High nutrient Nano sps tank

[Leo_ian]

Is it possible for sps (like acros) to live in high nutrient systems? Or is there a way to lower nutrients without a whole load of equipment? refugiums?

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

What do you mean by high nutrients? SPS need nitrates and phosphates to grow. In nano tanks, often times a water change is your best bet to lower nutrients in your tank. 

[Leo_ian]

I mean like 5ppm nitrates and 0.3ppm phosphates

 

[empresto]

That's about the numbers where I see the best growth from my sps corals.  Anything lower and they start to complain.

 

(I initially read your phos as .03; .3 would be higher than I would be comfortable with)

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

3 hours ago, Leo_ian said:

I mean like 5ppm nitrates and 0.3ppm phosphates

 

Nothing wrong with 5ppm nitrates in an SPS system - in fact is about ideal. If your phosphates are truly .3(and not .03) than I’d probably do some water changes over the next few days to bring them down. 
 

People found that ultra low nutrient systems didn’t work well for corals. They need nitrates and phosphates to grow. 

[jservedio]

I've got 0.12ppm of phosphates and 25ppm of nitrate and while I get a little slower growth than some people here, I get amazing color. I also have no filtration at all (caveat, tank is 10 years old).

 

If you look at most ToTMs you'll find petty much everyone has your target numbers as the bare minimum level of nutrients, many run around twice that level.

 

Edit: also misread as 0.03, that's high but it's not going to kill acros, they'll just be brittle as all hell. Nitrates are good and can even be significantly higher.

[Leo_ian]

OK! THANK YOU ALL