New 73 gallon tank setup

[Frogger]

After 2 weeks of adding KNO3, now adding 60mls/day, which equates to adding 2ppm per day of nitrate for my 73 gallon tank.

I am now at 1.5ppm NO3 and phosphorus is 0 using Hanna ULR meter. I was using about a half a cup of GFO. I have now turned off the GFO because I do not want my phosphorus at 0.

I was needing to run at least 3 cups of GFO to keep my phosphorus below .03ppm before I started adding KNO3. If I didn't my phosphorus would hit .3ppm very quickly.

My tank appears to be using close to 2ppm nitrates to maintain a nominal nitrate level in the tank. I like my current level of nitrates however it appears the higher I go the lower the phosphates get. I think this is going to be a bit of a balance game, lets see what happen now that I turned the GFO reactor off.

What I have noticed in my tank with the higher nitrates is better growth and color of the corals, not quite as good as I want but my coralline algae is growing like nuts, hence the larger draw of Calcium.

I caution anyone thinking that they can control their phosphates by adding nitrates. My situation was a particular situation where I have a low bio load, feed lightly, strong skimming and had absolutely no nitrates in the system.

[Frogger]

"OUCH". Last weekend my power went out for 4 hours. When the power came back on I guess the ATI Hybrid went back to factory settings and looks like I fried some of the corals. I have never run the Led's higher than 80%. They were running at 100% all week and the colours in the corals have paled out since last weekend. I just figured it out today.

Other than that I am not running any GFO for several days and my phosphorus levels have not gotten about .003ppm or 1 on the Hanna ULR checker.

Hopefully the coral colour issue was the lights.

[WarDog]

Sorry to hear. I can't believe that such a high end fixture doesn't have a failsafe for that.

[gregzz4]

Sorry to hear about your timer issue ...

Glad to hear you've been able to remove your GFO.
If you recall from our conversation, that was the main reason I suggested adding some form of NO3. It wasn't to color up your corals, but glad that's been a positive effect.

I'm still GFO free, and haven't needed to add any NO3 since my last report.
I'll be more than doubling my fish load in a couple weeks, so hopefully I'll get some PO4 back in my tank soon.
Still sitting @ zero for both NO3 and PO4, even with heavy overfeeding of my 4 fish.
I'd like to get my readings up a bit, but my corals appear to be perfectly happy for now in the zero range.

Looking forward to your reports now that you've removed your GFO.

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Sorry to hear. I can't believe that such a high end fixture doesn't have a failsafe for that.

From what I have read it will hold the settings for a short while. But when the power goes out for a long time everything is lost even the clock settings. AS nice a unit it is it is extremely difficult to program.

[Myka]

Yikes! Roasting corals sucks - it's a long road to recovery.

I just re-started NaNO3 dosing too, but I'm adding KH2PO4 as well since I have neither measurable in my tank. Makes sure you don't bottom out PO4.

[Frogger]

I am hopeful the corals will be OK. The only one I may loose is a mystic sunset monti. Not the end of the world as I am battling the early stages of monti nudibranchs Likely stress of the water changes combined with stress from the lighting combined with the nudibranchs.

I am trying to get 2ppm NO3 and .03 ppm PO4. As of yesterday I was at .003 ppm Phosphate 1/10th of where I want to be.

MY tank is sucking up the phosphate and the NO3 right now.

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by Myka

Yikes! Roasting corals sucks - it's a long road to recovery.

I just re-started NaNO3 dosing too, but I'm adding KH2PO4 as well since I have neither measurable in my tank. Makes sure you don't bottom out PO4.

Where do you get the Potassium phosphate? What rate are you dosing?

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Frogger

Where do you get the Potassium phosphate? What rate are you dosing?

I got it from a friend, pretty sure he got it from "The Plant Guy". Google it, he's Canadian. Not allowed to post a link.

I'm adding 0.02 ppm per day right now to see what happens. So far only dosed twice.

[Frogger]

Great let me know how it goes with the phosphate. I tested mine last night and I had .02ppm phosphate. I am happy with that for now.