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I do 5 gallon water changes probably once every 1.5 months
Nutrient Questions
- Thread starter danh
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I do 5 gallon water changes probably once every 1.5 months
I've had water in the tank 4 months. CUC just under 3 months and a week after that started with the fish. I tested ammonia and nitrate every other day for the first month as it was cycling and had HUGE ammonia spikes during the cycle for what I consider a strong cycle. I agree that I didn't take it SLOW over the past 2 months, but I still test 2-3 times a week. I haven't tested ammonia or nitrite lately but I see no signs that I have either.
I understand though that the entire tank, not just the ATS, isn't established to the point where I'd should consider anything other than ammonia and nitrite as being really long term stable.
I also don't feel like there's anything wrong with my tank at this point either and that's not why I started this thread or my skimmer air intake thread. Like I've said before, I'm detail oriented. I don't just want to know everything that's going on in my tank.. I NEED TO KNOW. In the case of this thread also to help me make the best water change schedule decisions and to challenge my more is always better (60%+ twice a week) FW mentality.
No, the question wasn't meant to come across as judgmental. To the contrary, I think it's quite impressive that you've got that much going on in that short of time and have your nitrate & PO4 numbers where they are.
With 5 fish, 1 leather and a smaller cuc I've been running 6~8 Nitrates and .07~.12 PO4.
There has been Cheato in the fuge for a month now and it's growing but not taking off. I started running GFO on Sunday and plan to test both of these again tonight. You're right on the verge of having those nutrient numbers right where you want them. I can only hope I'm in as good a position in 2 months.
Cool. I didn't sense harsh judgement - but then again, I agree I didn't go slow.
I am fine with my nutrients where they're at and very surprised they're as low as they are too. The fact that I feed fresh seafood from the grocery store may be one difference. How I've heard it described that makes sense to me is that it's not nutrient dense like pellets and even like frozen prepared fish food. Overfeeding is less impactful and I also feel like the waste that the fish produce from a mostly protein diet like that isn't as rich. I have that observation from FW as well. I almost exclusively only fed grocery store fish and shellfish to my FW fish. I feed pellets lightly to this tank once or twice a week.
I am fine with my nutrients where they're at and very surprised they're as low as they are too. The fact that I feed fresh seafood from the grocery store may be one difference. How I've heard it described that makes sense to me is that it's not nutrient dense like pellets and even like frozen prepared fish food. Overfeeding is less impactful and I also feel like the waste that the fish produce from a mostly protein diet like that isn't as rich. I have that observation from FW as well. I almost exclusively only fed grocery store fish and shellfish to my FW fish. I feed pellets lightly to this tank once or twice a week.
That's a very interesting point you make. I've been thinking about making my own food for some time now. Are you running it through a food processor?
I have a very good friend that owns a Sushi restaurant and I can get scraps of all the fresh fish he gets in. Nothing he serves as sushi is previously frozen. There's plenty of trimmings that aren't "Sushi Grade" that end up getting tossed. I just don't know which fish to ask him for or what to add to it from the store. I meant to read up on it but haven't done much research yet.
I'm actually feeding some Masago (Capelin Roe) from the restaurant. I soak it in rodi for a bit then add some selcon. The fish go nuts for it.
I have a very good friend that owns a Sushi restaurant and I can get scraps of all the fresh fish he gets in. Nothing he serves as sushi is previously frozen. There's plenty of trimmings that aren't "Sushi Grade" that end up getting tossed. I just don't know which fish to ask him for or what to add to it from the store. I meant to read up on it but haven't done much research yet.
I'm actually feeding some Masago (Capelin Roe) from the restaurant. I soak it in rodi for a bit then add some selcon. The fish go nuts for it.
have about a pound left that I cut in to pieces about the size of a finger nail that were bite size for my FW fish. I take a couple of those piece out of the freezer, thaw, cut in to smaller pieces and then smash them in my fingers when I feed them.
I hope that the whatever nutrition pellets I got from Premier are balanced enough to get them the rest of the nutrients they need.
