Temporary high phosphates for SPS?

[Reef Pilot]

Well, I've got my phosphates down to .03 on the other tank, with the help of Foz Down. The stuff works pretty well.

But my nitrates are still at 20 -30 ppm. When I combine the tanks to one sump, I am assuming the nitrates should be cut in half or more, and then with the bio pellets running on that sump, should take care of the rest.

Do you think the SPS will mind temporarily high nitrates? They have been used to zero nitrates and phosphates for some time now.

[Proteus]

I guess it depend on the state of sps now. If its healthy it may not notice.
Ie: I'm looking after a few pieces that were in the state of stn. I dipped th all in RPS and added to my tank. Last night I removed LR from sump to put in new skimmer stand and after puting rock back in I stirred up some debris most Likely bring nutrients. Today while light come on I noticed that while all corals looked good one of the affected pieces had turned to RTN.

So I would suggest maybe to be prepared on a WC it corals react badly

[daniella3d]

I have quite a bit of nitrates in my tank and never had a problem with SPS. Now my nitrates are around 5ppm but last month it was at 40ppm.

My sps always have been doing great no matter what the nitrates. Recently I bought 10 fresh cut SPS frags that were kept in ULN tank and very light in color, almost bleached. I only lost one frag and they other are starting to color up nicely, not turning brown at all, rather getting some nice fluoresence and colors.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I have quite a bit of nitrates in my tank and never had a problem with SPS. Now my nitrates are around 5ppm but last month it was at 40ppm.

Well, that's good to know. Temp in my downstairs tank peaked at 81.2 last evening, so looking forward to getting these tanks combined soon, so the chiller can do its job. Weather is supposed to cool off a bit the next few days, so should still be OK.

[Reef Pilot]

I combined my tanks into 1 sump yesterday, so I can cool both with my single chiller. Just in time, too, as it is supposed to get real warm here on the weekend and next week.

My concern had been with high phosphates and nitrates in my downstairs tank, and when combined it would raise both. My main floor DT has SPS and has been used to zero nitrates and phosphates for some time with the use of bio pellets and GFO.

I have been using Foz Down to bring down the phosphates in my downstairs tank. It works great, as it brought it down from over 1.0 to near zero over a few weeks. But it won't stay there, and if I don't add it for a day it is over 0.1 again. Seems like there are still a lot of phosphates leaching out of the rocks and sand.

Anyway after combining, I checked my params this morning, and the phosphates are at 0.11 right now. So will have to keep adding Foz Down, I guess. My nitrates also went up to 10 ppm, which makes sense as the downstairs tank was running at about 20 - 30.

Will have to see now if my SPS reacts. I may have to add more bio pellets to my reactor (only about 1/4 full now, and haven't added for 6 months).

At least my temps are good now, steady at 78.4.

[kien]

From about mid June to September my temps go from 77 at night to 81 (or 82 on a really hot day). And this is with central AC. Without central AC the temp will go beyond 83 which is too high for my comfort level :-) At any rate, my tank seems to do fine at 81/82. As already suggested, do make sure your tank is well oxygenated (which most tanks are anyway, with skimmers, etc) if your tank is trending to the 80s.

[Reef Pilot]

Well, mine was getting up close to 82 a couple times already when we had warm weather. Luckily, the warm spells only lasted a few days so far this year. But it is going to get much warmer the next couple months, so I think it would have been big trouble.

We do have central A/C. But ironically, the basement warms up too, when it runs, as the air circulates the entire house. We set our A/C temp at 76, which is still warmer than most of the year. The problem is we have a 3 level house, all exposed to the northwest (including the basement level, as we are on a hill), and the sun really heats it up later in the day.

I ran the 2 tanks combined on 1 sump last summer and it worked well. The other advantage is that I decommission 2 pumps (return pump and skimmer) and one sump, so that also saves heat and electricity. On the combined sump I have a single Sedra 20000 with multiple T's that returns both tanks (one up a floor level) as well as to my bio pellet reactor, chiller, and GFO/carbon reactors. It is a very powerful pump, with lots of head pressure, and quiet, too.