Possibly that's the difference. I was in the 10-11 range prior to this as well, but had issues with RTN, tips burning, and general unsatisfactory colors and growth at those figures. I was testing the big 3 at the time, but not nitrates. I finally picked up a nitrate test kit and tested it where it came out to zero (confirmed with two other test kits). So while not dosing a carbon source, I was running a very lean tank, with the heavy skimming and my regular water changes. While chatting with a buddy of mine, he suggested that I drop my dKH lower, which after perusing a number of SPS tanks (RC) seems to be the norm for a lot of successful SPS tanks (many of which run on the leaner side with respect to nitrates/phosphate levels). I've been getting consistent growth, colors (regaining colors in some while deepening of colors in others), and polyp extension running the tank at the current set of numbers. This will most likely change as the tank matures and I'll probably have to tweak it down the line.
Currently, the tank is still running very lean even with the decent amount of food I pour in (3 cubes of frozen daily and a silverside for the eel every other day) and I dose nitrates at every water change to get nitrates to show up.
You dose nitrates?
Always had zero nitrates.....presumably because of my massive skimmer, and large amounts of Rock and sand. Why do you like to have a trace of nitrate? Just cause I don't know.
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My issues have been largely with Phosphates. I like to feed, cause I like fat and happy fish. I feed a mix of mysis, brine, krill and clam once a day. I feed Nori every other day and I feed pellets at night. If I maintain my water changes every two weeks, and change my GFO and Carbon every other water change (once a month) I seem to keep my phosphate around .05. This has shown to be ideal for my SPS and LPS / softies. My SPS will do even better with a lower Phosphate, but my softies and LPS start showing stress around .03 or less.
On the higher end, my SPS start showing stress when the phosphate gets to .1 or higher (rtn and algae on the tips), but the LPS and softies seem to LOVE a higher range. Algae of course gets out of control over .1.
I believe my tank crash last year was actually from high phosphates. This is why my LPS and softies did great, but the SPS died off. It was a slow and painful process. During the 4 month academy, I probably did 3-4 water changes total, and forgot to change out the media all but maybe once. I was checking ALK, mag and calcium because that was what normally caused my issues......assumed I was just causing too many swings. When I checked my phosphates (always check after a water change as a rule) they were in the .10 to .15 range. I wasn't really reacting to it. I finally changed the GFO, and started getting back onto regular water changes and the SPS finally started to respond. Too late at that point.
Lesson learned.
Sorry to hijack this thread.......... For what it's worth, I was using the "Microbe lift" reef salt........that company sold and they haven't put out the new stuff yet. I loved that salt and had great success. I have started using "reef crystals" in the meantime, and quite frankly. I am pretty happy with it. I might just stick with it for a while. Alk is high at around 8.5-9 (which I like.....this is after sitting for 24-48 hours). I haven't checked mag levels. I liked the microbe lift because it had high mag and I didn't have to dose anymore. I might need to start again with reef crystals, so I need to get on that.
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