Trying to do a little learning!

[Justin84]

So Im fairly new to the hobby, only about 3 years. I have very little issues on keeping fish but absolutely horrible at keeping coral. I'm totally in love with SPS and I'm so afraid to take the plunge! I do have a heavy stocked tank full of tangs and clowns so I do feed heavy. I have a total volume of water of about 400 gallons (220g & 60g display, 75g fuge, 100g sump thats approx 1/2 full) I do have high nitrates and phosphates due to the feeding of the pigs. I have been reading on several methods and was wondering if you can balance a total system without crashing a tank? I have a GFO reactor, and cheato thats growing under a H380 light. I have been doing some heavy reading and watching about carbon dosing and was wondering if i could balance all 3 methods? I use RO/DI and have tested my RO/DI water to ensure I am not leeching any NO3 PO4 into my tank. As I said I'm a heavy feeder but i really want to see some pretty coral in my tank! Thanks for any advice you guys could throw my way!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea, as long as you go slow , add slowly there should be no problem.
The fuge should be mostly an even reduction, the carbon dosing is better at nitrate and the gfo is po4.

Assuming your skimmer is up to snuff you ought to be ok.

 

[sghera64]

What problem are you trying to solve? What symptoms exist because of that problem?

 

[Justin84]

No real problem really, I have high phosphates and nitrates approx .1 ppm of phosphates and 20ppm of nitrates (measured today). I'm trying to slowly drive them down without causing undo stress on my fish (which has kinda already happened when I ran my carbon reactor). I really just want to experiment to have a balance of fish and coral. I know my problem is high nutrients due to a heavy bio load with heavy feeding! I have a S-300 skimmer that seems to do very well as long as I clean it bi-weekly! It really does pull out some nasty stuff! I also run filter socks that get changed out twice a week, they seem to pull a lot of detritus from the water!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You did say you were interested in a bit of learning. This may blow your mind.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sps-high-nutrients-myth.283442/#post-3449471

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-home-tank.296635/#post-3626579

 

[sghera64]

Once you have a bunch of corals growing, your biotrope will come more into balance as they will consume some of the ammonia and nitrate. Your algae in your refugium should be growing quite quickly too. Does it?

Many of us Reef keepers actually struggle to feed "too much" to keep our nitrates and phosphates from going too close to non-detect levels.

Does you system have coralline algae growing on the rocks? Do you have the lighting required to support SPS coral?

 

[Justin84]

Wow yeah thats definitely the kind of learning I like to do! Thats the weird thing I don't have coralline algae on my rocks but I believe I have the lighting to support SPS. I have 3 AI hydra 26's and 2 Ecotech Radion Gen2 lights (220g -72"L x 24"W x 30"H) I just picked up a seneye for the PAR reading and just bought some fresh test today to see where the big three are measuring. I made the mistake of buying several hundred bucks worth of frags from a very reputable place and went on a deployment just to come home and see that they were all dead! I am not making that mistake again so I'm doing my homework and picking brains! As everyone knows this isn't a very cheap hobby and I alone am very addicted; running 3 display tanks and about to re-establish the 4th! I am going on my 3rd week of the cheato and it has tripled in size. I leave my light on for 24 hours and I have seen my pH go from a 8.01 (day time) 7.6 (night) to a nice 8.14 (day) and 8.01 (night). I have noticed my ORP kind of stabilize around the high 300s but I haven't the slightest clue how to gauge that! I'm having a bit of a problem with cyano in the refugium and in the display as well which bothers me and again no coralline algae. I was doing 50 gallon bi-weekly water changes using RSCP salt but that gets expensive quick to I'm going to try IO salt. I did pick up a dosing pump to plan for the future as well. Again thanks for the questions and awesome information!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Your using rodi and zero tds?

 

[Justin84]

That is correct. I believe my cyano issue was a flow issue and I'm working to resolve that as well. I have 2 gyre pumps in the 220 (actually all my tanks have gyre pumps) and my change over rate is probably 4-6 times an hour. I have a reeflo hammerhead/barracuda that's tuned way down to about 30%-40%. I cleaned and rearranged the gyre pumps and I'm working on the plumbing issue this week so I can get about 10x turnover!

 

[sghera64]

I made the mistake of buying several hundred bucks worth of frags from a very reputable place and went on a deployment just to come home and see that they were all dead!

For how long were you away from the aquarium?

How many frags did you introduce at the start?

 

[Justin84]

Oh that was a total mistake and ignorance on my part and I had no business buying them! I was away for 4 months and they were in a horrible setup of a frag tank with improper lighting and poor water flow! I've learned since then!

 

[Justin84]

That was about 18 months ago and my setup has completely changed since then! Before I had just the 220g with a 40g sump and now I have over 400g total volume and a ton more knowledge! Just need more!