Filter sock

[sminker]

You say you feed twice a day? What's your livestock? Also those foods do leave a lot of trace matter in the water column. 90% of my food is flake and I feed once a day for two days then go one day without feeding. And I feed black jack reef crack once a week. (It's a locally made frozen mix). And I have 5 medium size tangs, fox face, clowns, wrasse, goby, anthias and chromies. A lot of people will probably bash flake because of PO4. Been feeding this way for years and none of my tanks have had a single trace of nitrates or phosphates. I've got a thread here in the SPS forum that has pictures and video of my tank. Just search my name to find. I'd post a link but I'm on my phone and sucks copying and pasting. The only thing I dose is calcium (ice melt), alk (baking soda), and mag (Epson salts). No other additives and I use just regular Instant Ocean salt. And I don't run any filter socks. Just a refuge with chaeto, live rock and a skimmer. So u don't need to be fancy to get great results. And FYI your drags look fine. Just keep an eye on them and I would watch the feeding. It sounds kinda heavy to me.

 

[JG1]

When I fed only flake food, once a day, my corals looked like death. I would add a frag and within weeks it would lose all polyp extension color.

I have a purple tang, a hippo tang, two wrasses, 5 chromis, small clown, blenny.

It seems like some people can have fantastic colors by adding nothing other than a two part solution, while others have to feed pretty heavily to get nice coloration.

 

[JG1]

I'm going to stop running the GFO and Rox carbon for a few weeks and see what happens.

 

[JG1]

Guys, quick question. I've removed the GFO and Rox carbon. Should I have left the carbon running though or can the carbon be exacerbating my problems with the pale colors?

 

[rkaires]

T-78.0
SG- 1.025-1.026
Alk- 8.5dkh
Ca- 420ppm
Mg- 1400ppm
Ph- 7.9-8.1
PO4- 0.00
NO3- 0

Hey John,

What test kits are you using for PO4 & NO3?

 

[rkaires]

Guys, quick question. I've removed the GFO and Rox carbon. Should I have left the carbon running though or can the carbon be exacerbating my problems with the pale colors?

You may want to try only removing gfo for now and see if your corals start to darken up some. Too many changes at one will make it harder to identify what will or won't work.

 

[CW from the OC]

Guys, quick question. I've removed the GFO and Rox carbon. Should I have left the carbon running though or can the carbon be exacerbating my problems with the pale colors?

I'd leave the Carbon but pull the GFO.

Not a scientific statement, but in my experience, there is not really ever a reason to pull carbon, except when medicating.

 

[JG1]

PO4- Hanna
NO3- Sailfert

 

[JG1]

I have been running the GFO pretty heavily.....like 1c of the HC-GFO for 100g tank.

I took the GFO offline and have the Rox running. I'm still replacing the Rox every 3 weeks. Using about 3/4c in the Rx.

 

[rkaires]

PO4- Hanna
NO3- Sailfert

Your levels are low. See how removing the gfo works for you. I would monitor po4. If the levels rise too fast you could try reducing the amount of gfo and run it passively in a sock.