Reef nutrition

Dark Side of the Lagoon

Cspencer

Cspencer

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Firing up my first reef tank after purchasing a setup from @Turkeysammich. It’s an IM 25 AIO modified with an external overflow to a sump, a 10g auxiliary rimless display and enough complexities for future add-ons to keep me learning for a while. Just setup the 25g and sump for now, the 10g will follow.

Thanks to the club for the free live rock. Did my best to keep it alive during the tank setup, and it seems to have worked. I’ve seen asterina starfish, a few small red anemones I can’t ID yet, and other movement. Some coral remnants on the rock looked DOA at first but are starting to show color again, so they might have some fight left in them.

The tank was partially set up on 9/6 and fully running on 9/7. After a day to watch for die-off, initial tests showed 0 ammonia / 0 nitrite, so I dosed to 0.25 ppm ammonia, which cleared in 24 h. A 1 ppm dose the next day dropped to zero in under 36 h (nitrite stayed at zero). I plan to dose 1 ppm again to confirm it can process fully within 24 hr.

I’m also considering swapping the crushed coral substrate for aragonite sand this weekend to keep options open for a sand-sifter or pistol shrimp/goby pair.

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Awesome! Such a cool setup. Nice job keeping the bacteria alive and turbo boosting your cycling.

What are your plans for the top of the scape?
 
Added some new inhabitants this weekend. I picked up a pair of baby occelaris clowns from Neptune Aquatics and added a few frags from the CFM.

For corals I got 3 zoas (pink diamond, utter chaos, purple monster), 3 acans (don’t know the names of the specific variants), and a green hammer. Somehow on the trip home the green hammer had a piece of the base break off so part of the head is exposed. I positioned it on the freebie mushroom cage as a makeshift hospital stand where I can observe it closely over the next couple weeks in case that spot has problems.

An unexpected expense this hobby is bringing my way is the desire to buy a macro lens to take better pictures of my tank!

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I tested phosphates with a used Hanna checker I picked up (thanks @MichaelB). The reading maxed out the meter at 0.9 ppm or higher. Nitrates came back at 5 ppm. Not sure why phosphates are that high while nitrates look pretty normal. This seems to be fueling a good bit of hair algae as well.

I did a 5-gallon water change and plan to keep that up weekly until things come down. I’ll also bring a sample to Neptune to double-check the numbers. Even with the high phosphate reading, all the corals look happy.

Lastly, I’m planning to convert the 10-gallon aux tank from a Durso to a Herbie overflow. My desire is to run that tank without a wavemaker and rely on the return with something like an IM spin stream for water movement. I can’t get the Durso quiet at higher flow, and it just felt a little sketchy. Hoping a DIY Herbie similar to how the main tank is plumbed will give me what I’m looking for.
 
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Cspencer said:
I tested phosphates with a used Hanna checker I picked up (thanks @MichaelB). The reading maxed out the meter at 0.9 ppm or higher. Nitrates came back at 5 ppm. Not sure why phosphates are that high while nitrates look pretty normal. This seems to be fueling a good bit of hair algae as well.

I did a 5-gallon water change and plan to keep that up weekly until things come down. I’ll also bring a sample to Neptune to double-check the numbers. Even with the high phosphate reading, all the corals look happy.

Lastly, I’m planning to convert the 10-gallon aux tank from a Durso to a Herbie overflow. My desire is to run that tank without a wavemaker and rely on the return with something like an IM spin stream for water movement. I can’t get the Durso quiet at higher flow, and it just felt a little sketchy. Hoping a DIY Herbie similar to how the main tank is plumbed will give me what I’m looking for.
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900 flashing means p04nis greater than the dectable range of the checker. I have a high range version you could borrow if you want a accurate number. Neptunes uses the aqua spin tester it's good to get a idea but not accurate enough that you would want to make any adjustments to your system on.

I've used their test probably once a month in the past just to verify my own testing trends. Yet if you do the hanna test according to instructions they have a smaller margin of error than what Neptunes uses.

I wouldn't say do it now but common options are Rowaphos which is what I use GFO type product that lowers p04. Otherwise you can do much larger water changes if your doing 5 gals constantly maybe go up to 7 or 10 gallons.

Your tank is also newer so your rocks could also be leaching po4. Thing to keep a eye on is alage growth as a general indicator of p04 being excessive. If you don't have alage growth that's good. Make sure filter socks or pads are regularly changed and you don't test p04 after feeding test, cleaning the glass, or immediately after water change where stuff can be stored up into water column skewing your results.

Test maybe 3 days in a row to see if they are increasing or holding steady. A increase could mean your feeding to heavy. After a few more tests share the results and we can try to figure out how to go about getting them lower.
 
After a 5 gallon water change 4 days ago levels went from 0.9 ppm (or greater) to 0.75 ppm, which matches what I’d expect based on the total volume. Since then, PO4 held at 0.75 for 3 days then was down to 0.67 today. I’ll do 10 gallons next water change.

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In other news, I added a Tunze Osmolator 3 Nano ATO. In this system’s sump configuration I had to top off nearly 2x per day to avoid running the return section too low. I could have made that a little better if I ran the skimmer section deeper and had the skimmer on a stand, but I didn’t want to bother with that. The ATO is a nice upgrade. It kicks on multiple times an hour dispensing just a small amount each time.
 
I added a flame tail blenny this week. Upon getting him home and settled I realized he’s actually missing his right eye. Despite the vision limitations, he seems capable of finding food and he’s looking comfortable. He chose a spot tucked in under a rock next to an acan. Haven’t gotten a good picture yet, his all black coloring makes it tricky.

On water parameters, I have phosphates down to 0.5 but nitrates fully bottomed out. My plan to address that for now is feed heavier on frozen brine shrimp to try to get nitrates up while keeping phosphates on the decline.
 
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