Do u know your no3? I know the first couple years I had my tank setup my lps didn’t thrive. They survived & looked ok. They grew but very slowly. Sps was the same way. Zoas would just stay the same or slowly wither away over the coarse of 6 months or so.
When I set that tank up is when all u would read was to keep no3 & po4 as low & close to 0 as possible. Every time I tested no3 or po4 they where 0, so I thought I was doing the right thing. I would use gfo even though I didn’t have a problem with po4, which proved to be a mistake. I religiously did water changes & skimmer heavy. All during that time I fed the corals, my lps would eat just about anything & they love mysis. I think it may have helped but they still weren’t thriving.
I finally figured I would raise my nutrients so I started dosing no3. Over the coarse of a month or so I dosed & sure enough everything looked better. I didn’t want to continue dosing long term so I added a few more fish. Hammers, frogspawn & torches that I had for years looked better then ever.
I ended up getting Dino in that tank so I stopped water changes. After about 2 months of no water changes growth of my coral started to explode. At that point my no3 had risen to 5ppm & all my lps, zoas & sps looked the best they ever had & where growing dramatically faster then before.
I’m not advocating for not doing water changes, that is just what it took me to get my no3 up to 5 ppm. My no3 stayed at 1 ppm for a long time before I got Dino & everything looked great then & growth was also pretty good. Once it got to 5 ppm my lps exploded & my sps seem to be about the same as when it was 1 ppm. I don’t necessarily shoot for specific numbers but I do make sure that I don’t 0 out on my test kits & keep some nutrients in the tank. It took me a long time to figure out that was my problem because all I read was to keep nutrients as low as possible. All tanks are different though. Some may thrive at 1 ppm no3 & some it may be a little higher.
When I set that tank up is when all u would read was to keep no3 & po4 as low & close to 0 as possible. Every time I tested no3 or po4 they where 0, so I thought I was doing the right thing. I would use gfo even though I didn’t have a problem with po4, which proved to be a mistake. I religiously did water changes & skimmer heavy. All during that time I fed the corals, my lps would eat just about anything & they love mysis. I think it may have helped but they still weren’t thriving.
I finally figured I would raise my nutrients so I started dosing no3. Over the coarse of a month or so I dosed & sure enough everything looked better. I didn’t want to continue dosing long term so I added a few more fish. Hammers, frogspawn & torches that I had for years looked better then ever.
I ended up getting Dino in that tank so I stopped water changes. After about 2 months of no water changes growth of my coral started to explode. At that point my no3 had risen to 5ppm & all my lps, zoas & sps looked the best they ever had & where growing dramatically faster then before.
I’m not advocating for not doing water changes, that is just what it took me to get my no3 up to 5 ppm. My no3 stayed at 1 ppm for a long time before I got Dino & everything looked great then & growth was also pretty good. Once it got to 5 ppm my lps exploded & my sps seem to be about the same as when it was 1 ppm. I don’t necessarily shoot for specific numbers but I do make sure that I don’t 0 out on my test kits & keep some nutrients in the tank. It took me a long time to figure out that was my problem because all I read was to keep nutrients as low as possible. All tanks are different though. Some may thrive at 1 ppm no3 & some it may be a little higher.
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