Why is this hobby so difficult.

[doubleshot00]

No wonder why so many people get dinos. I test like crazy.

I trying to keep my parameters stable and all they do is keep going down.

I did a tank transfer on 9/9 and 6 weeks later every just keeps tanking. Im dosing All like crazy to. The only thing in my sump is cheato and a small bag of carbon. Inhad GFO when my pho were .28 then took it out when i hit .11. All i donis normal WC 10-15 gal weekly. May need to stop i guess. But why does it keep goi

Im considering doing away with socks. I guess around 80-90 gal of water.

Anything i can do better?

 

[PatW]

First - reef building stuff: Ca, ALK and Mg. Your Ca and Mg are stable. Your ALK is dropping. You can get some 2 part. Two part for some odd reason has 3 addition components: Ca, ALK, and Mg. I guess it is like the “Big Ten”. I use Bulk Reef Supply 2 part. It dissolves stuff in RODI. It uses Soda Ash for ALK, CaCl for Calcium and I think MgCL and MgSO4 for Mg (I don’t have to add Mg, it stays stable with water changes. I think at present it looks like water changes are keeping Ca and Mg level in your system so you only have to add a bit of ALK. There are various formulations of 2 part available by the way. I think some people use Baking Soda for ALK and that is easy and easy to get. Read up on that before using.

Then you have your nutrients: nitrate and phosphate. You are keeping phosphate down with GFO and that is pretty successful. Keeping nitrates down is a little more tricky. I use a refugium with Chaeotmorpha algae to keep down Nitrates and Phosphates.

At present, your nitrates would be high for an SPS dominant tank and fine for an LPS, soft coral or fish only system.

Your salinity is fine. I guess you have an autotopoff.

You are doing pretty well.

 

[doubleshot00]

First - reef building stuff: Ca, ALK and Mg. Your Ca and Mg are stable. Your ALK is dropping. You can get some 2 part. Two part for some odd reason has 3 addition components: Ca, ALK, and Mg. I guess it is like the “Big Ten”. I use Bulk Reef Supply 2 part. It dissolves stuff in RODI. It uses Soda Ash for ALK, CaCl for Calcium and I think MgCL and MgSO4 for Mg (I don’t have to add Mg, it stays stable with water changes. I think at present it looks like water changes are keeping Ca and Mg level in your system so you only have to add a bit of ALK. There are various formulations of 2 part available by the way. I think some people use Baking Soda for ALK and that is easy and easy to get. Read up on that before using.

Then you have your nutrients: nitrate and phosphate. You are keeping phosphate down with GFO and that is pretty successful. Keeping nitrates down is a little more tricky. I use a refugium with Chaeotmorpha algae to keep down Nitrates and Phosphates.

At present, your nitrates would be high for an SPS dominant tank and fine for an LPS, soft coral or fish only system.

Your salinity is fine. I guess you have an autotopoff.

You are doing pretty well.

I do dose 3 part Red Sea. I just want it stable. I do have some sps but my tank is a mixed reef.

 

[HB AL]

It's only as difficult as you want to make it, it can be very simple which is how I have mine setup.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is perhaps one of the most challenging of hobbies you will encounter but maturity is key in this hobby as the beginning can pose the highest level of change, stress and frustration, but we all make it and get through this phase.
Its easy for many to express patience but we have to be just that the first few weeks. In many cases, we tend to keep the tank too clean and invite issues such as dino, and other ugly appearances.
Hang in there is easily said, but take time to enjoy the tank than to make it a maintenance headache

 

[Nano sapiens]

It's only as difficult as you want to make it, it can be very simple which is how I have mine setup.

We are constantly bombarded with ads and well-meaning comments and suggestions that this, that and the next thing are what one needs to be successful. No wonder that these days it is vey easy for reef keepers to be pulled off the well trodden track and loose sight of the fact that 'The basics', stability and patience are really all that's needed to have a very good chance at achieving a successful reef aquarium.

 

[doubleshot00]

This is perhaps one of the most challenging hobbies you will encounter but maturity is key in this hobby as the beginning can pose the highest level of change, stress and frustration, but we all make it and get through this phase.
Its easy for many to express patience but we have to be just that the fisrt few weeks. In many cases, we tend to keep the tank too clean and invite issues such as dino, and other ugly appearances.
Hang in there is easily said, but take time to enjoy the tank than to make it a maintenance headache

Any suggestions on what i can do better. I dont add any additives other than neo nitro and neo phos (like i did today). I assume the corals are sucking everything up (alk, phos and nitrate). I do have a lot.

 

[doubleshot00]

It's only as difficult as you want to make it, it can be very simple which is how I have mine setup.

I want to KISS but how? I feed like crazy 3-4x a day sometimes. Like why is this happening. I even turned down my fuge light 2 weeks ago and its still tanking.