After I cleaned my ATS in the picture in this thread, some of it rinsed back in to the system when I put it back in. The yellow tang at least when crazy. I wonder if I should be using that to supplement their feed and how that compares to seaweed.
With FW I always stayed away from really fatty fish like salmon. That would spoil water quick. In my 480g I used catfish nuggets - the scraps that normally went for .99-1.99/lb. That was slightly fatty but if I rinsed it really well I'd get rid of most of it. Those fish could easily eat a pound of fish a day.
I hope that the whatever nutrition pellets I got from Premier are balanced enough to get them the rest of the nutrients they need.
After I cleaned my ATS in the picture in this thread, some of it rinsed back in to the system when I put it back in. The yellow tang at least when crazy. I wonder if I should be using that to supplement their feed and how that compares to seaweed.
With FW I always stayed away from really fatty fish like salmon. That would spoil water quick. In my 480g I used catfish nuggets - the scraps that normally went for .99-1.99/lb. That was slightly fatty but if I rinsed it really well I'd get rid of most of it. Those fish could easily eat a pound of fish a day.
Luke, do you test elements that you don't dose to get a feel for trace depletion or have you planned that water change on the response from your corals? Just wondering. I am not dosing anything other than kalk in my ato... I don't have a whole lot of coral going on yet.
Today's tests. I really think that NO3 has been 1.5 or so the whole time. I think I need to stop using the red sea choice for nitrate so I don't have to choose 1, 2 or 4. And type 1.5 when I feel the color is between 1 and 2. My alk and ca are in that range with 3 tsp of kalk per 5g of ato water. I have been, however, adding the cloudy residual of my ato container to my next mixture. Which I feel was was the reason for the bump because I've been doing 3 for a few weeks now. Maybe it was test inconsistency.
That jump in magnesium I am going to say is a test error. The red sea kit calls for 5 drops of reagent A with 15 seconds of mixing between each drop.. That seems difficult for me.. Maybe I did 4.......
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Today's tests. I really think that NO3 has been 1.5 or so the whole time. I think I need to stop using the red sea choice for nitrate so I don't have to choose 1, 2 or 4. And type 1.5 when I feel the color is between 1 and 2. My alk and ca are in that range with 3 tsp of kalk per 5g of ato water. I have been, however, adding the cloudy residual of my ato container to my next mixture. Which I feel was was the reason for the bump because I've been doing 3 for a few weeks now. Maybe it was test inconsistency.
That jump in magnesium I am going to say is a test error. The red sea kit calls for 5 drops of reagent A with 15 seconds of mixing between each drop.. That seems difficult for me.. Maybe I did 4.......
Here's some great news. My oldest daughter is 10. She's been in gifted classes since she was 6. She helped me with some testing tonight and loved the chemistry. She decided to go back to watching Wizards of Waverly Place by the last test - Mg - where I needed her to help me count drops lol. Proud father - once again.
Here's a video of my ATO to show lighting and flow. I purchased these lights for cost, form and frequency. Adam, see the slight algae growth in my skimmer. That's because you forgot to bring the black acrylic you offered me. I'm not really worried about it. I scraped the ATO 2 days ago. I am really impressed with the regrowth. What do you all think about the flow rate? I think it could use a little more flow. I've got plenty to spare for it. While I can't measure the flow, I'll have to figure out how Ic an somehow measure flow rate changes as well as objectively measure effectiveness to be able to understand what works best.
Also see the detritus in the skimmer and second chamber. I'd say for the age of this sump, that's a lot. I'll have to use my shop vac or something like that to get that out. The first chamber if you can see here has two baskets of rubble which I feel needs a little detritus to help the pods. What do you all think?
Which can bring me back to the rotter tube... wtf......
