Started testing for phos and nitrate

[EarleD]

Well I started to test for these and both appear to be zero.  I really dont want to have to start dosing the tank with supplements.  
 

Tank is fish less. Soft coral

and polyps. 2 Duncan’s

 

Reef Roids 3-4x week. 1-2 gallon water change weekly. Zero algae issues.  I read about having issues without trace amounts of these chemicals in your tank.  Dinos especially.   
 

Any thoughts about naturally raising these levels. Or should I just go with the flow for now, no problems dont change anything 
 

 

[DevilDuck]

You can try extending the time between your water changes. It doesn’t sound like you have much coral in the tank at all. You can probably get away with monthly water changes to see if you can get testable level of nutrients.

[EarleD]

There’s quite a bit of coral. Gsp,zoas,leather,mushrooms,Duncan’s,and a small arcan.  All in a 5 gallon tank 
 

 

[Ratvan]

How old is the tank? as @DevilDuck states i would keep testing and hold off on water changes until you see an issue with your nutrients in the tank. Another option would be to look at increasing the bioload with an invert or really small fish for a natural way to increase the nutrients (i.e. feed the fish, the fish waste feeds the corals, etc)

[EarleD]

Tanks been set up for 3-4 months.   I need to get a cover as my fist attempt with a fish ended overnight as he jumped out 

 

I’ll hold off on a water change. For a bit.  Maybe 2x month

[Murphs_Reef]

I would let your testing tell you when yo do a Water change.. 

 

What are you looking to achieve from a water change? Nutrient control isn't required here yet, trace elements? How's you Ca, mg, kh testing?

[mcarroll]

On 2/28/2022 at 7:53 AM, EarleD said:

Tanks been set up for 3-4 months.   I need to get a cover as my fist attempt with a fish ended overnight as he jumped out 

 

I’ll hold off on a water change. For a bit.  Maybe 2x month

I agree with others.   If needed to maintain alk, ca and mg, consider substituting one- or two-part dosing for the water changes.   Don't be intimidated by dosing!  🙂 

[EarleD]

I don’t test for anything other than phos and nitrate.  My local reef shop did my cycle testing.   
 

I’ll hold off on water changes for a couple of weeks and test again.  Tank looks good 

[brandon429]

I have a question: if we search out myriad test comparison posts across the web for non digital nitrate and po4 test kits (assuming here these aren’t digital readings let me know if they are) we see a massive range of reports all from a given sample, nitrate for example ranges fifty ppm differences between Api and Red Sea in several posts on reef2reef and other sites all on a given water sample. 
 

how are diagnosticians factoring this trending into their assessments? Is it true that if we go read parameter responses posted here for the last week, any stated param by a tester is received as incontestable fact? I’m see that happen, where’s the mis testing coaching portion before reaction  

 

excellent nano reef above, hold course. If algae persists any further handle it directly, by manual controls vs param shifting, you have excellent parameters so far affording all the healthy coral growth and no gha.

[brandon429]

sorry for being a test skeptic I know that removes over half the fun of reefing

 

what mis testing has done to cycling and cycling advice though is beyond offensive, to me only heh

(what it did was put 100% of reefers on a track to doubting what water bacteria do in water, and by when, whereas seneye shows how it really goes down and nobody's cycle should be doubted that it was delayed in any fashion)

 

its true I've seen accurate testing models impact dino challenges but this tank above I don't see that in the future if the stockings and imports don't vector in the cells. that rock is aged its not a pure bone white scape dotted only in frag tops. its a full blown aging mini reef, and when some of those greener areas spit out a little gha don't alter anything: lift out the rock, use a pocket knife to debride and unattach the algae off the specific area, pour saltwater over it down the sink and rinse it off, set back free of charge and move onward. that small nutrient availability (I don't think this is low N or P) is keeping corals obviously happy. you're doing the work a rasping grazer would do above, without having to add many snails and accept all their waste pellets only for them to ignore the target once it appears. the reef is at the top of the bell curve as we speak, we can see.

 

even your sandbed cross section is perfect in every way.

[brandon429]

 

 

  That guy needs to remove the frag from his system its not worth the loss risk. Treat it in a different tank, or make a jar reef etc. I hope yours never gets that type of import, left in place it can take over. 

 

He should remove the caulastrea frag out of the tank, and with a dremel cut off about 3/4th's the skeleton that far invaded and throw the bone + plant part away. we can't just bone cutter clip skeleton from below a polyp the whole thing will break in half right up through the mouth

 

we'd dremel a circle around the cut zone like a tree trunk till only a tiny center portion is keeping it together, then break at that point and it'll be clean.