 

[i cant think]

This hobby is as difficult as you make it. I would personally test all your tests as often as eachother (So you test some what seems to be daily but others aren’t as daily). What coral and inverts do you have in the tank?
Some inverts also absorb many of the trace elements, for example for a clam to grow they will use up and in some cases even bottom out your trace elements.

 

[i cant think]

I want to KISS but how? I feed like crazy 3-4x a day sometimes. Like why is this happening. I even turned down my fuge light 2 weeks ago and its still tanking.

This explains your Nitrates being quite high. Other information will help as well. For example;
- Tank Age
- Tank Size (Gallons & Dimensions)
- Sump Size (Gallons & Dimensions)
- Coral Types (SPS, LPS, Softies, Mushrooms)
- Inverts (Clams, Shrimp)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Any suggestions on what i can do better. I dont add any additives other than neo nitro and neo phos (like i did today). I assume the corals are sucking everything up (alk, phos and nitrate). I do have a lot.

Never assume but rather test.
The regular dosing of these elements may be going against you and if unsure - have water tested at a reliable LFS source or even send in an ICP test which will break down entire water composition for you and tell you what is high/low/recommended.
Its when tose levels of no3 and po4 get high that issues really start such as algae, cyano, lyngbya and coral losing tissue and melting.
You'll hear from many sources, book, videos, the term" Stability"
Tank cannot be stable if different additives are going in frequently or unnecessarily.

 

[shakacuz]

i may be wrong but your ALK might be dropping because NO3 is going up?

@Randy Holmes-Farley please correct me if i’m wrong

 

[vetteguy53081]

i may be wrong but your ALK might be dropping because NO3 is going up?

@Randy Holmes-Farley please correct me if i’m wrong

That im not sure about but consumption, addition of calcium or too much calcium and using salt that already has low alk content will cause alk to be low

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

We are constantly bombarded with ads and well-meaning comments and suggestions that this, that and the next thing are what one needs to be successful. No wonder that these days it is vey easy for reef keepers to be pulled off the well trodden track and loose sight of the fact that 'The basics', stability and patience are really all that's needed to have a very good chance at achieving a successful reef aquarium.

 

[doubleshot00]

Never assume but rather test.
The regular dosing of these elements may be going against you and if unsure - have water tested at a reliable LFS source or even send in an ICP test which will break down entire water composition for you and tell you what is high/low/recommended.
Its when tose levels of no3 and po4 get high that issues really start such as algae, cyano, lyngbya and coral losing tissue and melting.
You'll hear from many sources, book, videos, the term" Stability"
Tank cannot be stable if different additives are going in frequently or unnecessarily.

I just did a icp

 

[eyecandi]

This is perhaps one of the most challenging hobbies you will encounter but maturity is key in this hobby as the beginning can pose the highest level of change, stress and frustration, but we all make it and get through this phase.
Its easy for many to express patience but we have to be just that the fisrt few weeks. In many cases, we tend to keep the tank too clean and invite issues such as dino, and other ugly appearances.
Hang in there is easily said, but take time to enjoy the tank than to make it a maintenance headache

Well said and I totally agreed with this.

 

[Thor2j]

At present, your nitrates would be high for an SPS dominant tank and fine for an LPS, soft coral or fish only system.

Apparently you haven't seen Victor from WWC latest video. States that in order to get really good sps colors, nitrates need to be 15-25. Po4 below .08.

 

[doubleshot00]

This hobby is as difficult as you make it. I would personally test all your tests as often as eachother (So you test some what seems to be daily but others aren’t as daily). What coral and inverts do you have in the tank?
Some inverts also absorb many of the trace elements, for example for a clam to grow they will use up and in some cases even bottom out your trace elements.

I have a a wide variety of corals. Sps acros to zoas. Only invert are a few snails.

I will say tank looks good just want tank to be stable.

 

[doubleshot00]

Apparently you haven't seen Victor from WWC latest video. States that in order to get really good sps colors, nitrates need to be 15-25. Po4 below .08.

Where my nitrates were but they just keep going down. Like where are they going. I even pulled half my cheato out.

 

[HB AL]

Any suggestions on what i can do better. I dont add any additives other than neo nitro and neo phos (like i did today). I assume the corals are sucking everything up (alk, phos and nitrate). I do have a lot.

Simply have LOTS of rock, then add more rock, and LOTS of fish and decades of trial and error. Now I know this isn't a good idea for most but I havnt tested any param other than salinity in 4 months. And don't believe everything you read on the internet about the latest and greatest thing to have. I have a skimmer and uv in my sump and that's as complicated as my system is. I also don't do water changes and manually dose. That's the short version, but gives an idea of what I meant by simple.