ULNS & softy tanks

[Doug]

Anyone running something on their softy tanks. My friend has a 180 soft coral tank, lightly loaded with corals. Having some algae issues now. Tanks several years old. Bare bottom. 100g sump and excellent beckett skimmer. Very good ro water.

I have been discussing my plans to run UltraLith with him and he is thinking of running it on his tank. I measured his phosphates and nitrates on the weekend and both are terrible, which would be his algae issue. So much for running phosphate remover.

[Doug]

Any input appreciated.

[midgetwaiter]

It should work great.

I'm starting up ultralith on my softie system once I get the phosphates down. Your friend will need to get the phosphates down to a decent level before starting and go SLOW on the startup. I'm sure Michael would have more some specific advice for you if you send him the tank details.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

My ZEO reef is mixed but I have about maybe 1/4 softies right now. Few leathers, few gorgonians, zoas, mushrooms, ect.

It seems I have just reached low nutrients, 0 NO3 and 0 PO4. SPS obviously are starting to look great but so are the softies to my surprise. Much better than with the high nitrates I used to have.

My thinking now is that yes softies tolerate high nutrient systems but they do not thrive in them like some people think. Well many softies are found in pristine reef waters around the world, so they obviously do like clean water.

Im super happy about them doing so well because now this means I can start to get some diversity in my tank again instead of having a wall of sps. I sold off many of my softies thinking they would not do well in a low nutrient system :(

[Doug]

It should work great.

I'm starting up ultralith on my softie system once I get the phosphates down. Your friend will need to get the phosphates down to a decent level before starting and go SLOW on the startup. I'm sure Michael would have more some specific advice for you if you send him the tank details.


Why does the phosphate need lowering first? Is that not part of the job of the UNLS systems? As I mentioned, his are high. I dont think he,s running his phosphate remover aggressive enough, so thats part of his current problem.

[Doug]

My ZEO reef is mixed but I have about maybe 1/4 softies right now. Few leathers, few gorgonians, zoas, mushrooms, ect.

It seems I have just reached low nutrients, 0 NO3 and 0 PO4. SPS obviously are starting to look great but so are the softies to my surprise. Much better than with the high nitrates I used to have.

My thinking now is that yes softies tolerate high nutrient systems but they do not thrive in them like some people think. Well many softies are found in pristine reef waters around the world, so they obviously do like clean water.

Im super happy about them doing so well because now this means I can start to get some diversity in my tank again instead of having a wall of sps. I sold off many of my softies thinking they would not do well in a low nutrient system :(

Thanks. Good to hear.

[FlamesFan]

My softies have shown not very good signs since going ZEO and i've started to remove some. Some though have been fine like my torch and frogspawn.