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High Nitrates

horseplay

NJRC Member
Mark - if the frag you got from me die you can get replacement :) I always can frag. I have some caps you probably want to try first before putting anymore sps.

Corals will adapt to a wide range of parameters but trying to keep the parameters consistent. It's good to keep a target range for the major parameters and try to maintain. I do not think nitrate at 25 is the problem. Make sure you have PO4 as well. Some say in the ration of 1:50 with nitrate. So let's say you have 0.1 PO4 then nitrate should be about 5ppm.

If you do have high PO4 like 0.1 you should keep ALK level higher, around 9dkh. It's better for SPS at higher alk level when PO4 is much higher than NSW level.

If you dose NOPOX make sure you have a very good skimmer. These days I only use carbon dosing occasionally. My corals consume so much nutrients I have to dose nitrate and po4 if I don't feed aggressively. I keep the nutrient at any level I want which is usually close to 0 for PO4 and 1-2ppm for nitrate.

I test PO4/NO3/Alk/Calc every week and adjust dosing accordingly.
 

Adam L

NJRC Member
I only fed one frozen cube daily.
How big is your tank? One cube may be too much Believe it or not. And if you are tossing in whole frozen cube you are adding a lot of unnecessary protein. you should defrost the cube and poor off any liquid. And then feed a little of that at a time.
 

amado

Dal
Staff member
Board of Directors
NJRC Member
I would leave your tank alone. You have too many changes in a very short time.
You just changed your lights and you are making all these changes to the tank.
I would leave it alone. You can send a icp test and see what your numbers are.

I would also check your water you make for water change. Make a fresh batch of water and send it to icp as well. Nitrates can be coming from your water source.

You got to keep it simple in this hobby.
 

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I would leave your tank alone. You have too many changes in a very short time.
You just changed your lights and you are making all these changes to the tank.
I would leave it alone. You can send a icp test and see what your numbers are.

I would also check your water you make for water change. Make a fresh batch of water and send it to icp as well. Nitrates can be coming from your water source.

You got to keep it simple in this hobby.
I agree, it does need to be simple. Just many trades and few $$$ and crap is dying. However, existing coral is doing fine just the new ones are a problem.
Maybe its a sign to stop buying coral.....LOL
 
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