What is your Phosphate at?

[drexel]

I think for established reefs like yours with big SPS colonies, you can get away with a lot more. The SPS is already used to your system. Even if a few spots of your SPS colony reacts, you can recover once you fix the issue...it's more forgiving.

But for my 6 month old reef, the tiny little 1/2" SPS frags hasn't even encrusted yet, they don't tolerate as much. Once those little nubs react, it's done. I don't think they are recovering. Plus I probably have other problems, and not just phosphate. I also have sand, which probably keeps a lot more gunk. It takes a lot longer for me to fix a phosphate problem.

I have sand and just put 12 tiny frags in a while ago and they’re doing pretty good. I would consider bacteria (the lack of) more of an issue than nutrients. I’m not sure if you started with dry rock or established rock? I would spend money on some established rock or some actual ocean rock. That’s why dry rock tanks don’t do well with tiny frags. The only way to get dry rock systems going is to either wait for a year or more, or stock the tank with colonies (which come with all the bacteria they need) from the start. I honestly think dry rock is one of the worst things to happen in this hobby, especially for new hobbyists who don’t fully understand the basic fundamentals of reefing. Btw, I’m not saying this to you directly, but as a general statement.
I think all of these videos from BRS and the like, have scared people from using established rock because they think they’re going to prevent the bad things from entering the system adds they can sell overpriced, ugly Marco rock. Meanwhile, they’ve created this sterile system that can’t fully support the animals they want to keep. Kinda seems counterintuitive to me?


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[Jimbo327]

100% dead dry rock and dry sand.

 

[turbonut]

.07-.1 is where my systems run and I have to dose to keep them in that range


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[Jimbo327]

How are you guys keeping phosphates so low? What are you guys feeding? Filter roller, filter sock, skimmer, bare bottom, sump cleaning, sand stirring?? Like what are you guys routine? I see some have to raise their phosphate levels…I’m like what?

 

[turbonut]

How are you guys keeping phosphates so low? What are you guys feeding? Filter roller, filter sock, skimmer, bare bottom, sump cleaning, sand stirring?? Like what are you guys routine? I see some have to raise their phosphate levels…I’m like what?

Me myself my tanks are bare bottom , run fleece rollers and siporax


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[Reeferkcp]

How are you guys keeping phosphates so low? What are you guys feeding? Filter roller, filter sock, skimmer, bare bottom, sump cleaning, sand stirring?? Like what are you guys routine? I see some have to raise their phosphate levels…I’m like what?

Cant say Im an expert but I shoot for a goal of .1-.2. Seem like thats what the coral farmers are doing. This might be controversial but the easiest way for me to dial it in is to dose LC aka brightwe Phos-E daily with a dosing pump into 5 micron sock. Easy to adjust. Been doing this for 9 months Gfo, water changes, sock, roller are too much work and strip too many other organic nutrient. Otherwise i have a small fuge for pods and an efficient skimmer.

 

[shootingstar_reef]

mine is like 0.3ish? everything is happy

 

[Jimbo327]

I’m at 0.27 ppm phosphates today. My target is still 0.10 ppm phosphates.

I'm feeling good for taking action to drop phosphates, and excited to see how my tank reacts. I have a few corals that I'm keep my eyes on. One is a zoa that half closed, another one is a SPS that the tips started to STN. I'm hoping I can save either of these. I know the SPS is more likely not going to recover, but the zoas should be savable.

 

[Jimbo327]

After I get my phosphates under control, I'm going to start stirring my sand bed and release some of that build up so it's not such a phosphate sink. And hit it with some of the DIY coral snow.

What are some of your routines to keep the sand and sump clean?

 

[drexel]

Blow off your rocks and stir a little sand, then use some diy coral snow. I know some people gravel vac their sand, but I'm not one of them. This is why you only want 1-3x turnover of your return pump, so detritus can settle in the sump and be removed by socks, siphoning, etc... I have some tiger tail cucumbers, so you can use critters to move stuff around, but most of that stuff is probably inert. PNS Probio can help reduce detritus and other mulm in the system.

 

[Jimbo327]

Cool. That's my plan. I will stir the sand to give my CUC a hand. I know that my sand bed is pretty dirty because whenever I disturb it, the tank gets all murky with detritus. LOL.

Yeah, I'm not planning on vacuuming my sand either. I want to get a nice sand cleaning CUC. So far, I got a tiger tail cucumber last month, but never saw it after I put it in. Hopefully, he is putting in work. I also got 15 big nassarius snails to try to get them to move some sand. And I saw the conch lately, so I know he's alive. Maybe the sand is too full, but they don't seem to be turning over the sand much.

I've seeded with PNS Prodbio and Biodigest, so those should be growing and feeding the tank.

 

[drexel]

Cool. That's my plan. I will stir the sand to give my CUC a hand. I know that my sand bed is pretty dirty because whenever I disturb it, the tank gets all murky with detritus. LOL.

Yeah, I'm not planning on vacuuming my sand either. I want to get a nice sand cleaning CUC. So far, I got a tiger tail cucumber last month, but never saw it after I put it in. Hopefully, he is putting in work. I also got 15 big nassarius snails to try to get them to move some sand. And I saw the conch lately, so I know he's alive. Maybe the sand is too full, but they don't seem to be turning over the sand much.

I've seeded with PNS Prodbio and Biodigest, so those should be growing and feeding the tank.

PNS is designed to be dosed on a regular basis to help maintain and consume excess detritus and nutrients, it will survive to some extent, but it's not like nitrifying bacteria. I haven't dosed it in a while, but I think I'm going to go back to twice weekly at half the recommended dose, which is my usual method. TT cucumbers are nocturnal, so you'll see them at night mostly. After a while, you'll have one or two more as they split.

 

[Jimbo327]

Denitrator is seeded with PNS and Biodigest, so it's growing and feeding on daily basis. The denitrator smells like PNS as Prodbio has a funky (bad) smell, so I do add it to the tank only after everyone has gone to bed. I did it during day time before and my wife was not pleased.

 

[drexel]

Be careful adding bacteria at night, as most will use oxygen and can drop levels too much.