Update

[gareth.hubbarde]

Been around 8 months of running my tank and thought I would update. So far things have been going OK. Been a few positives and a few negative things have happened.
Did water tests today and was a bit alarmed at nitrate level.
Salinity 1.025
Phosphate 0.25
Nitrate 80??
Nitrite 0
Calcium 475
Ph 7.5
Alk is at 6.7??

Some alarming figures there. Alk and nitrate unexpected.

My corals are growing though, my acan has a new head, most softs are doing well except for zoas, they are dieying and font know why when everything else is doing well.
As for livestock still got my original lawnmower blenny, my 3 shrimp are thriving (fire, cleaner and pistol), the cardinal was a pair but one died. Hi fin goby lives with the pistol shrimp and is doing well.
Not seen many crabs of late not sure what's happened to them.

I do a 25% wc roughly every fortnight which is around 5 gallon.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time and help


94litre kent marine bio reef
17kg live rock
4kg sand, 2kg as live.
Filter floss
1000 l/pH return pump
100w heater
Hydor 3200 wave maker 2800 lph
Tmc aquabar t series leds:
Fiji purple 80%
Reef white 80%

1 Mexican turbo snail
1 turbo snails
3 red legged hermit crab?
1 blue legged hermit
2 nassarius snails
2 super nassarius

1 lawnmower blenny
1 hi fin goby
1 Tiger pistol shrimp
1 red fire shrimp
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
1 bengai cardinal





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[gareth.hubbarde]

Oh I should point out that I don't dose anything like calcium etc. The only additive I put in is a scoop of nano reef roids twice a week. I also feed twice a day normally mixture of flakes and pellets.
Am I feeding too much including the phytoplankton causing nitrates to rocket?

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[Cancun]

Hi there! I would recommend switching over to frozen food like Mysis....try cutting back feeding a small amount once a day....maybe cut back on the reef roids as well. Are you feeding live phyto? I don't see the phyto as a problem if you are feeding live...but I would cut the feedings down...for both the fish and coral...give frozen food a try....and do a few large water changes...40-50% to bring your nitraites in check. I am sure others with more ideas.....we have all been there and done that. ��

[top shelf]

A few places to work on are your nitrates as you mentioned, alk, calc, and start testing mag. Otherwise all sounds well.

Nitrates-Cut back feeding the fish from twice a day to once a day or once every other day. It sounds horrible but won't harm your fish, in the reefs they may go longer then that without eating. As mentioned try adding in some frozen mysis or similar. Cut back reef roids and phyto to once a week if not cut completely out. Unless you have non photosynthetic corals not really needed. The corals you mentioned can survive on light and fish poop alone. If you add frozen mysis you can spot feed your lps once a week with it. Like Cancun said do some water changes to bring your nitrates back down to 10 or less.

Mag-We'll start with magnesium first, if your mag isn't in range your alk and calc won't rise or stay stable. I aim for between 1300-1350 which seems to be the norm for most. If you try to raise alk or calcium and your mag isn't in range then nothing will happen so it's important to test for magnesium as well.

Alk-I would bring your alk up to 8.3-9.3, it can be done with lime water (which is kalkwasser or pickling lime) or 2 part, I believe there may be a few other ways but can't think of em atm.

Calcium-While your calcium isn't out of the normal range I would try to bring it down to around 420-440. Alk and calc will compete for space so to speak and if you have to much of one it can limit how much you can have of the other.

pH-Dont even worry about pH, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to chase it and most likely do more harm then good. pH is pretty much a measure of how well your aquarium can buffer alk. Personally don't even have a pH test.

Whatever you decide to do don't overdue it. As in keep it simple and focus on one thing at a time. The more you do at one time the harder it will be to determine what is wrong if things go south.

I would start with getting nitrates under control, then start checking mag, then get alk in line, then calcium.

[gareth.hubbarde]

Originally Posted by top shelf

A few places to work on are your nitrates as you mentioned, alk, calc, and start testing mag. Otherwise all sounds well.

Nitrates-Cut back feeding the fish from twice a day to once a day or once every other day. It sounds horrible but won't harm your fish, in the reefs they may go longer then that without eating. As mentioned try adding in some frozen mysis or similar. Cut back reef roids and phyto to once a week if not cut completely out. Unless you have non photosynthetic corals not really needed. The corals you mentioned can survive on light and fish poop alone. If you add frozen mysis you can spot feed your lps once a week with it. Like Cancun said do some water changes to bring your nitrates back down to 10 or less.