<!-- gcu-updated ame -->https://youtu.be/2EEsyObHqtA<!-- gcu-updated /ame -->
Here's a video of my ATO to show lighting and flow. I purchased these lights for cost, form and frequency. Adam, see the slight algae growth in my skimmer. That's because you forgot to bring the black acrylic you offered me. I'm not really worried about it. I scraped the ATO 2 days ago. I am really impressed with the regrowth. What do you all think about the flow rate? I think it could use a little more flow. I've got plenty to spare for it. While I can't measure the flow, I'll have to figure out how Ic an somehow measure flow rate changes as well as objectively measure effectiveness to be able to understand what works best.
Also see the detritus in the skimmer and second chamber. I'd say for the age of this sump, that's a lot. I'll have to use my shop vac or something like that to get that out. The first chamber if you can see here has two baskets of rubble which I feel needs a little detritus to help the pods. What do you all think?
Which can bring me back to the rotter tube... wtf......
<!-- gcu-updated ame -->https://youtu.be/2EEsyObHqtA<!-- gcu-updated /ame -->
I see my spray bar isn't trickling straight down over my substrate. It's because I overfilled the carbon bag and the mat can't hang straight down. I'll correct that in the next week or so when change that carbon. I got some nice carbon from BRS that I'm eager to try to figure out the benefits of.
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I plan based on how corals look. But if it's been 2 months or more than I will go ahead and preform a change.
Nitrates are still dropping. Now at 0.75. Posphate is down to .02. That's a steady decrease still. I've successfully been trying to raise my alkalinity and calcium. Saturday was at 9.8 and 415. With my dkh that high, a new ph shift is confusing me. My ph has shifted down and has been between 7.84 and and 8.03 for the last few days. It had hovering 7.99-8.1. I would have assumed that the increased alkalinity with kalkwasser would stabilize and probably raise my ph. At this point it seems like the water changes may have helped my ph more than I had expected. What buffering properties and am I missing from the lack of water changes the last 2 weeks?
Have you confirmed the PH with a test kit?
I don't have any experience with Kalk yet. With BRS Alk the PH climbs.
You may still want to verify the Apex probe to be sure you're getting good info before you dose anything else to raise the PH.
You may still want to verify the Apex probe to be sure you're getting good info before you dose anything else to raise the PH.
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unless you have a slammed tank full of corals I seriously doubt you are in need of replacing any kind of trace elements. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but theres nothing there to uptake the stuff. trace elements are important, but its easy to get caught up in tracking every little number. Even PH is secondary in my uneducated opinion. Sure, you want to keep it within acceptable levels, but stability is the main thing. Personally, I inch my alk where I want it, and let my ph stabilize where it will, as long as it is within range. As far as a target alk, your salt choice will make a big difference in this. Most salts have a super high ALK for some reason (just something to consider).
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since i hit on the ph stuff, allow me to chase the rabbit a little . I'm sure everyone already knows this stuff, but here is a nice article from RHF concerting Alk / ca / ph relationships
I am fairly familiar with those ideas. I agree, I don't need to do much with trace elements right now. I'm looking toward continued success.
The ph has been going down in the last two days... I wonder if it's CO2... I haven't had my 3 kids almost all summer. They've been with their other parents and grandparents. I wonder if they're taking my reef's O2!! I'll be having a little talk with all of them tonight lol
Judging by Fusion's readings of my ph today, now that the kids are out of the house after the weekend and back in school, maybe that's what it was...
I know every tank is different and you and I are on opposite ends regarding livestock. I don't know if it's my take it slow approach or what but my PH has been very stable, between 8.2 & 8.31 over the last week. I tested NO3 & PO4 last Thursday. NO3 dropped from 8 to 6 and the GFO got my PO4 down to .02
My last water change was 16 days ago. I plan on testing again tonight and if the NO3 went up I'm going to do a change.
My last water change was 16 days ago. I plan on testing again tonight and if the NO3 went up I'm going to do a change.
Oh.... one more interesting development. My skimmer, eshopps s200, took over a month before it seemed to be skimming effectively. At that time my nitrates were up to 8. Then it really kicked in and pulled like crazy... and now it's having trouble again. The pump seems fine and is pulling a steady 26-28 watts. I think there's just very little for it to pull. I'll post a pic from cleaning the ATS tonight.
