SPS Before and After Pictures, Need Advice From the Experienced

Sydoriakp said:
i believe the phosphates could be bound up in the hair algae. not sure how others feel about nopox... or carbon dosing but my bacteria are beating algae for now.... just throwing it out there im no expert.... good read tho
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I vinegar dose and wouldn't have it any other way. Heavy feeding with heavy export seems to work for me. Nitrates about 2.5 and po4 at .03-.04 and my tank has really taken off
 
swk said:
I vinegar dose and wouldn't have it any other way. Heavy feeding with heavy export seems to work for me. Nitrates about 2.5 and po4 at .03-.04 and my tank has really taken off
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This is what I don't understand. How are people running their systems with higher nitrates and phosphates than me with no algae?

I hear sps likes a "little" phosphates and nitrates but how do you keep the algae away when you have these nutrients combined with the light for sps? Really I don't understand it.

Everyone says that 0 reading doesn't mean anything if I still have algae......so how are others running above 0 with no algae?
 
Tuffloud1 said:
This is what I don't understand. How are people running their systems with higher nitrates and phosphates than me with no algae?



I hear sps likes a "little" phosphates and nitrates but how do you keep the algae away when you have these nutrients combined with the light for sps? Really I don't understand it.



Everyone says that 0 reading doesn't mean anything if I still have algae......so how are others running above 0 with no algae?
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I never said I don't have any algae. I have a little in the tank but it doesn't bother me. Wild reefs have algae too. Most of my algae growth is of the macro variety in my fuge but there is a little micro algae growth in there as well. I even get a little bubble algae in my display from time to time. Again, no big deal to me. Nothing grows well in a sterile tank ime
 
swk said:
I never said I don't have any algae. I have a little in the tank but it doesn't bother me. Wild reefs have algae too. Most of my algae growth is of the macro variety in my fuge but there is a little micro algae growth in there as well. I even get a little bubble algae in my display from time to time. Again, no big deal to me. Nothing grows well in a sterile tank ime
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How are all these "tank of the months" I see running with 0 nitrates and phosphates with beautiful colors and no algae in site?
 
I think your getting stuck on the balance issue. A lot of successful tanks feed a ton and remove a ton, the food is available for corals for a window of time. They do not have a huge "load" of food just swirling around at all times. The idea is to feed the tank, give everything time to eat, then remove all excess, but in the mean time everything has eaten well. As far as letting your tank find it's balance, A tank is a living system. When we make a change in food input it tales time for the processing bacteria to multiply enough to take up, use, the added nutrients. While they reproduce quickly it's not going to happen in a day or two. Sometimes it can take weeks for the "proccesssors" to find a balance with the "supply" of nutrients, in the meantime we get alge, sometimes ugly, out breaks.Just remove as much as you can manually, beef up your CUC and wait. The reason we see so many different "numbers" on successful tanks is because you can have a balance at 10:1, 20:2, 40:4, it's just numbers. Look into the Redfield Ratio and I think you will understand better.
 
tripdad said:
I think your getting stuck on the balance issue. A lot of successful tanks feed a ton and remove a ton, the food is available for corals for a window of time. They do not have a huge "load" of food just swirling around at all times. The idea is to feed the tank, give everything time to eat, then remove all excess, but in the mean time everything has eaten well. As far as letting your tank find it's balance, A tank is a living system. When we make a change in food input it tales time for the processing bacteria to multiply enough to take up, use, the added nutrients. While they reproduce quickly it's not going to happen in a day or two. Sometimes it can take weeks for the "proccesssors" to find a balance with the "supply" of nutrients, in the meantime we get alge, sometimes ugly, out breaks.Just remove as much as you can manually, beef up your CUC and wait. The reason we see so many different "numbers" on successful tanks is because you can have a balance at 10:1, 20:2, 40:4, it's just numbers. Look into the Redfield Ratio and I think you will understand better.
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Well said!
 
tripdad said:
I think your getting stuck on the balance issue. A lot of successful tanks feed a ton and remove a ton, the food is available for corals for a window of time. They do not have a huge "load" of food just swirling around at all times. The idea is to feed the tank, give everything time to eat, then remove all excess, but in the mean time everything has eaten well. As far as letting your tank find it's balance, A tank is a living system. When we make a change in food input it tales time for the processing bacteria to multiply enough to take up, use, the added nutrients. While they reproduce quickly it's not going to happen in a day or two. Sometimes it can take weeks for the "proccesssors" to find a balance with the "supply" of nutrients, in the meantime we get alge, sometimes ugly, out breaks.Just remove as much as you can manually, beef up your CUC and wait. The reason we see so many different "numbers" on successful tanks is because you can have a balance at 10:1, 20:2, 40:4, it's just numbers. Look into the Redfield Ratio and I think you will understand better.
Click to expand...


Thank you, this makes sense.
 
As far as CUC, currently I have 10 Trochus snails, 2 hermits left (started with 10), and a couple Nassarius snails. The Trochus are making 0 impact on Algae.

What would you guys recommend I add to take care of the "hairy" brown and green rocks?

Emerald Crab, Turbos?
 
Those corals look Nitrate starved to me. Mine looked like that every time my Nitrate value came back undetectable. Maintaining Nitrate at 2-5ppm is a place to start. I don't disagree with feeding to get this value up, but its much easier to dose nitrate directly to get the value in range. There are several threads here about doing this in advanced topics. Good Luck!
 
I use Astrea and Nassarius and blue leg hermits. The Astreas work better for me and sre not huge as I have a small tank.
 
Tuffloud1 said:
This is what I don't understand. How are people running their systems with higher nitrates and phosphates than me with no algae?

I hear sps likes a "little" phosphates and nitrates but how do you keep the algae away when you have these nutrients combined with the light for sps? Really I don't understand it.

Everyone says that 0 reading doesn't mean anything if I still have algae......so how are others running above 0 with no algae?
Click to expand...

I believe a lot of it has to do with the size and health of SPS colonies. One experienced reefer once said to me, "when all of those frags start growing, you won't need half of the filtration you are employing".

In my experience that is one of the reasons why starting a new SPS tank is so difficult. Newer (cycled) systems might be full of tiny frags or newly introduced acclimating colonies, struggling to survive, contending with the balance we are striving to reach, while at the same time, adapting to each tanks specific parameters.

Once acclimated and growing, the coral itself potentially become yet another filtration mechanism in the system, outcompeting some of the ugly stuff, so the extra feeding and higher PO4 / NO3 levels may not be as delicate of an issue to manage.
 
geldof said:
I believe a lot of it has to do with the size and health of SPS colonies. One experienced reefer once said to me, "when all of those frags start growing, you won't need half of the filtration you are employing".

In my experience that is one of the reasons why starting a new SPS tank is so difficult. Newer (cycled) systems might be full of tiny frags or newly introduced acclimating colonies, struggling to survive, contending with the balance we are striving to reach, while at the same time, adapting to each tanks specific parameters.

Once acclimated and growing, the coral itself potentially become yet another filtration mechanism in the system, outcompeting some of the ugly stuff, so the extra feeding and higher PO4 / NO3 levels may not be as delicate of an issue to manage.
Click to expand...

Very we said, this makes sense if you really think about it. Now if we can just get through this phase of our reefs...oh how happy would we all be!:celeb1:
 
"For a 90 gallon, are Mexican Turbo's too large? "

That's up to you, I was saying in my 40 breeder things are tight so I like a smaller snail. Totally up to each person's preference.
 
SPS Before and After Pictures, Need Advice From the Experienced

6 months maybe?

Why?
 
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