Reef nutrition

Hello Everyone

Teague75

Teague75

Supporting Member
BARcard
Bay Area Reefers,
I am looking forward to many discussions with everyone. I had a 100 gallon reef tank about 10 years ago and gave it up. I have missed the hobby and recently purchased a RedSea Reef 170 - 43 gallon with a used EcoTech Radion xr30 LED Gen 3.
I am wondering if anyone still uses the Gen 3? My tank has been set up for 7 months and I kill every SPS I put in the tank. I have the lights set up with 100% blue/purple/light blue and 20%white/green/red, running at 75%.
Mabye the lights are too old?
I purchased a green slimmer from CaliKids about 2 weeks ago - very healthy. Now that it is in my tank it is turning white from the bottom and working its way up.
Anyone have any thoughts?
PH: 8.1
CA: 420
MG: 1280
NO3: 0 - as far as I can tell from the color chart
P)4: 0 - as far as I can tell from the color chart
 
Here is a picture
 

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Welcome!

There are different schools of thought regarding ultra low or high nutrient tanks within the reefing hobby but your tank shouldn't be running zero nutrients. I would double check the expiration dates on your test kits and replace if needed.
If your results are still at zero, you'll need to start feeding heavier to boost your nitrates and phosphates to detectable levels. You can dose using chemicals but need to be sure you don't continue to dose to the point they get out of control.

People do still run Gen 3 Radions with success. Unless you have burnt out LEDS or the light has been run hard it's whole life it should be just fine. A PAR meter can be borrowed after being a supporting member for a few months to check your lighting levels.
 
DA,
Thank you for your reply. It is really nice to have some advice. Its been a little lonely....
Back in the day everyone wanted ultra clean reef tanks. So I have been doing weekly 10-15% water changes and feeding on an extremely low level.
I will bump up the feeding.
Thank you again for your support.

Lou
 
Welcome to BAR Lou, and thank you for the supporting the club. What city are you in? I‘m in Walnut Creek.

In general those lights could be fine. But you should measure the PAR to see if you are in the right range. It is hard/impossible to tell by eye.

Alkalinity is very important for hard corals and more of a challenge than the other parameters to keep in range- I didn’t see you list it.

As mentioned, you don’t want true zero for PO4 and NO3, but you may need better test kits to accurately read the low numbers recommended.

I hope you saw that we are having a swap jointly with Cali Kid Corals in Concord this coming Sunday- You should definitely come!
 
Hello JVU and Srt,
I live in Brentwood, CA and I am going to check out the event at Cali Kids on Sunday. Its only about a 20 minute drive from my house. We are having guest over Saturday night so I may need to sleep in a little to recover -LOL.
I am hoping to make some new friends in the reefing hobby!!
 
Welcome! Agree with everything posted above but would add check your alkalinity. It can swing the most out of what you're measuring (I think every 1 dKh consumed is only like 7ppm calcium). Feeding fish more can help get nutrients higher too.

What are you using for flow in the tank?
 
Teague75 said:
My tank has been set up for 7 months
Click to expand...

I think this is the issue here. Get 7 to 14 months and you'll have more success with sps. Welcome to the club!

If you want to accelerate the tank, I can toss you some really old rock/coral rubble to accelerate the pod and bacterial growth.

I don't think light is the issue.
Alk and temp are the two most important things to control.
Mag looks a little low, I like 1400ish but over 1200 should be fine.
0-0 is not a great place to be on nutrients. You don't need to do my extreme levels, but my po4 is between .2 and .4 with my nitrates between 30 and 80.


Teague75 said:
I am hoping to make some new friends in the reefing hobby!!
Click to expand...

Great place to start here!
 
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Welcome, I just got back into the hobby after being out for over 10 years.

I’ll be at the swap on Sunday and hope to meet some folks.
 
How's coraline growth? That's usually a leading indicator if alk, calcium, and nutrients are at least minimally sufficient. I encountered similar when I started up my tank a couple years ago. I had the old mindset of over filtering which striped all the nutrients to the point where corals paled and very little coralline grew. To fix this, I put the skimmer on a limited schedule and dosed nitrates and phosphates until my fish bioload was able to support the coral nutrition demands. There's many theories on why it's so different than the 90's and early 2000's. One is that today's equipment is too efficient. Another is the bacteria biodiversity is different since we're no longer using real live rock with bacteria cultures from the wild.
 
Casey,
Coraline growth was really good. Recently it has slowed and started fading. I think you all are correct that the tank in under nourished and I am going to feed it more.

Hey H2OPlayar, are you going to be at the Cali Kids Swap? I would love to have some of your really old rock. I do not have anything worth trading, but I am willing to pay you for it. Just let me know how much.
 
Teague75 said:
Hey H2OPlayar, are you going to be at the Cali Kids Swap? I would love to have some of your really old rock. I do not have anything worth trading, but I am willing to pay you for it. Just let me know how much.
Click to expand...
I am unable to make that one, but we can find a way to get you some old rock from somewhere.
 
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