Mag-We'll start with magnesium first, if your mag isn't in range your alk and calc won't rise or stay stable. I aim for between 1300-1350 which seems to be the norm for most. If you try to raise alk or calcium and your mag isn't in range then nothing will happen so it's important to test for magnesium as well.

Alk-I would bring your alk up to 8.3-9.3, it can be done with lime water (which is kalkwasser or pickling lime) or 2 part, I believe there may be a few other ways but can't think of em atm.

Calcium-While your calcium isn't out of the normal range I would try to bring it down to around 420-440. Alk and calc will compete for space so to speak and if you have to much of one it can limit how much you can have of the other.

Whatever you decide to do don't overdue it. As in keep it simple and focus on one thing at a time. The more you do at one time the harder it will be to determine what is wrong if things go south.

I would start with getting nitrates under control, then start checking mag, then get alk in line, then calcium.

Huge thanks to all for replies. It's kind of good to know that other people have these issues at some point. I might knock out the reef roids totally as like poster pointed out all my coral feeds through light, even my lone lps.
I think my big problem has been over feeding and by cutting it down it should help. I'm not going to go mad or try anything drastic, did a 5 gallon wc yesterday, probably do another Tuesday. Have seen nitrates come down already but needs more work over next few weeks. Not sure how to reduce calcium, I don't add anything so it's only in my salt mixture. If I slowly increase alk would that reduce calcium?
I want to get a maxima clam in next month or so, read that they use a lot of calcium, but need nitrate down first. That's my first goal.
Going to slowly populate with more softs and lps corals, lps use calcium too often believe?

Once again massive thank you for advice.

Have a good new year.

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[top shelf]

Nope your not alone, we all make our far share of mistakes. This is a good place to learn from others, share knowledge, and experience.

Just keep up with the water changes, cut back on feeding, and you'll eventually have things under control.

It could be your tank uses more alk then calc or it could be your salt is higher in calc then alk. What brand salt do you use? Raising your alk won't drop calcium unless you raise it so high that calcium starts to precipitate out.

Clams tend to use a lot of calcium to the point you will likely have to start dosing it so start reading up on that if you haven't. Lps use calcium as well to help build there skeleton.

[gareth.hubbarde]

Originally Posted by top shelf

Nope your not alone, we all make our far share of mistakes. This is a good place to learn from others, share knowledge, and experience.

Just keep up with the water changes, cut back on feeding, and you'll eventually have things under control.

It could be your tank uses more alk then calc or it could be your salt is higher in calc then alk. What brand salt do you use? Raising your alk won't drop calcium unless you raise it so high that calcium starts to precipitate out.

Clams tend to use a lot of calcium to the point you will likely have to start dosing it so start reading up on that if you haven't. Lps use calcium as well to help build there skeleton.

I use iquatics salt.
https://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/aqu...salt-10kg.html

Apparently the calcium is 445

I will be reading up properly on clams and possibly dosing of calcium, at the very least will be checking calcium more often than I do now.


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[top shelf]

Never heard of that brand but it looks to be decent. If your happy with it that's all that matters. I use reef crystals now but thinking of switching to just plain instant ocean on my next bucket.

If your salt mixes at 445 and your testing at 475 that's pretty close within reason and accuracy of our tests. If you can keep it stable there I'd leave it. Stable numbers is more important then proper numbers or number chasing.

Your best bet will be to just read up on dosing in general as it will be the same for Alk, Calc, and Mag. Testing will let you know when it's time to start dosing. Generally you won't need to dose Alk and Calc until water changes can no longer keep up with consumption. Then limewater, dosing, or reactors come into play.

I test Mag, Calc, Alk, no3, and po4 once a week, not necessarily because I need to yet but it's good practice to get into and it allows me to track my current consumption rates and build a database of the levels in my tank. I just enter everything into Apex fusion and it gives me a graph to look at.

[ReeferNoob4ever]

Stability definitely trumps the actual number as long as it falls within range.

But...low alk high calcium could indicate and imbalance in your mg.

My tank is also a little over 8 months and a 20 gallon. I have 2 fish and I feed far less than you do. Sometimes even skip a day between. I usually do a 1/4 of frozen brine or mysis. That takes care of my Duncan, fish, and clean up crew.

You certainly don't need reef roid's imo. I have many LPS and even a few sps and I just do water changes (18%) per week to keep my alk at 9, CA at 420, and mg at 1290. I use plain instant ocean.

I just put in a clam and will monitor CA. I'll add kalk to my ato if needed. Keep testing and try not to let things get to unbalanced by adding or chasing.