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Battling Nitrates & Phosphates

iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
add all those things and wait it out for 2 weeks and see where your at. water changes is such a waste if you have nothing going on in there.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
I'll hold off on the water change unless I truly need one - I am manually dosing liquid soda ash for any alk drops.

Should I scrub algae ? If so do my best to remove it or don't agitate tank?

I'm thinking:
2 Mexican turbos
3 additional astreas
2 dwarf blue legged crabs
1 emerald crab
2 Florida ceriths
 
iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
see what those cuc additions do to the algae. I would just clean the glass during this time. if the algae gets out of control do some manual cleaning but see how the cuc handles it first l.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
Today's update - my protein skimmer is pulling some dark gunk ! Which I'm happy about however, it's probably just yanking more nitrates out lol.

My screen is great and there is no way a fish is getting out of the tank now.. but I fear it could be blocking light as you see some reflect on the mesh. They say the mesh doesn't reduce much par but maybe I should have gone with 1/4 over 1/8.

Algae seems okay today.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
Daily update - sorry if these are annoying I find them helpful for myself

Tank looks good. Some of the red slime algae is draping over zoas and restricting them from fully extending. I removed frags and scrubbed them slightly to help them. I fed heavy Reef roids tonight to see if I can get some nitrates up.

Didnt make it to absolutely fish tonight to pick up my blenny so I will try again Sunday on my way home from the shore. Ordering my CUC tomorrow night to arrive next Wed / Thurs.

Some of the zoanthis look REALLY good polyps are extending and growing - this has been since I've cranked light intensity so thanks for that amado
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
Howdy all,

Nitrates are becoming more registered (a clear 2) as opposed to maybe 2? My phosphates on the other hand are rocketing at .11 so I am hoping something can control those before outbreak occurs. I added my algae blenny today. I originally wanted a tailspot blenny but settled on a nice little algae blenny. My CUC boost comes on Thursday, but other than that the tanks looks okay.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
I sat at work today watching my algae blenny eat algae off the egg crate.... yes I have a camera setup on this tank.

Since I had all the stops out tonight for my water change on the main tank I ran some floss on the bottom of the tank to remove some detritus.

I have not tested the nitrates today, as I am going to be trying to test every two days instead of every day to let it "take it's course".

CUC comes Friday.
 
motortrendz

motortrendz

Even if your showing a false zero that mean you may only have 0.25pmm still too low. And phosphates at zero will give you nothing but headaches. You need to raise your nutrient levels to a detectable range 4-10ppm nitrates and about 0.10 po4. When your stable at those numbers you will see the cyano start to disappear. And your corals will definilty be better off and will look healthier. For the turf and hair algae i would ditch the vibrant. Expecially on a new system. I wont even run it on my system which is well established bc every time I do all my sps fade out. Get yourself some fluconazole and dose that, it's a one time treatment, you turn off your carbon, and let it run. I personally leave my skimmer running when I do a treatment even though some directions tell you to turn it off. For hair algae itll take about 10 days before you see it starting to turn white and fade away, turf is stronger, this is what I fought (twice) it takes about 15-16 days to start to dissapear. But it will. I didnt do any water changes during this time and you most likely wont need to either bc of your low nutrients. (This will actually help you get them to a good working level) if you have to do a water change then you must add back the amount of fluconazole for the water volume your changing.

You have a new system, a small system that will take time to get though all the uglies. It takes time for the bacteria to populate, even on the bio bricks and spheres.

Take your time, dont make a million changes. And dont add more coral bc you could just be setting yourself up for failure. Add pods(amphipods and copepods) and you can dose some nice green water. To help establish the system. (After your fluc treatment)

Hope this info helps.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
Today is a good day!

Tank looks great - watched my algae blenny gnaw away at algae again today on the cam. Scrubbed some polyps a little that were being suffocated and raised them to my frag rack. I'll be making another to remove all frags from lower portion of the tank tomorrow or after I work out tonight.

Nitrates measured a clean 2ppm
Phosphates are down to. 08 from. 011 so I'm happy about that
Alk is being dosed manually daily until my DOS comes and I can install the brs doser on frag system.

Here's a picture of my floss.. Vibrant green algae.. I feel happy about this.. Should I?
 

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Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
Howdy,

Tank is working through this ugly phase very well. My algae blenny is definitely keeping algae under control. My nitrates climbed to 2.5 and seem to be steady there - I continue to feed a tad heavy. Corals seem to be doing great. I've been manually dosing two part and now that my DOS is setup I'll be dosing ALK from brs doser. Still in the hunt for a PAR meter - wish someone closer had one. Might have to make the trip to a semi local reefer.

My order from reef cleaners was all dead... Note to NJRC don't buy from him in the winter. He claims 2 day shipping and it's 3 days and only has heating for 2 days.

I'll be ordering from LA shortly as my brother is ordering to fish so piggybacking - if anyone wants to grab snails and lives North Jersey let me know today.
 
