Oshanickreef
Active Member
Hello,
I recently moved my very overstocked 90 gallon tank into a 350 gallon system. I’m an SPS lover but also love lots of LPS. It took a few weeks but i moved it all with the fish safely 30 minutes away.
Here’s the new tank:
ALK: 8
Cal: 460
Mag: 1322
Ph: 8.1-8.35 daily swing
Salinity: 1.036
Temp 77.5
Nitrates: 12-16
Phosphates: .15-.20
Background on the new system. I was manually dosing nitrate and forgot for a week, nitrates hit zero and Dino’s came in fast. After some tinkering with silica, Phyto and nitrate dosing, Dino’s dissappeared and all the corals look great. I stopped dosing silica immediately after i saw the decline in Dino’s and also i saw a slight diatom bloom so i decided i had added enough. I was dosing brightwell’s neonitro for a month or two at 25 ml per day and now my nitrates are stable around 12-16. Nitrate doser has been off for a month. My phosphate levels are around .15-.2. I’m still dosing Phyto about .5 gal per day (loving the increase in baby snail populations). I have been dosing lanthanum chloride in very small amounts to keep my phosphates from creeping up. I’m wondering if that’s even necessary…
What i would love to know is what is the sweet spot for nitrate and phosphate levels? I know every system is different but I’m not noticing much of a difference in the colors of the corals and it seems that higher nutrients is much easier to achieve than an ULNS. My last system i was always trying to keep my levels as low as possible but in turn was constantly testing and dosing nitrates and when nutrients hit zero my bigger colonies would take a negative hit. Now, my system is high in nitrates and all my corals look very happy so I’m wondering what all the stress was about running the ULNS. I have a lot of fish and feed often but some look kind of skinny so i don’t want to reduce the feeding.
Thanks
Nick
I recently moved my very overstocked 90 gallon tank into a 350 gallon system. I’m an SPS lover but also love lots of LPS. It took a few weeks but i moved it all with the fish safely 30 minutes away.
Here’s the new tank:
ALK: 8
Cal: 460
Mag: 1322
Ph: 8.1-8.35 daily swing
Salinity: 1.036
Temp 77.5
Nitrates: 12-16
Phosphates: .15-.20
Background on the new system. I was manually dosing nitrate and forgot for a week, nitrates hit zero and Dino’s came in fast. After some tinkering with silica, Phyto and nitrate dosing, Dino’s dissappeared and all the corals look great. I stopped dosing silica immediately after i saw the decline in Dino’s and also i saw a slight diatom bloom so i decided i had added enough. I was dosing brightwell’s neonitro for a month or two at 25 ml per day and now my nitrates are stable around 12-16. Nitrate doser has been off for a month. My phosphate levels are around .15-.2. I’m still dosing Phyto about .5 gal per day (loving the increase in baby snail populations). I have been dosing lanthanum chloride in very small amounts to keep my phosphates from creeping up. I’m wondering if that’s even necessary…
What i would love to know is what is the sweet spot for nitrate and phosphate levels? I know every system is different but I’m not noticing much of a difference in the colors of the corals and it seems that higher nutrients is much easier to achieve than an ULNS. My last system i was always trying to keep my levels as low as possible but in turn was constantly testing and dosing nitrates and when nutrients hit zero my bigger colonies would take a negative hit. Now, my system is high in nitrates and all my corals look very happy so I’m wondering what all the stress was about running the ULNS. I have a lot of fish and feed often but some look kind of skinny so i don’t want to reduce the feeding.
Thanks
Nick
