SPS coral ?

[SaltwaterAdict]

I love the look of a bunch of fish with corals..makes it look more natural like what you'd see if you went snorkeling. I see to many sps tanks with only a few fish and this not my cup of tea lol How do you control your nitrate/phosphate levels with a good amount of fish in a tank? I'm looking to keep sps and was wondering how you keep the nutrient level low.. WC's, carbon/phos reactors, different reactors/media? If you could lmk what works for you that'd be great.

thanks, Tim

 

[RyanTurner]

There is so many different methods.

Some popular ones are...

Over skimming while dosing vodka
Doing a Zeovit method
Biopellets
Waterchanges
it goes on and on

I, personally just skim heavy, feed light, and use GFO. Iv'e been thinking of trying biopellets soon/

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

I was actually thinking of going with something along these lines. I feel if you over complicate your system then you can run into problems. I'm going to start watching my feeding and see how things go.

How does monthly waterchanges sound as well? I'm currently using chaeto as a nutrient export and it grows like crazy. I also run carbon and I'm working on setting up my gfo reactor.

 

[Kataro]

Idk if waterchange helps much, this is just my opinion. I do 15G water change each week on my 180g~ or so total system, mostly to replace some trace / minor elements. But if you do it for nitrate I think you'd have to do much more. Cause if my No3 was at 1ppm.. doing a 10% waterchange only reduce 0.1 ppm.

 

[Dustin1300]

Heavy skimming and water changes.

 

[AquamanE]

Idk if waterchange helps much, this is just my opinion. I do 15G water change each week on my 180g~ or so total system, mostly to replace some trace / minor elements. But if you do it for nitrate I think you'd have to do much more. Cause if my No3 was at 1ppm.. doing a 10% waterchange only reduce 0.1 ppm.

Water changes does make a differnce Kataro- While your assumption is correct, its been proven. Read this article http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

So... for me, weekly 7%-10% waterchanges, heavy skimming, heavy feeding, GHO, and carbon. GFO and carbon changed every four weeks religiously. Nitrates remain <1, phosfates always below 0.06 measured with Hanna photometer. No vodka, carbon dosing etc... Simple....

 

[Kataro]

^ That is some intensive testing in that article!

I feel it was doing a big difference when I do 6G water change on my 29G biocube... but w/ 180G I just dont feel 15G will do much per week as the only source of No3 / Po4 reducton. I do vinegar dosing / bacteria dosing / GFO / carbon and big skimmer combined w/ water change... this I feel makes a big difference when it all add up ^^.

 

[twiggyb]

I change 15g every monday from my 65, I don't have a skimmer, and I have 4 lyertails, 2 clowns, 1 chalk bass, 1 pink spotted goby and 1 clown goby. I did have a mccoskers that the lyertail picked on until it jumped

note, the angel is no longer in my plans since it kept pecking at the sps. I miss seeing the corals happy

 

[Dustin1300]

That's a great looking tank with no skimming. The WC makes up for it though considering that's nearly 25% of your volume weekly.

 

[sweet ride]

I love the look of a bunch of fish with corals..makes it look more natural like what you'd see if you went snorkeling. I see to many sps tanks with only a few fish and this not my cup of tea lol How do you control your nitrate/phosphate levels with a good amount of fish in a tank? I'm looking to keep sps and was wondering how you keep the nutrient level low.. WC's, carbon/phos reactors, different reactors/media? If you could lmk what works for you that'd be great.

thanks, Tim

is this for the system currently posted in your signature? how many fish are we talking about?

I have a full blown SPS tank, and my fish load is as follow 3 tangs, 2 clown fish, 2 wrasse, 1 dottyback, and 6 anthias, I also feed 3 times a day. Am not sure if this is large enough fish load for you.

my parameters are as follows, nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate is all zero, this is achieved by utilizing bio pellets, GFO, Carbon and over skimming the system. I also do a 20 gallon water change every 2 weeks.