New 73 gallon tank setup

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Frogger

Thanks for the input. I had already read that thread. I don't believe the magic answer is the Redfield ratio, however it may be a good place to start. Seeing as I am currently manually adding both nitrate and phosphate or else I will bottom out I have to shoot for some value and not blindly add both solutions. I really just want to create some stability so my corals can recover.

Yeah, me too. I'm not seeing any difference in the corals yet. I dosed NO3 up to 5 ppm, and PO4 I add 0.02 ppm every evening which the Hanna ULR Checker is able to confirm. The following morning PO4 is still 0.02 ppm, but by evening the green cyano has sucked it all out of the tank, and I'm back at 0 ppb. I'm hoping the cyano cycles out, and the corals start using it instead. I'm not sure it's the magic concoction for my tank yet, but it's too early to tell for sure.

[Frogger]

Tank update:
For several days I have managed to maintain acceptable levels of phosphate and nitrates, although once my phosphate started coming up my nitrates started heading down. So I am adding daily doses of both phosphates and nitrates.

Too early to tell full damage to corals. Some of the harder hit corals are starting to extend their polyps so I am hopeful that the worse is behind me. "Fingers crossed, touch wood".

There is definitely a direct relationship between nitrates and phosphates. Each one controls the other when running low levels in a nutrient low reef tank.

From my experience when nitrate is the limiting nutrient (0 nitrate), poor colours and slow growth rate.
When phosphate is the limiting nutrient and has truly bottomed out bad things happen, much worse then low nitrates.

It is funny how some acros were not really impacted and others were devastated. Once I have a full grasp on the impacts I will provide a list of the corals and how they were affected in my tank under my adverse conditions.

Even though I suffered some serious setbacks I consider this experiment a success. Remember in the first post I said this was an experiment and I have kept all the data. I have learned far more than if I was just blindly lucky and had succeeded because I wouldn't have known why I succeeded.

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by Frogger

Tank update:
For several days I have managed to maintain acceptable levels of phosphate and nitrates, although once my phosphate started coming up my nitrates started heading down. So I am adding daily doses of both phosphates and nitrates.

Too early to tell full damage to corals. Some of the harder hit corals are starting to extend their polyps so I am hopeful that the worse is behind me. "Fingers crossed, touch wood".

There is definitely a direct relationship between nitrates and phosphates. Each one controls the other when running low levels in a nutrient low reef tank.

From my experience when nitrate is the limiting nutrient (0 nitrate), poor colours and slow growth rate.
When phosphate is the limiting nutrient and has truly bottomed out bad things happen, much worse then low nitrates.

It is funny how some acros were not really impacted and others were devastated. Once I have a full grasp on the impacts I will provide a list of the corals and how they were affected in my tank under my adverse conditions.

Even though I suffered some serious setbacks I consider this experiment a success. Remember in the first post I said this was an experiment and I have kept all the data. I have learned far more than if I was just blindly lucky and had succeeded because I wouldn't have known why I succeeded.

I believe it's all due to the origin of the coral. I know Aussie SPS are from some of the lowest nutrient water, they need massive flow, intense lighting and ulns to be happy but others are from a more "dirtier" water like Bali might be a whole different ball game. We as reef keepers throw together corals from all over the world with different water parameters and expect every single one to be flourishing but that's just not possible. If 3 out of your 20 corals aren't happy and the rest are doing great, I think it might be time for you to re-house those 3...I am glad to hear everything is on a rebound. I will be expecting picture update soon!

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

I believe it's all due to the origin of the coral. I know Aussie SPS are from some of the lowest nutrient water, they need massive flow, intense lighting and ulns to be happy but others are from a more "dirtier" water like Bali might be a whole different ball game. We as reef keepers throw together corals from all over the world with different water parameters and expect every single one to be flourishing but that's just not possible. If 3 out of your 20 corals aren't happy and the rest are doing great, I think it might be time for you to re-house those 3...I am glad to hear everything is on a rebound. I will be expecting picture update soon!

You make a very good point! I can't grow Red Planet to save my life, yet Aussie corals are the most "bomb-proof" ones I have. It them low nutrients.

[Frogger]

I thought I would provide an update for anyone following my plight.
I has been over 3 weeks since I screwed things up and let my phosphates drop quickly to zero. I am hoping things are stabilizing. I have been adding my nitrate and phosphate solutions daily to keep the phosphates between .01 and .04 and to keep my nitrates around 1ppm.

Growth has been stunted on all sps, the zoas seem to be completely unaffected and are definitely doing better since starting to add nitrates. Some of the SPS are starting to grow again.

The following corals were hit hard (keeping fingers crossed):
Highlighter acro (might not make it)
Shades of fall acro (might not make it)
Pearlberry acro
Red Dragon acro

The following corals were moderately hit (hopeful will survive):
Cali Blue Tort
Toxic yellow acro
Purple bonsai acro. I have spares in my 40 gallon that were not affected.
Needle in the haystack acro
Hawkins enchinata
Red Planet acro (tip dieback although is starting to colour up nicely)

The following corals are not affected other than lack of growth: Some of these are actually looking better.
Birdsnest
Pocillopora
Green slimmer acro
Green hulk acro
Blue matrix acro
blue Formosa acro
Glowstick acro
Pink Lemonaide acro
blue millipora acro
Pink prostrata acro
Tri colour acro

My three montiporas were unaffected by the phosphates but are currently at war with monitopora nudibranches. This is a war I do not think the monti's can win.

Will provided pictures once the final outcome has been determined.

[gregzz4]

Thought I would add my results;
I stopped dosing Nitrogen back in January of this year. My corals slowly recovered with only 4 fish. I added 7 more fish at the end of April. Since then I've been feeding pellets daily for lunch, and either flakes or frozen for dinner. All daily. There's enough food sometimes to make a small snow storm and I'm still getting zero NO3. PO4 is still hovering between zero and 0.03

I'm hesitant right now to start tinkering with dosing Phosphorus and Nitrogen.
I'd like to get my NO3 up some to help my corals.

I'll need to have a slow time in my life to focus on it ...

[Frogger]

I believe my tank has stabilized and the corals that survived have coloured up and are starting to grow.

The following corals did not make it:
Pearlberry
Highlighter
Red Planet
purple bonsai
Blue millipora

Most of the corals that have survived are now much more colourful. then before I started this experiment.

My initial plan to try to get my nitrates to 2ppm is not attainable. In raising up my nitrates I caused my phosphates to crash which almost wiped out all my corals. I started adding phosphates to help balance the nitrates, however I found that the amounts I needed to add of nitrate and phosphate to get desirable numbers was way too labour intensive.

I am now not focusing on my nitrate numbers only my phosphate numbers. I add enough nitrates to maintain phosphates at between .005 to .08ppm phosphorus.

In order to maintain this number I am adding 1.5ml of KNO3 and .5ml of KH2PO4 every day. I am checking my phosphate levels (hanna ULR) every second day and adjusting the amounts accordingly.

I tried feeding heavily for a while to help increase my phosphate and nitrates but ended up stopping that when my vermetid snail populations grew exponentially.