping the use of GFO is one of the things I credit with beginning to be really successful with SPS. LaCl works well but used improperly can cause multiple types of tank die offs for other reasons. High phosphate on the other hand clearly does not kill corals, with the main concern just being undesirable algae growth. However, algae growth is more about an unstable biome as opposed to high nutrients - if nutrients are there in any amounts, high or low, algae can grow.

 

[Lavey29]

GFO and LaCl, two common ways to control phosphate other than refugiums, have the potential to cause many more problems than just leaving high phosphate alone. SPS hate GFO in my experience, and it drops phosphate quickly in an uncontrolled fashion, and leads to PO4 instability as it slowly becomes exhausted between changes. Stopping the use of GFO is one of the things I credit with beginning to be really successful with SPS. LaCl works well but used improperly can cause multiple types of tank die offs for other reasons. High phosphate on the other hand clearly does not kill corals, with the main concern just being undesirable algae growth. However, algae growth is more about an unstable biome as opposed to high nutrients - if nutrients are there in any amounts, high or low, algae can grow.

Totally agree, I don't use GFO but do use very small doses of phosphate rx. I'm tempted to just let my phosphate go and see where it finally settles. Right now it stays .2 to .3 typically and all corals are fine.

 

[zaga]

This system spends most of its time with nitrates 25-50 and phosphates 0.2-0.6+ (max of the tester). I will give the caveat that this is a very established system with even more so established LR and micro biome. I don’t think those numbers are going to turn out great (for a year or two anyway) in a sterile new tank started with dry rock.

Incredible. I agree with those numbers not feasible for sterile tanks.

 

[zaga]

Mixed reef but check out the ICP numbers.

Between the fish and corals, wow. Your reef is the goal. Seeing where your nitrate is sitting and looking at the quality of your reef is pretty cool.

 

[Ishy]

Between the fish and corals, wow. Your reef is the goal. Seeing where your nitrate is sitting and looking at the quality of your reef is pretty cool.

Thanks for the kind comments.