New 73 gallon tank setup

[Frogger]

Why can I only upload a few images? I have to delete existing images to upload new ones. This means the previous images in this post get removed.

There must be a way because people have many many years with of images in their posts.

[gregzz4]

I use Photobucket. I've used Dropbox, and I think there's also Flickr

[DKoKoMan]

I'm using tinypic and seems to be alright.

[Myka]

I used to use Photobucket but now it's so loaded with ads that it bogs down my computer. Can't sand that site anymore. I switched to Flickr which is much faster, but lacks the handy multiple URL selection that you get off Photobucket. Flickr you have to go to each photo individually to get the URL to post here.

[tang daddy]

How's the feeding going?

Checked Param's again?

Do the corals look any better?

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

How's the feeding going?

Checked Param's again?

Do the corals look any better?

Feeding heavily, all kinds of foods

Checked the parameters last night phosphates still 0 nitrates 1.5ppm. the last 2 days reduced the nitrate I was adding by 50%. Today I am not going to add any nitrates. I have to get the phosphates up above 0. They have been 0 or close to 0 for a week or more.

Too early to tell about the corals, nothings dead yet but many of them are showing tip dieback and polyps are not extended or fully extended.

Lessons learned 0 phosphate or 0 nitrates are not a good thing. The ideal situation is having the correct balance. Looking at getting phosphates to add to tank.

[Frogger]

I have added 4 smaller pieces of live rock that I have been "cooking" for several months. I treated the rocks with a peroxide dip to remove any remaining unwantables. These rocks came from a phosphate rich tank. Hopefully they slowly leach some phosphate into the tank to help manage my 0 phosphate issues.

I will keep you posted, fingers crossed.

[DKoKoMan]

Wish I could give you some of my .025ppm phosphates lol

[Frogger]

I think I am figuring this out and am beginning to understand where I went wrong.

I have not added any nitrates to the tanks in about 4 days, I did a 20% water change this morning. This afternoon my nitrates are still 1.5ppm and my phosphates are 0. I have used multiple different test kits and different reagents from different packages with the same results. The calcium levels and the alkalinity levels are stable without adding any 2 part solution. This tells me that I have shut down the photosynthetic activity in my tank, including the coralline algae.

There is not a lot of information on the web about the relationship between phosphates and nitrates. Most of us including myself (past tanks) have never had to really think about the relationship because our goals were to lower them as much as we can because they were always high. Problem is I designed a tank that efficiently uses up the nitrates and phosphates so well I have one that is bottomed out at all times.

It appears that your nitrates can only go so high when your phosphate becomes the limiting factor. Because I should have seen a reduction in nitrates with the 20% water change.

I can't get myself to look at my corals. I feel that I have let them down. It is not the cost of replacing the corals that bothers me its that I am in charge of their care. I take great pride in my past ability at keeping corals and fish alive for long periods of time.

I will do another 20% water change tomorrow and will continue to do so until I get the balance of phosphates to nitrates in place

[Bblinks]

Having unbalanced po4 and no3 level is definitely not a good. It limits the growth since po4 in your case contributes to a vital part of it. Here is a one of the speaker from 2016 macna and I think he can explain this better than I can.https://youtu.be/ZRIKW-9d2xI