High Tide Aquatics

Nitrate and Phosphate

svreef

svreef

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I believe my tank has reached a steady state of 25-40 Nitrate and .1 Phosphate. I keep mostly LPS and 3 pieces of the easier SPS. I also feed 4 times a day and Chaeto is growing relatively well.

Should I start NoPox to get these numbers down? I’d like to get to half as much.

Or should I wait to see if the fuge can do better? Feeding less is not a choice ;)
 
The thing is that I want to be proactive this time around. I know more and have more tools at my disposal. I think it’s not quite chasing numbers, but setting myself up for success before it’s too late and I have to correct course.

I also got here very (too) fast. My tank is barely two months old and is full of fish and coral.
 
What kind of light you using for chaeto? I changed it to a grow light and it stripped the tank of any traces. It was doing tooo good. I switched back to a cheap LED. It’s now much more controllable.


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Let it settle. Your tank is still very young.

I would however recommend reducing to 3 feedings a day to slowly let that nitrate fall to 10-20
 
svreef said:
The thing is that I want to be proactive this time around. I know more and have more tools at my disposal. I think it’s not quite chasing numbers, but setting myself up for success before it’s too late and I have to correct course.

I also got here very (too) fast. My tank is barely two months old and is full of fish and coral.
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Ugh. You are in a tough situation that has a lot of downside because of the age of your tank, and how full it is. If there's one thing that everyone agrees on in this hobby it's that the cornerstone of success is stability. It's nearly impossible to stabilize a two month old tank. Most experienced reefers actually cycle their tanks for that length of time or longer. A two month old tank isn't even free of the threat of another mini-cycle at this point especially when it's stocked. A mini-cycle will stress and potentially wipe out the tank, and now you're thinking about destabilizing it even more by using Nopox?As I said ugh. Heree's a likely scenario at that point. You'll quickly drop nutrients and stress out corals and inverts. That will result in a small die-off (or larger) and a mini-cycle.. That will kill off more ivestock and start a series of issues beginning with Dino's, and then hair algae, etc.

So here's my suggestion. Stop. Stop f*cking with it. Stop putting livestock in. Stop over-feeding. Start more frequent water changes. Seriously start more of those.Start building your biological filter. At two months you don't have nearly a large enough beneficial bacteria population to sustain a tank. That usually takes 6-12 months. Chaeto's great. An algae scrubber is better. A UV sterilizer will help your tank a lot. Don't dose anything beyond doing water changes for now. If your corals have an issue they will "tell" you.
 
svreef said:
Using a Kessil H80. Chaeto is growing, but not too fast. My guess is that my Nitrate is 20-40 because of that.
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Your nitrate is 20-40 because you feed four times a a day in a tank that's not old enough to have a large enough beneficial bacteria population to break it all down. Water changes. I also personally don't believe the Kessil H80 is worth a damn for growing Chaeto, but that's a different issue altogether, and my evidence is only anecdotal.
 
I concur with bruce. The way you are ovwratocking and overfeeding will cause a crash. It will be sudden and fast if you continue like this.
If you attempted to artificially reduce no3 and po4 quick using nopox you will deal with never ending cyano.
Carbon dosing is a bio filtration method is recommended to be used from day one, using it as temp remedies will only bring bad long term issues.
It's always a bad advice to use carbon dosing (nopox,vodka..etc) temporarily or to quickly drop nutrients. Especially when given to a new reefer...It will always be followed by cyano unless done very carefully...

Feed less...fish do not need 4 times a day feeding, especially depending on how much you feed.
Stop adding live stock
Keep up with husbandry, weekly water change and good mechanical filtration
Run activated carbon if you do not already
You can use some gfo to reduce po4 but do it slowly(high no3 and low po4 is common with cyano outbrraks)
Be patient and let your system mature. 2 months is nothing...
Do your research, choose a bio filtration method(carbon dosing,activated carbon and gfo, fug, bacterial additive based..etc) and stick to it and give it time. Usually it's never good idea to mix and match systems.
Example: if you read about the carbon dosing like nopox, usually you will see that you cannot pair it with fug and cheetos cause carbon dosing creat low nutrient environment that cheetos struggle to thrive in.. this is just an example.

Also based on the method you choose the cycle will differ. For natural cycling (Without artificial bacterial additives ) as an example, i would consider tablets 3 months before I add the slightest coral. And at least 6 months before any sps..
While with bacterial additive programs you can shorten this maybe to 2 months....etc.
 
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I’d recommend checking levels with test kits and not guess.
I would agree with going with one of the nutrient control methods, carbon dosing or cheato.
From my expereience, once cheato settles in, it grows much faster.
Like everyone else said, just give it time and if you do make changes, do it slowly.

Is there a reason you’re feeding as much as you are?
 
Kessil H80 is a 15W LED, it's going to grow Chaeto like a 15W LED there's only so much tuning the proper spectrum will do regardless of brand.

The problem with Kessil fixtures is if you get one that's great for growing (e.g. H380) you might go too far and actually burn it, the H380 doesn't have intensity control (and unfortunately the 360x grow light is $450!!!!) this is the case where the single die LED really isn't that useful.
 
I have several large fish, including a bird wrasse that is very active. Mind you, the 3 automatic pellet feedings are consumed in a matter of seconds. A more substantial meal is given once a day.

I do measure with test kits, but I know there’s a margin of error, so I quote a range.

I know I went too fast stocking the tank, but I do feel I’m being careful and thoughtful about changes - and I’m watching things like a hawk since I’m home all the time.

I agree with you all and appreciate the honest advice, which I accept.
 
I would keep feeding like you’re feeding, but I do feed like you do...
don’t worry about anything that isn’t obviously wrong. Are the fish healthy? Corals look ok?
maybe do a few more water changes if you want lower nitrates. If what you’re doing is working for now keep going. I don’t think you are headed for massive algae issues with the way you’re going. Definitely don’t over react, and I wouldn’t bother with the nopox.
Getting a stronger light on the chaeto wouldn’t hurt.
 
I agree with Mike (@Coral reefer). The higher levels don’t necessarily spell imminent doom, but if you are going to bring them down, the others have given good advice on how to do it.

Which foods do you feed? There are definitely some that are better than others in regards to how “clean” they are.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Kessil H80 is a 15W LED, it's going to grow Chaeto like a 15W LED there's only so much tuning the proper spectrum will do regardless of brand.

The problem with Kessil fixtures is if you get one that's great for growing (e.g. H380) you might go too far and actually burn it, the H380 doesn't have intensity control (and unfortunately the 360x grow light is $450!!!!) this is the case where the single die LED really isn't that useful.
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There's the H160. I just use that turned to max intensity
 
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