 

leaving only smaller heads now and some tufts under them he'd rasp off the growths with a pocket knife like a dentist does plaque on our teeth, exacting, tiny scrapes, till clean/ treat with 35% peroxide (not 3% baby water lol) directly on the cleared bone areas staying free of the actual polyp flesh. let sit cooking two mins, rinse off in sw only the scraped portion, working around the actual flesh, put back on a frag mount all clean and observe for nearly certain growback in the holding container.  

 

we need physical works in nano reefing, not just guess based chemistry and param alterations. 

 

google this: "reef tank nitrate testing accuracy" same for phosphate, see the trends when they compare samples 

[EarleD]

I’m just stick with what I’m doing.  I’ll test for phos/nitrate once in a while.  
 

My Superman mushroom is splitting.  I think. Lol He walked over to the other side of snail shell and left a piece of his foot behind.  
 

[EarleD]

I’m pretty sure this is a new head forming on my duncan 

[mcarroll]

19 hours ago, EarleD said:

I’m pretty sure this is a new head forming on my duncan 

Stony corals use calcium and alkalinity (among other things) out of the water to grow their skeleton.

 

In the short term you can probably get away without testing for those parameters – demand is low with stony coral are small and low in number.

 

But before too long, as they grow, the corals' usage will become significant and they will lower alk to a dangerous level.  (Only alk.  Ca and the other elements have a HUGE reservoir in the water by comparison.)

 

You DO NOT want to get caught by surprise by this alk dip because it can kill off your stony corals.  So I would at least keep doing occasional testing at the store....weekly at minimum IMO.  👍

 

 

[Travis442]

Quick question as I have not seen it asked yet, what brand tests are you using? API for instance will only show values of 0.25 and up for Phosphate and 5.0 for Nitrate. anything under these values will likely show as 0.

[EarleD]

Salfert test kits 

[DevilDuck]

On 3/3/2022 at 1:24 PM, brandon429 said:

 

 

  That guy needs to remove the frag from his system its not worth the loss risk. Treat it in a different tank, or make a jar reef etc. I hope yours never gets that type of import, left in place it can take over. 

 

He should remove the caulastrea frag out of the tank, and with a dremel cut off about 3/4th's the skeleton that far invaded and throw the bone + plant part away. we can't just bone cutter clip skeleton from below a polyp the whole thing will break in half right up through the mouth

 

we'd dremel a circle around the cut zone like a tree trunk till only a tiny center portion is keeping it together, then break at that point and it'll be clean.

 

leaving only smaller heads now and some tufts under them he'd rasp off the growths with a pocket knife like a dentist does plaque on our teeth, exacting, tiny scrapes, till clean/ treat with 35% peroxide (not 3% baby water lol) directly on the cleared bone areas staying free of the actual polyp flesh. let sit cooking two mins, rinse off in sw only the scraped portion, working around the actual flesh, put back on a frag mount all clean and observe for nearly certain growback in the holding container.  

 

we need physical works in nano reefing, not just guess based chemistry and param alterations. 

 

google this: "reef tank nitrate testing accuracy" same for phosphate, see the trends when they compare samples 

 

I think Brandon is saying that dealing with a bryopsis infestation is no fun and definitely not worth it for a frag. It is extremely difficult to get out of your tank once it takes hold.

 

[brandon429]

Agreed I would probably just toss that bad boy if that frag somehow bloomed in my reef. Not worth it 

 

 

this scape above looks so nice, so balanced in nutrients and lighting and feed and coral veracity 

 

we can see on the rocks a small potentiation for algae growth, this isn’t bad. The overall lighting, chemistry and feed/retention rates are growing *thick* corals and by rule primary producers like algae can ride along too depending on what’s hitchhiked in

 

so if (when) some algae pops up don’t alter this tanks production chemistry. Attack the algae directly and make use of a small tanks accessibility 

 

if you had a parrotfish and a hawksbill turtle in there lol no algae would exist even if you dosed powdered phosphate / they’d be biting the rocks clean in half to eat that production 

 

so when it does pop up use a kitchen knife and pull the rock out and on the kitchen counter, be that target rasper 

 

Im seeing this pan out so much better in nanos vs the chemistry chasing mode. Plus I’m an eternal test kit doubter anyway / that may not be too helpful at least you have salifert  here they are popular and loved by many 

 

here’s one of 2000 nitrate test kit comparisons. To this day he still doesn’t know the actual reading. We all just reach different levels of self-convincing on the matter 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/redsea-nitrate-test.890081/

 

when umpires recommend controls on nitrate and phosphate, they simply must tell us about these discrepancies or they’re leaving out the truth, that we don’t know our nitrate and phosphate even when testing.