hillscp
Soylent Green is People!!
I want to move toward a more SPS dominated tank and I am trying to devise a strategy to lower my nitrate and PO load.
My nitrates have traditionally been around 5 (salifert) and my phosphate between .03 and .05 (Hanna). Both started climbing and my nitrate got to 25 and po at around .18.
I started vinegar dosing my 125 (TV ~160) and now the nitrates are somewhere on the low side of 10 - 20 and PO around .08.
I do 15 gallon water changes weekly.
My vinegar dosing is at 90ml dumped in in the evening before the lights go out. The pH drops .15 when I do that
I do not have an algae problem but I have noticed that my green capricornis is not flourishing since I started the vinegar dosing. In fact it has large areas of RTN where it was flourishing before. My Orange cap has the same decline but not as much. Both of these were growing quickly before the nitrate/po rise. I'm not positive the vinegar is the problem though because the decline started when the nutrients started rising. My alk and Ca consumption has dropped by half (two part)
So here are my questions.
I'm really exploring options for maintaining a low nutrient (not ULN) tank. One where my nitrates are around 5 ppm and Po around .03. That seemed to be the sweet spot for good capicornis growth. I'm thinking they reflect other SPS I want to grow in general. How do successful SPS keepers achieve that?
My nitrates have traditionally been around 5 (salifert) and my phosphate between .03 and .05 (Hanna). Both started climbing and my nitrate got to 25 and po at around .18.
I started vinegar dosing my 125 (TV ~160) and now the nitrates are somewhere on the low side of 10 - 20 and PO around .08.
I do 15 gallon water changes weekly.
My vinegar dosing is at 90ml dumped in in the evening before the lights go out. The pH drops .15 when I do that

I do not have an algae problem but I have noticed that my green capricornis is not flourishing since I started the vinegar dosing. In fact it has large areas of RTN where it was flourishing before. My Orange cap has the same decline but not as much. Both of these were growing quickly before the nitrate/po rise. I'm not positive the vinegar is the problem though because the decline started when the nutrients started rising. My alk and Ca consumption has dropped by half (two part)
So here are my questions.
- Has anyone on this forum seen rtn from dosing vinegar?
- I hear people saying that their nitrate and po is zero. How is that possible? I can see dropping po with GFO but nitrate?
- What is the average vinegar dose for a tank of my size?
- Does anyone over here have a remote DSB? I'm thinking if you have the space it may be a better option than carbon dosing (maybe not though)
- is that drop in pH detrimental to the SPS in the tank?
I'm really exploring options for maintaining a low nutrient (not ULN) tank. One where my nitrates are around 5 ppm and Po around .03. That seemed to be the sweet spot for good capicornis growth. I'm thinking they reflect other SPS I want to grow in general. How do successful SPS keepers achieve that?