Sponge

Sponge

Hallowhead said:
Howdy,

Tank is working through this ugly phase very well. My algae blenny is definitely keeping algae under control. My nitrates climbed to 2.5 and seem to be steady there - I continue to feed a tad heavy. Corals seem to be doing great. I've been manually dosing two part and now that my DOS is setup I'll be dosing ALK from brs doser. Still in the hunt for a PAR meter - wish someone closer had one. Might have to make the trip to a semi local reefer.

My order from reef cleaners was all dead... Note to NJRC don't buy from him in the winter. He claims 2 day shipping and it's 3 days and only has heating for 2 days.

I'll be ordering from LA shortly as my brother is ordering to fish so piggybacking - if anyone wants to grab snails and lives North Jersey let me know today.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear all is going in right direction. That’s awesome. Quick question. What kind and how many reef cleaners are you getting. I pinch every penny. And hear about bad experiences with receiving dead cleaners from online like it’s just normal All the time. And yet find things like snails and emerald crabs to be available at every reef store and they just don’t cost much at all. Now if you are ordering a whole bunch and saving some real money. I totally get it. I’m just wondering how the savings compares to the hassle.
 
iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Hallowhead said:
Howdy,

Tank is working through this ugly phase very well. My algae blenny is definitely keeping algae under control. My nitrates climbed to 2.5 and seem to be steady there - I continue to feed a tad heavy. Corals seem to be doing great. I've been manually dosing two part and now that my DOS is setup I'll be dosing ALK from brs doser. Still in the hunt for a PAR meter - wish someone closer had one. Might have to make the trip to a semi local reefer.

My order from reef cleaners was all dead... Note to NJRC don't buy from him in the winter. He claims 2 day shipping and it's 3 days and only has heating for 2 days.

I'll be ordering from LA shortly as my brother is ordering to fish so piggybacking - if anyone wants to grab snails and lives North Jersey let me know today.
Click to expand...

glad things are looking up! sucks about the reefcleaners order, but john has always been great. will make it right asap if you ever have any issues.

Sponge said:
Glad to hear all is going in right direction. That’s awesome. Quick question. What kind and how many reef cleaners are you getting. I pinch every penny. And hear about bad experiences with receiving dead cleaners from online like it’s just normal All the time. And yet find things like snails and emerald crabs to be available at every reef store and they just don’t cost much at all. Now if you are ordering a whole bunch and saving some real money. I totally get it. I’m just wondering how the savings compares to the hassle.
Click to expand...

i think its more about availability and location from a LFS. I am very particular with the snails I put in my tank. I only use an army of trochus and a 1 or 2 turbos since I find them to be the most hard working IME. I've had instances where i would go to an LFS and no trochus snails will be in stock or turbos, etc... going online usually will have them available.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
iTzJu said:
glad things are looking up! sucks about the reefcleaners order, but john has always been great. will make it right asap if you ever have any issues.



i think its more about availability and location from a LFS. I am very particular with the snails I put in my tank. I only use an army of trochus and a 1 or 2 turbos since I find them to be the most hard working IME. I've had instances where i would go to an LFS and no trochus snails will be in stock or turbos, etc... going online usually will have them available.
Click to expand...
Exactly I can never find trochus or turbos locally and definitely can't find bumble bee snails. Matt stores up north at least the ones I've been too just sell them out of their coral tanks and don't have independent invert systems. Ive been to ACC and they have seperate invert systems however, that's too far to travel
 
diana a

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Funny how Petco locations can be so different. The three petco here carry trochus, BB and turbos all the time. They will order fish and any live stock if they don't have it in stock.
 
Hallowhead

Hallowhead

NJRC Member
diana a said:
Funny how Petco locations can be so different. The three petco here carry trochus, BB and turbos all the time. They will order fish and any live stock if they don't have it in stock.
Click to expand...
Mine switched managers I believe and it's slowly started to pick back up
 
Sponge

Sponge

Hallowhead said:
Exactly I can never find trochus or turbos locally and definitely can't find bumble bee snails. Matt stores up north at least the ones I've been too just sell them out of their coral tanks and don't have independent invert systems. Ive been to ACC and they have seperate invert systems however, that's too far to travel
Click to expand...
Even absolutely fish?
 
Sponge

Sponge

Hallowhead said:
They have them in their display tanks so when I go it's like a hassle to find them
Click to expand...
That’s weird when I go there. Right next to the frag racks left of the turtle pond is a tank full of shrimp of several types. Emerald crabs. Bumble bees. Assorted snails. And more. Last time there. Maybe two weeks ago. I’d say there were 50 fire shrimp 20 peppermint 30 cleaner shrimp. Maybe 25 emerald crabs. Saw some Pom Pom crabs. Maybe five harlequin shrimp. I’d guess five cucumbers. Hmmmm can’t say I recall any urchins but possibly different tank. Honestly just picked up a couple of emeralds and bumble bees so wasn’t really looking. I’m Sure there is lots I didn’t mention.
 
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