Matt, I love your pink lemonade. I have been trying to get one for some time, but without success so far.
Thanks, Bulent. It is the lone spot or true orangey yellow in my tank. I love it. Is it a coral that has made it over the pond?
Matt, you have a tank full of really nice looking corals. I remember the start of this thread, from where you were to where you are now....... well done!
Hey Scott! Long time.
thanks for checking in. It's crazy to go back and look at the first few pages of this thread.. My tank has matured but it's actually funny how slow it has grown considering it's been over two years.
Thanks!
still a work in progress, that's for sure.
Why did you target the NP pro as the thing that needed to be reduced?
This is an excellent question and deserves some explanation.
And for some reason, I'm feeling long winded!
So here goes!
First, I want to make it clear that I don't feel as though the np pro, itself, is the problem. It's just a carbon source like sugar or vinegar or vodka or pellets or any other type of bacteria fueling food.
It was the amount, I think that caused the problem, not the product itself.
I really feel that there is an extreme difference between a naturally occurring low nutrient system and a system that uses a carbon source to reduce nutrients.
I think that a carbon fed system has a much more dynamic nutrient structure and a much more fluid or unstable balance to it than a system that just naturally lower nutrient and statically remains that way.
I think that when using a carbon source, the active bacteria are in greater numbers in the water column and therefore are more able to compete with and outcompete the corals for available n and p. I also think that a carbon fed system is not necessarily more unstable but more prone to nutrient swings- whether you catch it on a test or not, I think there is simply a greater potential and, in actuality, a greater fluctuation in nutrient levels. Be they big fluctuations or small. When there is active bacteria in high concentrations, they are more reactive than bacteria living in low oxygen zones in live rock or other denitrification media.
Corals are very adaptable creatures within a certain range of environmental parameters and they can adapt to a variety of conditions when those conditions are relatively stable. Whether n is high and p is low or vice versa or both high or both low, the corals can adapt to that. But then nutrients change too quickly, they get stressed. And obviously some corals more than others..
I also believe that corals will more readily adapt to nutrient fluctuations when nutrients change naturally in a system, like when denitrifying media is added and n drops because of it. Or when fish are removed and nutrients drop from a reduced bio load.
For whatever reason (I don't know) I believe that using carbon sources to reduce nutrients is a bit (or can be a bit) more stressful on the corals.
My system is now about 4 years old but was a wasteland after I numbers chased it to oblivion using all sorts of bad judgement, impatience and too much of too many carbon sources. Two years ago, when I re started it, (and started this thread) I was still playing with carbon sources to a much lesser extent and in a more controlled and informed manner.. Then, sometime last spring (I think) I beefed up my nutrient export by adding a fuge and a dsb and 12 liters of matrix.
Nutrients dropped nicely to around 5 ppm but po4 has almost always been a challenge for me. Staying above .1 almost all the time.
I have played with boosting my carbon source and also adding nitrate in an effort to reduce my p and early on, it worked well but my last few attempts have not reduced p and have produced random rtn and stn.
I'm sure this is because I have a much larger fish population and a more mature system with more nutrients going in.
This is just how my system has matured and my corals have adapted over the last couple of years to my parameters.
About 2-3 months ago I started trying out koral color and AF Micro e.
Within a week or two, my nitrates began to rise. I really don't know why. I had intentionally waited a couple months of stable parameters before beginning Koralcolor and Micro e. I responded to the nutrient rise by beginning to add np pro. Over about a month I raised my additions to keep n at around 3-5 ppm. At about 18 drops per day of np pro, nitrates were stable in this range but p was up to about .14. I had already been seeing some spots of stn but because most corals were still doing great. Actually better than great: About 3 weeks into the koralcolor and micro e, I experienced the best growth spurt I have had in this tank. The growth spurt continued (and continues) while the addition of np pro went up but some corals began to look a bit thin.
When I first saw the thinning and paling of tissue, I decided to begin adding AF's coral V or vitality with the rational that if n was not available to the corals, I'd begin trying a new nutritional source which may help the corals without helping the algae- I really have no idea if Vitality helps but now that I'm using it, I'm going to continue for at least a couple months if I really want to see if it has any impact.
When I went away, (3weeks ago) I got my tank sitter to add 25 drops per day of np pro. On my return, I had a significant amount of rtn and stn. I immediately reduced to 20 drops/day of the np pro and much of the stn stopped. The rtn on the dragons is not stopping, however. I know I'll have to frag them to really stop it.
So, at 20 drops a day, it looks as though most of the stn has stopped and things are as stable as they were before I left.
I believe I have seen a direct positive response in my corals from reducing the carbon source slightly.
Sometime last year, I attempted something similar with vinegar and I saw an adverse reaction in my tank then as well, so I stopped and within a week or two and things went back to normal.
So, the short answer is I have only my eyes to tell me that it is the excess carbon source that stresses my corals and no real hard proof but I'm going with my eyes on this one...
As I said earlier, I am going to pay less attention to n (although try to keep it in the 5ppm) range and start to get more serious about po4 reduction because my weekly use of phos bond is not doing much.
I do plan to add more matrix for n reduction but no more carbon sources..
Phew.. That was even longer than I thought it would be.. I hope I didn't put anybody to sleep..
