Tank Journal Archive

[chimaera]

26-2-15

Alk 7.0
Ph 8.0-8.3
No3 0.5-1
Phos 0.07
Calc 480
Mg 1260

Nitrate still too low so will increase dosage of potassium nitrate.

I believe it is still the low nitrate levels that are causing my morphs/rics etc to look very sick indeed, most on the verge if detaching by the look. Chalices also still not looking great, hammers could be better.

Sps, zoas, cynarina, clam, fish all doing well and looking healthy.

 

[Buddy]

Looking good so far! Did you dose any calc?

 

[chimaera]

Yeah I have been manually and very lightly stocked so far, so seem to have overdone it a bit. My package today was the jebao dp4 so I'll be getting that setup this weekend.

Alk a touch low you think?

Still think nitrates are my biggest challenge, would love to get them up without increasing phos at the same time.

 

[Buddy]

I think the alk is fine but can't hurt to put it up a bit too if you like. Maybe bump the mag up slightly too.
Should be nice and easy now with the new pump :)

 

[Azedenkae]

I don't think you should dose nitrate just for the sake of dosing nitrate. What is your feeding regime like? It's possible that the corals are not getting enough nutrient, besides nitrates.

 

[ezza]

I think the alk is fine but can't hurt to put it up a bit too if you like. Maybe bump the mag up slightly too.
Should be nice and easy now with the new pump :)

One thing that sticks in my head is 'mag should be triple the calc'. i would definitely bump it up to the 1440. Excuse my maths at 1.05am. It sounds right but my brain is full of cicadas and I feel like I can't be right.

Why not just "over feed" a bit? I read somewhere that there's a bit of a magic triangle with Phos and nitrate too. They need to exist in a certain ratio for everything to be perfect. I'll try to find the link thingy.

Anyhoo, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You are way more the expert than I.

Xxx

*edit: I think it was in Randy's page...
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/

Buggered if I can find the right bit now. One point he makes though is that phosphate is removed through skimming. If you have an extra fab skimmer, why don't you just try turning it off for half a day and see if that makes a dif. It will give the natural orthophosphates or whatever a chance to convert themselves into nitrogen before they're skimmed out and your corals starve. Try it, it may work!

 

[macca_75]

Hey @chimaera

I think you should increase your Alk slightly (maybe to around 8.5) and drop your Calc to somewhere around 450.

See http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry (I'm sure you've already seen this before but may a reminder).

 

[Agent M]

I'm so confused by your phos readings, following along to see how it turns out

 

[RobbieMVFC]

Hey @chimaera

I think you should increase your Alk slightly (maybe to around 8.5) and drop your Calc to somewhere around 450.

See http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry (I'm sure you've already seen this before but may a reminder).

I was going to say the same but i think he is running Bio pellets or Zeovit

 

[chimaera]

One thing that sticks in my head is 'mag should be triple the calc'. i would definitely bump it up to the 1440. Excuse my maths at 1.05am. It sounds right but my brain is full of cicadas and I feel like I can't be right.

Why not just "over feed" a bit? I read somewhere that there's a bit of a magic triangle with Phos and nitrate too. They need to exist in a certain ratio for everything to be perfect. I'll try to find the link thingy.

Anyhoo, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You are way more the expert than I.

Xxx

*edit: I think it was in Randy's page...
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/

Buggered if I can find the right bit now. One point he makes though is that phosphate is removed through skimming. If you have an extra fab skimmer, why don't you just try turning it off for half a day and see if that makes a dif. It will give the natural orthophosphates or whatever a chance to convert themselves into nitrogen before they're skimmed out and your corals starve. Try it, it may work!

Thanks. Yes I might try something like that, had the same advice from an LFS here but I was afraid of phosphate going up too much.

Hey @chimaera

I think you should increase your Alk slightly (maybe to around 8.5) and drop your Calc to somewhere around 450.

See http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry (I'm sure you've already seen this before but may a reminder).

Thanks, yeah I was aware calcium is a bit high. Clearly my manual bottle squirt when I remembered wasn't quite the right amount!

I'm so confused by your phos readings, following along to see how it turns out

Confused because it is lower than nitrate?

I was going to say the same but i think he is running Bio pellets or Zeovit

Yeah biopellets. I should probably stop using them and let the tank settle, but I also kinda want to see if I can manage to balance things out with them running as I am enjoying the whole zero algae thing in there at the moment :)

 

[Agent M]

Confused because it is lower than nitrate?

No I'm confused that you have any at all, especially with a low bioload. I know how you keep your tanks and in comparison mine is a sewer, but even with heavy feeding and substandard filtration, and in the past months between water changes, the highest reading I've ever gotten was 0.03ppm. At the moment with fornightly water changes and NO filtration on the holding tank, I'm getting 0ppm results - big load of Codium in there though.

