I've got a 120 (60 gallon sump, about 145 total water volume) that has been set up for a little over a year. I wasn't getting the results I wanted with vodka dosing, so in september I stopped dosing, loaded with mb7 for 2 weeks, then resumed vodka dosing (from the beginning of the vodka dosing regimen).
The problems I'm having now are nitrates around 25 and STN. I'm up to 35 drops of MB7 and 9ml of vodka a day (worked up from 3 months ago in september). So, I either need to keep plowing through until the nitrates go down, or I've hit a brick wall with this method. Either way, I need some advice from people in this thread
I have a relatively high bioload with the two poop machine large angels: emp angel (med size, adult color), blueface angel(juv), flame angel, lamark angel, chromis, yellow tang and a tomato clown. I have an oversized skimmer (
MRC MR2R) that gets a lot of good crud out.
The sump has powerheads in blowing the debris around and the fuge section just holds live rock (with a super strong K4 keeping the dust from settling). The tank is barebottom and I siphon what I can every few days.
As of testing tonight, my params are:
ph: (fluctuates 8.0 - 8.3)
alk: 8.2 (has dropped a little low, I usually keep it around 9 +/- .4)
no3: 25 (hard to tell, 15-25, either way, not zero and it has been this way for a while)
ca: 440
mg: 1380
I dose two part from BRS, 5 drops of brightwell lugols per week, and seachem strontium. No amino acids, coral food, etc. Fish get almost strictly NLS pellets with some hikari and PE mysis every now and then.
You can check my tank out
here. I've kept notes on the process, as well as parameter logs for the last couple of months.
Random corals in my tank STN. I really feel like it is due to the nitrates. I've looked close for pests without finding any.
If you need any other information, please ask. Or if anyone wants to post an idea via pm, feel free.
Thanks for reading
