Cant crack the nut on coral nutrition, getting frustrated.

bfortune76

New member
I have been in the hobby for over 4 years now. I feel like I have managed to recover from disasters to outbreaks and have learned a lot in the process. I can successfully keep a stable growing reef. But my corals dont or loose their "pop" I will start off with my levels.

Temp 78
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 420
Alkalinity 8.4
Magnesium (haven't took a reading in awhile but it stays around 1300-1400)
No3 unreadable
Po4 unreadable

Temp, ATO, Alk and Calc are all maintained with a controller. I dose several times through the day so at any given time of the day levels are pretty close to the same.

Tank is a 75g with 40g sump probably 150-200 pounds of rock. I have two Gyre XF150's one on each side alternating each hour. Filtration is a filter sock, Reef octopus 150INT skimmer, Turbo aquatics Algae scrubber 11 hours at night, a carbon reactor that runs 24/7 with carbon replacement once a month. Lights are a pair of ORT247 LED's 20/85 white to blue. PAR generalized is 400 at the surface and 130 at the bottom

I feed My one spot foxface, yellow tang, two clowns, and angel fish twice a day, one cube of frozen either home made or store bought and the other feeding is pellets. Every 4 days I turn off the skimmer for 6 hours and broadcast feed zooplankton.

I feel like I am doing everything right but coral colors are just not there. I will put in a new frag and it will look great under the LED's and just kind of fade over time. They still grow, put out feeders, and seem healthy but just dont pop. Everything I have read points to my nutrients being to low. As you can see from my readings both No3 and Po4 do not even register. So I tried dosing 5ppm nitrate and corals freaked out and turned brown so I stopped and they got color back. I recently did a cleaning blowing some detritus around in my tank which caused a huge nitrate spike reading around 20ppm for a week and almost all SPS browned out again. Most have recovered one colony is still recovering. So what am I doing wrong? How can I increase nutrients without 1 browning out coral and 2 causing an outbreak? Without my skimmer and scrubber I get either Green hair Algae or brown hair algae. How can I find the balance?

Here is an example of a coral recently added that started out vibrant that has faded but is still growing.
CsH8bKG.jpg

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I'd personally add more fish and increase nutrients by feeding them. Granted my tank is a lot larger then yours, but 1 cube a day seems like the diet plan for a foxface / yellow tang/ 2 clowns and a angel. If your no3 and po4 are undetected then try going to 2 cubes or 3 cubes a day spread out.

I'd look into adding some anthias and wrasses.


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Can't really tell from a photo but looks pretty dark in that reef. Try increasing light levels?

I have plenty of light. That is a low light spot its probably around 50-75 par since the Jack-o-lantern is a low light coral. I have other spots that hit in the 300-400 range.
 
I'd personally add more fish and increase nutrients by feeding them. Granted my tank is a lot larger then yours, but 1 cube a day seems like the diet plan for a foxface / yellow tang/ 2 clowns and a angel. If your no3 and po4 are undetected then try going to 2 cubes or 3 cubes a day spread out.

I'd look into adding some anthias and wrasses.


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I was thinking to add more fish. They are definitely always hungry but also fat. But I could add more feeding. I clean my scrubber screen every 2 weeks right now and usually pull off about a hand full of algae.
 
The new thinking is that NO3 & PO4 should NOT be undetectable.
Corals need these elements, to what degree is unknown but -0- should be avoided.
 
The new thinking is that NO3 & PO4 should NOT be undetectable.
Corals need these elements, to what degree is unknown but -0- should be avoided.

From what I have researched thats what I have found also. And thats exactly what I cant figure out. I cant figure out how to maintain just the right amount. I am 100% positive that I do not have 0. I can tell that by the handfuls of algae I pull off my scrubber and the brown hair algae I scrape off my tank walls. But how do you measure it if the readings are skewed by a refugium or a scrubber?
 
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