nutrient export need upgrade or tweak on 40g setup

[Surykor]

Hi all

I have endless struggle with nitrates and nutrients since the very begining of my tank(5years)
through years I tried various filtration setups and nothing seems to work efficient despite low bioload.
Can you please provide help with upgrading my filtration, nutrient export methodology and husbandry to have a more sucesfull reef tank?
If you see any issue please let me know, I am open to discussion about any change as I used all my knowledge without significant effect

I will do my best to describe my current setup:
-net volume ~41g 40g custom breeder (~39x16x14) + sump (21x14x8)

display tank:

DYI LED total 50w of blue and white running at 50% 10hour a day.
2x jebao pumps - max 1000GPH per each
shallow sand bed, i would say medium quantity of LR
Mostly various LPS, some montipora caps and digis, zoas
corals are IMO not thriving with vibrant coloration or super extended polyps, but have had very few loses through years (mostly on newly introduced pieces)
shorter gha is present in some areas on LR

bioload is IMO very low =1x cleaner shrimp, 2x clownfish, 1x gramma loreto, 1x cardinal fish. Feeding 1/8 cube of frozen mysis

filtration setup:

1st chamber - water in+ 150ml reactor running biopelets ~70ml. + skimmer Bubble magus NAC 3.5 + leftovers of LR rubble
2nd chamber - ~4 inch of fine sand + macroalgae + 3watt LED bulb
3rd chamber -ATO + return pump ~300gph (7,5xturnover) + GFO bag

no supplements except carbon dosing - 1,5ml of vodka per day + biopelets
As biopelets are kinda heavy for small reactor I would prefer to use it for something else in future, posibly GFO.

params (salifert):
S.g. 1,025
KH 8,6
Ca 390
Mg 1320
No3 5
Po4 0 (Hanna ULR) possible false reading due to some algae is present.
PH is low due to CO2 in living room- have skimmer air intake to balcony- hope it will help a little.

I try to keep my nutrinets and micro elements in check by 10% weekly water change (RODI water 0 TDS) and carbon dosing. obviously it is not enough,
IF i try to up carbon dosing, I will get bacterial colonies on water surface in lover flow areas like behind overflow box, in corners etc.
IF I stop carbon dosing, more algae will be present and No3 will rise to 20+ over next month and can cause tissue loss on corals.

Weekly mainteance :
vacuming sand bed behind rocks where some little detritus build up
10% WC
skimmer cup cleaning.

 

[ctripi]

Test your raw ro/di
Also Seems like a lot of biological filtration for little bioload.
Increase lighting for the macroalgae....chaeto hopefully

 

[Uncle99]

I know you say you struggle with nitrates but you post 5ppm, quite acceptable and your tank looks great to me.
I run the same for years at 5ppm and .04 ish phosphate.

maybe I me understand what your looking for.

 

[Surykor]

Test your raw ro/di
Also Seems like a lot of biological filtration for little bioload.
Increase lighting for the macroalgae....chaeto hopefully

I know you say you struggle with nitrates but you post 5ppm, quite acceptable and your tank looks great to me.
I run the same for years at 5ppm and .04 ish phosphate.

maybe I me understand what your looking for.

Thank You for your thoughts.
RODI has been double checked to 0TDS, i regulary change prefilters every 3 months and RO membrane once per year.

Yes that is what concerns me. Without biopelets I would need 3-4 ml of vodka per day with just 4 nano fish and 1 shrimp in 40gal setup and thats pretty much IMO
+The bacteria produced by dosing is everywhere and it's PITA to remove all pumps and powerheads to clean it every few days as bacterial mulm cuts their efficiency significantly.
But without carbon dose, nitrate levels rise so quickly and then in few weeks BOOM GHA everywhere...

in refugium it is caulerpa and some red macro (turfy)lit 24/7. Chaeto is next to imposible to buy in europe.. I already lowered the bulb closer to water surface for more light.

Let me add some pics so you better understand why I want better nutrient export....
Full tank shot is crapy but if you zoom in you can see a lot of GHA and bubble algae all over the place.

Hammer coral in 5 years grew from 3 heads to 20+ but looks like torch as it is not fully inflated and puffy, it has stringy short tentacles and tips are balls instead of hammers...
Same for other LPS, like elegance coral which used to have long 3" puffy tentacles but now it's just a flat disc with 1" "hair" instead
zoanthids through years never grow for example.

I relate this to not enough "good food" in water, but Nitrates and Phosphates are high as I get a lot of algae even with carbon dosing.


