My tank is relatively new, and the nutrients were too low. So I started dosing nitrite and phosphate.
I got busy and did not test it for a while. Today, when I tested it, my nitrite was 50 and my phosphate was 0.5.
I don’t want to lower it too quickly since my LPS seemed happy, but I’m worried about my SPS coral. I have a smooth skin STN, and pc rainbow is colored down.
Should I just dose some vinegar to let the bacteria remove the phosphate and let the protein skimmer do the work? Or I should be trying more to bring the phosphate level under 0.1?
The smooth skin acro is the honeycomb, and the rest of the acros are from POTO. The PC rainbow looked so nice when it first arrived, and now I made it pretty mad…
My light is pretty cheap, it is a Nicrew gen 2, the disco effect is light separation that is shown in the picture.
Can I get a couple of full tank shots, and the sump? What kind of nutrient export method are you using? What do you use to measure salinity and when was the last time that was calibrated?
Low nutrients and highlights is one of the causes for the symptoms you’re showing, but not the only one. Also nutrient group must match traces. Nitrate builds proteins while phosphate can impact skeletal growth. The balance takes time to match. Before dosing anything please provide the information above.
Your phosphates aren’t really that high…. I wouldn’t do anything other than let the tank sort itself out. Less feedings and no dosing. Test again in a few days.
When dosing to keep n&p up testing has been done very frequently so you can adjust properly.
This is in that small tank you have correct? Honestly the best way to lower it would be a water change - not dosing something else.
Besides corals do you have fish? Best method to up N&P would be feeding….
Do you have any macro algae?
Also if you’re having to dose N&P you may want to consider turning off the skimmer. Maybe only running it for a few hours a day if you’re also using it to help keep the water clear.
I really worry about my SPS. I do see that some of them are losing color, and one of them started stn. Maybe it is more about me raising the parameter too quickly than the actual number.
I don’t have algae and this is my new tank. I moved and carried the coral with me, but not the tank.
I plan to slap more gsp on the back when the tank is more mature and let it act like an algae.
It doesn’t seem like your tank has struck a balance to sustain acros. If you want to speed things up, swap the dry rock for live rock from another established tank. Some dry rock can leach unwanted traces such as silicate. I’m not sure what to say about your nitrate at 50ppm. That’s probably from food decaying somewhere. You’re also skimming dry. So combined with the dry rock this can be part of the reason why you’re seeing a dirty back wall. Hard to tell from the picture what exactly that is, could be hair algae, could be dinos, or a combination of things. I assume your RO/DI is working well.
Also, monitor your pH. If you can’t keep pH elevated, fine ways to fix it. My guess is it’s not that high.
No matter what you do, I’d give it time. Your tank is still in its infancy at 4 months when you employ dry rock. But the biggest gain is going to be the live rock.
Yeah~ I agree… I thought the 30% live sand from ocean would let the tank mature much faster and It probably did, but I was to impatient about it.
I was having low nutrients because the tank was new so I ran the skimmer dry. And when the nutrients got higher I forget I should turn it back up. Thank you for the suggestion.
PC rainbow and the Millie is growing and encrusted the plug but the PC lost color. The smooth skin acro is stn right now. The green slimmer seems like it’s browned out a bit. The JF Circus Freak did not seem to be growing much.
As for the PH, it is maintained at 8 one hour after lights out. I will assume it is relatively ok? I really don’t know what option I can have for my nano tank to increase PH.
