lf advice

[Reeferluke]

So long story short I had a complete crash of all my sps. My lps is holding on and my zoas are doing fine.What I did is all of these terrible choices one after another. First I changed my lighting to a canopy and lowering my lights by about 3 inches. Then I added 3 new fish wich caused a nitrate spIke. I then had a alk spike up to 11. I didn't know about the alk spike and thaught it was just the lights and nitrates. So then i started vodka dosing with the unknown high alk and managed to kill all my sps off in about 2 weeks. Now my levels are fairly good alk 8.5 cal 410 mag 1320 nitrate is about 2. So my question is how should I restart my tank. Or should i just start all new. I will have to get new rock because I tossed a lot of it from the dead sps. On the restart tank i was going to get into biopellets with a vertex reactor. Any ideas? Is zeo worth it or prpbidio or just a biopellets be enough I'm thinking I will remove 2 problem fish do a big water change then let it do its thing for a month or so and wait and watch. Any ideas or advice from experienced sps keepers would be great. Cheers

[Baker]

Sorry to hear that. I always say keep it simple and don't mess around too much. The alk spike was probably what did it. Going forward your probably safe to just do a large water change unless you want to rebuild. Zeo is an expensive idea and prodibio is nothing special IMO. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Reeferluke]

I am leaning towards just another big water change. Then bio pellets let that all stabilize. Then start getting frags again. What is the best choice for bio pellets?. I have a 72gal mix reef was sps dominate. I would like to get more sps then anything else. So that's why the bio pellets.

[Myka]

What level of nitrate did it spike to? What level do you want to aim for? How about phosphate? PO4 is more important than NO3 imo. What do you have for a skimmer? I'd be investing in a skimmer upgrade before biopellets. Imo biopellets are a fix tool, not a permanent piece of equipment. Lots of people use them all the time, but I don't think it's necessary or optimal.

[TimT]

I would do a few good water changes and let the tank recover(4 to 6 weeks). After it recovers I would slowly start Vodka/Vinegar dosing to control nitrate and use Foz Down to control Phosphate. If you keep your Phosphates <0.04 and your nitrate <10 you should do fine with acros.

If your interested in an ethical choice for rock you could try the Walt Smith Reef Project rock, I have dry and ocean seeded available.

Cheers,
Tim

[Reeferluke]

Originally Posted by TimT

I would do a few good water changes and let the tank recover(4 to 6 weeks). After it recovers I would slowly start Vodka/Vinegar dosing to control nitrate and use Foz Down to control Phosphate. If you keep your Phosphates <0.04 and your nitrate <10 you should do fine with acros.

If your interested in an ethical choice for rock you could try the Walt Smith Reef Project rock, I have dry and ocean seeded available.

Cheers,
Tim

I have been using foz down for about 2 years now in my ato. It works great it's easy and I don't have to play around with gfo every month. I'm thinking the same thing let the tank do its thing for a month or more. But I don't trust myself with vodka dosing anymore that's why the bio pellets. I am very interested in the Walt Smith rock and will give you a pm about it.

[Reeferluke]

Originally Posted by Myka

What level of nitrate did it spike to? What level do you want to aim for? How about phosphate? PO4 is more important than NO3 imo. What do you have for a skimmer? I'd be investing in a skimmer upgrade before biopellets. Imo biopellets are a fix tool, not a permanent piece of equipment. Lots of people use them all the time, but I don't think it's necessary or optimal.

My nitrate spiked to 25 then i brought them down to 2. I would like to keep them around 5. My po4 was .05 not so bad i prefer around .03. I have a curve 5 skimmer on a 72gal with a soon to be light bio load again. I want to use the bio pellets because I don't trust my dosing regime for vodka.