Uncle99 your tank looks clean and corals happy

 

[CAPT_Dave]

Your nutrients look fine to me if they are stable. However, you are right to think PO4 has an artificially low reading since it's bound up in the algae and gets released and recycled as the algae dies. That's why manual removal is critical. That way you're pulling out PO4 with every finger full of GHA.

You are lighting the algea in your display tank with a decent set of LED lights that are strong enough to grow coral but lighting your macro with a cheap florescent light. You should not be surprised that the macro cannot out compete the GHA in your display. Recommend replacing the florescent bulb with an LED bulb specifically designed to grow plants - it will be heavy in the red spectrum. You can get them on line for less than $30 but that red spectrum makes a big difference. If you are growing colerpa, the conventional wisdom is to only light it half the time or it can "go sexual" and spread all over your tank.

You did not mention a cleanup crew. Their purpose is to keep nutrients low by cleaning up detritus. They will also eat algae but not enough to reverse an existing problem unless you get a lot of them. If you buy enough of them to reverse an existing problem, many will starve when the excess is gone and release their nutrients back into the water, then you'll need more to fight another outbreak. Sounds like a good business model, doesn't it? Recommend some Trocus snails, which can right themselves if they fall, some nassarius, whuch are good sand cleaners, and some cerith snails, which are small and can get into the crevasses.

Finally, you might look up a You Tube video from "Eat, Sleep, Reef" who presented a comprehensive methodology for getting rid of GHA that was really pretty good.

Good luck! You can beat this.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[ctripi]

Test the ro/di for nitrate and phosphate

 

[sde1500]

5 ppm isn't high, stop stressing over it.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I just want to add that your calcium is low. Try and bump it up to 450. Alk as well, 9-11 dkh.

 

[Surykor]

5 ppm isn't high, stop stressing over it.

high carbon dosing to achieve 5ppm is the issue and hiding some filtration disfunction by my judge.

I just want to add that your calcium is low. Try and bump it up to 450. Alk as well, 9-11 dkh.

working on Ca, however raising alk while carbon dosing is not recomended overall

Test the ro/di for nitrate and phosphate

both zero, also TDS meter shows zero
What came to my mind is that silicates can be present in RODI water and won't show up on these tests and possibly fueling algae as well?

 

[Uncle99]

high carbon dosing to achieve 5ppm is the issue and hiding some filtration disfunction by my judge.

working on Ca, however raising alk while carbon dosing is not recomended

both zero, also TDS meter shows zero
What came to my mind is that silicates can be present in RODI water and won't show up on these tests and possibly fueling algae as well?

3-4ml in a 40g seems normal to me if you have no sump, so I see your concern. I dose 15 ml per day NoPox in a 65g, but no sump.

Why not? I have been carbon dosing 15 ml of NoPox and 15ml of ALK for 2 years now. I maintain at all times 10 DKH, 450 CA, 1360 MG, 3-5ppm Nitrate, .07-.1 phosphate, 8.2 PH, Temp 78.3-78.7

Quite possible, you need to use a binder to mop these up if there

 

[sde1500]

Yea I don't see 4ml being too much. Many tanks run more. If you're causing bacterial blooms doing it then yes it's too much. It is a dosing that needs to be slowly ramped up. Otherwise it can cause those blooms. I'd also increase skimming a bit. It will skim out the waste and bacteria. What's the maintenance like on that deeper sand bed? If it's just left to collect waste particles it can be problematic.

Tanks also take a long time to find a balance. Years even. I'd suggest watching the most recent BRSTv episode on feeding. It's not 100% related to your problem but they go into a discussion on heavy in, heavy out systems and other factors that go into nutrients in a reef system. It's very informative even if just touching on a subject that can get very intense.

 

[reefteaser]

Just my 2 cents, but I fought GHA, cyano, etc for some time while using bio pellets. I finally took them off line and the problems abated somewhat, but remained. About 8 months ago I tried using an algae scrubber and have been very pleased with the results. I find it much easier to maintain, and algae has (slowly) receded. Granted, it hasn't been my only changed, but I feel that the scrbber (really its a "œgrower") deserves the credit. I can now feed heavier, including regular automatic dosing of coral food, and my colors and growth have improved. Very little algae in the tank now, just enough to keep my CUC happy. Raised my ph from 7.8-8 to 8.2-8.3.
Thinking about repurposing my pellet reactor to a Kalk reactor for my office tank. The fun and adventure just never stops with this hobby!