rovster
New member
Hi all. Was looking for some suggestions for my situation. I'll try and give a brief overview on my situation. I'm currently in the process of a tank upgrade. I was running a 14 gallon nano for 2 years. New tank is complete, but needs to be moved in the house. I currently have all my stock in a 30 gallon holding tank, that was formerly my "fish QT" tank.
My corals in my nano always grew well, and had decent color. Algae was very minimal, mainly on plugs and racks, never on the rock. Nitrates were always close to 0 (colorless or near colorless on Salifert), and Phos always ranged from 0.02-0.05 (hanna ULR).
The other thing is I discovered AEFW and have been dipping all acros and millis in bayer once a week. They have had MUCH better polyp extension, and I've noticed that much of the "eaten" areas are coming back.
One thing I noticed about my holding tank is that nitrates have been running very high. I lost the color card, but they are definitely high by how colorful the solution gets. I attributed it to the sponge in the HOB filter, and maybe some residual trates from when I had a tang in there (was rehomed a couple of months ago).
Anyway, this week I noticed that some of my corals are looking a bit tan, and a bit brown. They still have color, but not as vibrant as usual. I immediately went to my test kits. I had assumed maybe phos creeped up on me.
I was very surprised that phos was actually 0. I have NEVER had a 0 on that test. I had started a small amount of GFO in a media bag last month because phos in that tank was 0.09 as opposed to the 0.03 that my nano ran. I guess it worked too well.
I promise there is a question here, LOL. What do guys think I should do about this imbalance? Nitrates high, phos 0. I increased my water changes, adding an extra one a week. Have always done once a week.
Everything is the same equipment-wise and routine wise between the 2 tanks. Here are the differences:
Holding tank is bare-bottom (nano had sand)
Running an ATO (nano was manual topoff)
Running a small skimmer now (no skimmer in nano)
Running same media (Purigen, CPE) but added a small amount of GFO int he new tank.
Holding tank is about 4-5 inches deeper, so all corals are a bit further from the light. I increased the intensity of my white LEDs to compensate (slowly of course)
Here is a pic of the set-up. You can see I have my biocube hood on the tank, so looks kind of ghetto. All acros and milles on the large frag rack for ease of removal for bayer dips.
Forgot to add, I added some BRS pukani rock I have been curing for a year in my garage in preparation for my build. They have been cleaned to death, and are pretty much sterile, haha! Actually, the only algae that grows in the holding tank are on the frag plugs. I have not seen any algae on any of the pukani rock. Phos in my holding bin was tested near or at 0.
Any suggestions welcome. If you need any more info, just let me know.
Param: 35ppt, Mag 1400, Cal 430, Alk 8ish, Nitrate (high), phos 0 (today)
Doing a lage water change later. Thanks for reading!
My corals in my nano always grew well, and had decent color. Algae was very minimal, mainly on plugs and racks, never on the rock. Nitrates were always close to 0 (colorless or near colorless on Salifert), and Phos always ranged from 0.02-0.05 (hanna ULR).
The other thing is I discovered AEFW and have been dipping all acros and millis in bayer once a week. They have had MUCH better polyp extension, and I've noticed that much of the "eaten" areas are coming back.
One thing I noticed about my holding tank is that nitrates have been running very high. I lost the color card, but they are definitely high by how colorful the solution gets. I attributed it to the sponge in the HOB filter, and maybe some residual trates from when I had a tang in there (was rehomed a couple of months ago).
Anyway, this week I noticed that some of my corals are looking a bit tan, and a bit brown. They still have color, but not as vibrant as usual. I immediately went to my test kits. I had assumed maybe phos creeped up on me.
I was very surprised that phos was actually 0. I have NEVER had a 0 on that test. I had started a small amount of GFO in a media bag last month because phos in that tank was 0.09 as opposed to the 0.03 that my nano ran. I guess it worked too well.
I promise there is a question here, LOL. What do guys think I should do about this imbalance? Nitrates high, phos 0. I increased my water changes, adding an extra one a week. Have always done once a week.
Everything is the same equipment-wise and routine wise between the 2 tanks. Here are the differences:
Holding tank is bare-bottom (nano had sand)
Running an ATO (nano was manual topoff)
Running a small skimmer now (no skimmer in nano)
Running same media (Purigen, CPE) but added a small amount of GFO int he new tank.
Holding tank is about 4-5 inches deeper, so all corals are a bit further from the light. I increased the intensity of my white LEDs to compensate (slowly of course)
Here is a pic of the set-up. You can see I have my biocube hood on the tank, so looks kind of ghetto. All acros and milles on the large frag rack for ease of removal for bayer dips.
Forgot to add, I added some BRS pukani rock I have been curing for a year in my garage in preparation for my build. They have been cleaned to death, and are pretty much sterile, haha! Actually, the only algae that grows in the holding tank are on the frag plugs. I have not seen any algae on any of the pukani rock. Phos in my holding bin was tested near or at 0.
Any suggestions welcome. If you need any more info, just let me know.
Param: 35ppt, Mag 1400, Cal 430, Alk 8ish, Nitrate (high), phos 0 (today)
Doing a lage water change later. Thanks for reading!
