Feed those sticks!

alten78

New member
For quite some time, I thought I was dealing with excess nutrients just based on how often I needed to clean the glass and a little bit of diatoms in low flow areas. I had no real nuisance algae yet thought that all levels of NO3 and PO4 needed to be zero. What I really was doing was starving my coral. What I thought was brown was actually pale tan, it wasn't until late that I realized they were turning white.



Garf Bonsai in the middle top, what was a Lime in the Sky on the left, unknown brown acro on the right, and not exactly sure what is the near bone white acro that had previous encrusted and broken off because I thought was dead, and a red planet on the bottom right.

After reading quite a bit as always (10 years of thinking that po4 and no3 were bad) I started feeding more meatier items and dosing aminos. Fast forward some months and things are looking a bit better :)



Red planet was moved up, unknown blue acro surprisingly colored up and blew up in growth.



Garf Bonsai...well, that is what it was sold to me as.

Feed those sticks!!!!!
 
how long did that take? I'm in the same situation and started feeding a more around a bit over a week ago but not sure how long to wait before trying something different.

what are you using for lighting?
 
That's quite a recovery alten:thumbsup:

What's your no3-po4 levels now?

Im not exactly sure, its been a few months since I tested last, things got super busy around the house so things kinda went on cruise control. Last I checked NO3 was 25ppm (salifert) and .02 (hanna)

how long did that take? I'm in the same situation and started feeding a more around a bit over a week ago but not sure how long to wait before trying something different.

what are you using for lighting?

It didn't take too long to see some improvement, but i didn't make too much of drastic move right away but the first pic is from 9/19/2015 . Cut back on water changes, took gfo and carbon offline, and slowly increased feeding/aminos/reef chili. 2x250 MH (1 phoenix de, 1 radium - both on magnetic ballasts) 2x54 T5s (1 coral + 1 blue +)

Increased feedings with increased export?

Increased feedings and less export, took gfo and carbon offline but i may bring the carbon back on.

Very nice. Full tank shot?

Most corals are still pretty small so a FTS looks pretty bare, I will snap one tomorrow.

Wow, quite a turnaround. Great job!

Thanks! Still a work in progress. Between coaching my oldests baseball team, almost 1 year old, and the 1000 things the wife wants done around the house, i've kept my hands out of the tank for a few months. Just been testing alk weekly.
 
I'm finding that my acros and lps like nitrates between 10-20 and phosphates below .05ppm in my system. Glad you figured things out before losing a bunch of coral.
 
Great recovery. Probably asked already but what do u feed most often?

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Amazing how many people still think anything over a few nitrates kills sps....I think I am going to actually target atleast 5-10ppm

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Great recovery. Probably asked already but what do u feed most often?

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Coral frenzy, rods food, formula one flakes, pellets, mysis




Yes, it's been pointed out that the orange digi on the right looks like a middle finger lol. I had previously removed a rock that i didn't like but never cut off the acrylic rod
 
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