Battling Nitrates & Phosphates

[amado]

When did you get the order ?
The snails take a few days to adjust.
They might not be dead.
I always order from reefkeeper and I trust their clean up crew. I would also call them they will replace anything that’s dead or give you a credit for the next order.

When I get snails I put them in the front of the tank so I can see them. I take inventory and watch them move in a few days.

They look dead but once they get use to your water they will move.

 

[Sponge]

When did you get the order ?
The snails take a few days to adjust.
They might not be dead.
I always order from reefkeeper and I trust their clean up crew. I would also call them they will replace anything that’s dead or give you a credit for the next order.

When I get snails I put them in the front of the tank so I can see them. I take inventory and watch them move in a few days.

They look dead but once they get use to your water they will move.

Great info Amado. Thanks for posting.

 

[Hallowhead]

When did you get the order ?
The snails take a few days to adjust.
They might not be dead.
I always order from reefkeeper and I trust their clean up crew. I would also call them they will replace anything that’s dead or give you a credit for the next order.

When I get snails I put them in the front of the tank so I can see them. I take inventory and watch them move in a few days.

They look dead but once they get use to your water they will move.

Unfortunately they were as dead as dead things get. They were in the tank for 2 days with zero movement. I removed them from the tank and I almost passed out with how bad they smelled... My ammonia sky rocketed.

He refunded me for the order and told me not to order again I love his prices but the death was awful need to wait until spring or summer.

Nitrates are at 2.5 and phosphates are .04 I'm stoked. You can visually tell the tank is cleaner. My blenny continues to chip away at the remaining algae and now I am hoping to see serious growth from my corals. I'll be setting up the brs doser this weekend pending my gf allowing me to.

Do you guys find nitrates drop or raise when dosing two part ?

 

[amado]

Unfortunately they were as dead as dead things get. They were in the tank for 2 days with zero movement. I removed them from the tank and I almost passed out with how bad they smelled... My ammonia sky rocketed.

He refunded me for the order and told me not to order again I love his prices but the death was awful need to wait until spring or summer.

Nitrates are at 2.5 and phosphates are .04 I'm stoked. You can visually tell the tank is cleaner. My blenny continues to chip away at the remaining algae and now I am hoping to see serious growth from my corals. I'll be setting up the brs doser this weekend pending my gf allowing me to.

Do you guys find nitrates drop or raise when dosing two part ?

Ok if they smelled bad then yes they are dead. I don’t think you should start dosing.
You need to get your tank in order.
Let it settle. You shouldn’t dose until you test your alk /calcium. Dosing has nothing to do with nitrates.

 

[motortrendz]

Great job on getting it squared away. Now its just time to let it settle and be stable for a while. Dont go crazy dosing anything. You'll only disrupt the system again. A this point regular small water changes will be all you need to maintain your numbers. Jusy dont let no3 and po4 get much lower.

I finally got my system stable again. But I lost 12 acros and looks like honestly in the next few days 3 more looks not so hot, I know its bo longer my water chemistry, but the fact that my numbers basically bottomed out bc of the addition of a new sump and frag tank which doubled my twv, it decimated my tanks stability which was rock solid for the last 18 months without more than a 3% deviation on anything. Some of my stronger acros are starting to regain some color, and I even see growth on some. But some are showing the stn signs of tissues loss at the base. Which turns I to total loss in about 3 days. I've fragged them to no avail, it's like once the coral is affected as of the mess, treatments out there nothing seems to stop or slow it down. I turely feel like it's a microbiome infection that gets into the zooanthele of the acro and forces the coral to expel it's zooanthele. And it definitly doesnt hop from coral to coral. Almost neve rlost 2 next to each other. Even ones that have touching bases. Seemed to really affect my deep waters the hardest, granulosa, red dragon, mr pack man, needle in a haystack, and of course then
Some of my high end frags (probably bc they were still small, like my pikachu, wolverine, maleficent, pink lemonade, and 2 rr corals, the vihn and pink caddy. Definitly a few others but those were kinda. No names. Those were all in my display tank that had been running for 3 years now.

In my new frag tank(plumbed into the same system) I'm dealing with the new ta
No uglies. Alot has gotten better since I turned on my uv and blasted the crap into the water column. But I still.have alot of brown wiry algae growing off my frag racks and plugs, it's actually attempting to choke out alot of my zoas. So maybe someone has an idea for me on this one.... cant use vibrant, my acros are already under too much stress... I have a decent cuc in the tank but they dont seem to touch it.

Sorry for the long winded hijack, but maybe we can get a 2 for on this thread lol

 

[Hallowhead]

Howdy for an Update...

I've managed to get my nitrates & phosphates in check. I have not done a water change in about 3 weeks now.

Nitrates : 2.5ppm
Phosphate: .04ppm
Calcium: 440
Alk: 8.0
Mg: 1365 (Just got a salifert checker so never actually tracked it... nor will I chase it - it will come with time & water changes.

I believe I lost my six line wrasse.... I saw it swimming on Friday while I was at work and my mom took care of feeding this weekend and she said she didn't see it come out once When I got home from my weekend I searched high & low for it. Nothing in the sump or on the floor. I can't really check the back of the sump area that well... but I can't imagine it jumped with the screen I have. I am shocked that my CUC would have eaten it that quick.. any thoughts on this? I guess I should test ammonia quickly now that I am typing this...

My corals are really starting to grow nicely... My smaller plugs keep getting overturned by astrea cleaning them preventing them from taking off.. any ideas on how to stop this? I can't glue them down.

 

[Hallowhead]

Howdy for an Update...

My tank is looking amazing!

Nitrate: 2.5
Phosphate jumped to .1ppm (Time to do a water change)
Calcium: NT
Alk: 8.1

My corals are all looking healthy and dividing - algae is clearing up dramatically.. This phosphate at .1 is a little concerning but a nice 5 gallon water change should help that out.

 

[motortrendz]

I pretty much always run my po4 between .08 and .12 as my target. So .1 shouldn't be too concerning. 1.0 would be concerning lol. But glad things are getting better.

 

[Hallowhead]

I pretty much always run my po4 between .08 and .12 as my target. So .1 shouldn't be too concerning. 1.0 would be concerning lol. But glad things are getting better.

This makes me feel better. You've been very helpful - thank you !

 

[Hallowhead]

@amado I finally got a hold of a PAR meter and found that my corals in my display tank were sitting right about 100. So I pumped the last up In intensity from 80 to 100 and now they're getting ~ 150 to 200. You were right in saying they're probably not strong enough.. a third light will eventually be useful.

I did the same for my frag tank - however I have racks made that sit right under the surface of the water and they're sitting in ~ 200 PAR I'll be making a new rack that goes down the center as well to pick up some more PAR and growing. I took loads of readings so I have a rough idea moving forward.

As for phosphate and nitrate.. they're both very under control in both of my tanks right now. Dosing nitrates got everything into check VERY quick. I still have small traces of dino in my display but one or two more water changes and I'll have them all removed