your tank requirements (size, coral load and how fast your system uses nutrients) will decide how much nitrate and phosphate you will add. you need to up your nitrate and phos testing to make that decision. when i'm uncertain of dosing i will test daily to figure it out.
I have a small coral load....only 1-colony of zoa and 1-mushroom. I have 4-fish and i feed at least 2x per day. i will begin testing tomorrow to confirm what my baseline is. do you have any recommendations beyond this??
They and the tank will both be healthier if you feed em well!
@Cscultho Sounds like you could be feeding your fish a lot more frequently throughout the day....possibly more total volume of food too, given the level of nutrients. Don't starve the little varmints!
If you aren't already using an auto-feeder for at least part of your feeding routine, I highly recommend it. Use it to feed when you're unable to.
The Flourish Phosphorus calculator tells me that you want to dose 1.2 capfuls or 5.8 mL to achieve 0.10 ppm of PO4 in 70 gallons.
Test the next day and see how well that dose held at 0.10 ppm. If it's back to zero (very likely, but not certain) then dose another full dose, as described.
And test again the next day to see if the tank consumed all of it. Repeat.
Be prepared to start backing down the dose when you start seeing an accumulation of PO4 in your tests. Go back to the calculator for new dose levels to keep targeting 0.10 ppm in the tank.
Same rhythm for NO3 and your target would initially be 10 ppm.
The calc here A Nitrate Dosing Calculator For Better Tank Health (And Better Coral Color!) tells me 216 mL (cc) of the standard DIY KNO3 solution to get 70 gallons up to 10 ppm.
@mcarroll.....so here is today's update:;Facepalm
@mcarroll.....so here is today's update:
-Dosed yesterday 5ml NO3 and 1-cap NO4
-Dosed today 5ml NO3 and 1-cap NO4
-No visual improvements. If anything it has gotten a bit worse on the sandbed only.
-Tested NO3:
- Measured around 3-5ppm
-Tested Po4:
- Measured around 0.003ppm
Do i stay the course and continue dosing?
Do i not do any water changes for a while?
When i dosed NO3 and PO4 i dosed up to as much as 5 ppm no3 and 0.1 po4. I dosed 0.02 po4 daily which which was my ideal target. Today i have 2.5 ppm no3 and 0.02 po4. Once i got readings above 0.02 i started halting my doses to every second day and monitored by testing daily at the same time.
There so real harm in going higher in nutrients. I myself seem to have missjudged my sandbed and actually think its diatoms
Well, i had dinos, i had em bad!
****** picture but thats is a live acro covered in dino (determend by microscope). So at first glance i though the dino came back no when i re-introduced sand. But i completely agree with you. Every reefer should have a microscope
Yikes!;Nailbiting Im hoping i do not have to get to the removal of my sand bed. How long did you battle the Dino's before you called it quits and pulled your sand bed??Remove sand, dose KH2PO4 and KNO3 along with manual suction removal
Well to me it came to the point of desperation, the dino was litterly sufficating my corals. So i had to do something drastic to give me a chance to at the very least improve the situation. If id get some small dino bloom on the sandbed i wouldnt remove the sandbed unless it got alot worse, fast!
I did a vacuum of the sand bed yesterday and it looked good for a couple hours and then it started to creep back on the sand and rock. Im just wondering if i should continue dosing to maintain NO3 & PO4 levels and not vacuum for a couple of weeks?? I think the biggest battle right now is just getting stability.