Nitrates on the other hand - now nitrates I understand. But yours are really low and I wouldn't be concerned about them or be trying to raise them. Chemistry is my weak point, but I think its your phos causing the morphs to be unhappy - or perhaps the high flow is another explanation. Are you still growing macro? Got a decent amount? Could your rocks be leaching? RO unit need the canisters changed? What food are you using - any flake or pellets? Puzzling :confused:

 

[chimaera]

No I'm confused that you have any at all, especially with a low bioload. I know how you keep your tanks and in comparison mine is a sewer, but even with heavy feeding and substandard filtration, and in the past months between water changes, the highest reading I've ever gotten was 0.03ppm. At the moment with fornightly water changes and NO filtration on the holding tank, I'm getting 0ppm results - big load of Codium in there though.

Nitrates on the other hand - now nitrates I understand. But yours are really low and I wouldn't be concerned about them or be trying to raise them. Chemistry is my weak point, but I think its your phos causing the morphs to be unhappy - or perhaps the high flow is another explanation. Are you still growing macro? Got a decent amount? Could your rocks be leaching? RO unit need the canisters changed? What food are you using - any flake or pellets? Puzzling :confused:

Let's see
- yep a large amount of codium and chaeto growing well in the fuge
- usually get my RO from Reeflections so I assume their filters are okay, though I ran out this week and have had to use some tap water for now :eek (phos level stable pre tap though)
- flow isn't too insane in there, I dialled it back from earlier videos!
- rocks leaking ... Potentially. I have added a couple of new rocks, bought 'dry' though I soaked and sun baked and cycled them in the old tank etc to try to prep them.

My theory is more related to the redfield ratio. Can't reduce phos further until nitrate increases and the ratios are in line. So need to get nitrates up to say 5ppm rather than <1ppm to then bring both levels down again. Probably is due to the biopellets, I used less than the recommended amount but probably still overdoing it on the nitrate removal.

As well as some morphs just looking shrivelled or almost ready to detach, my large green fluffy has gone from a darkish green to very pale and almost flouro. Looks kinda cool actually haha but I am sure it's not as healthy as it was I'm the 'dirty' tank.

Last night I turned my skimmer off. Might try the same tonight and then test again tomorrow.

 

[ezza]

Stick your skimmer on a timer so it goes off for a specific time frame like 6hrs or so. I'm sure I've read somewhere that some of the German reefers who "pioneered" vodka dosing and ultra low nutrients do that. Maybe I'm making it all up!

I was reading through the Redfield Ratio info the other day and wondered if you were using that. The most detailed webpage was from a planted tank forum.. Freshwater. I reckon it might not be the most accurate info for you given it's salt water and blah blah. Again, I may be wrong... But it seemed a little specific.

Ok... I have done more reading and come to the conclusion that there must be a less complicated way to deal with this :p

Redfield discovered the remarkable congruence between the chemistry of the deep ocean and the chemistry of living things such as phytoplankton in the surface ocean. Both have N: P ratios of about 16:1 in terms of atoms. When nutrients are not limiting, the molarelemental ratio C:N : P in most phytoplankton is 106:16:1. Redfield thought it wasn't purely coincidental that the vast oceans would have a chemistry perfectly suited to the requirements of living organisms.

In the ocean a large portion of the biomass is found to be nitrogen-rich plankton. Many of these plankton are consumed by other plankton biomass which have similar chemical compositions. This results in a similar nitrogen to phosphorus ratio, on average, for all the plankton throughout the world’s ocean, empirically found to be averaging approximately 16:1. When these organisms sink into the ocean interior, their energy-rich bodies are consumed by bacteria that, in aerobic conditions, oxidize the organic matter to form dissolved inorganic nutrients, mainly carbon dioxide, nitrate, and phosphate.

 

[chimaera]

Need to do some new tests this weekend but the hammers are lookin much happier so I am guessing nitrates are up to an acceptable level. The newly introduced sps looking a bit faded/brown so the next battle will likely be phosphates.

Morphs/rhodactis/Ric still looking pretty sick though.

 

[RobbieMVFC]

I am using GFO for p04 , works a treat ;)

 

[chimaera]

1.028
Phos 0.11
Cal 420
Alk 8.3
Nitrate .1-.25
Mg 1470


Euphyllia looking much happier, acans and morphs still sulking, sps acting like there is phosphate around 0.1 :rolleyes

So time to start the phosphate battle.

 

[chimaera]

1.029
9.3
410
No3 0.25

Discovered I've ran out of Hana reagent so no phosphate test but I am guessing that is the issue. Going to try No3Po4-x for a while see if it brings the phosphates down.

Cup coral not looking good, starting to brown.
Other sps mixed results - birdsnest good, one browned acro starting to show green tips.
Hammers looking great, I guess liking the slightly elevated nitrates.

Some cyano appearing on the sand, just one small patch the diameter of a tennis ball or so. Also some in the sump area. I'll watch it and if it increases I'll try some life snow.