Raising nutrients or not?

[Aquajan]

Hi,

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 350 liter
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - 300 liter
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique no
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) no
5. Are you using Ozone no
6. Are you using UV no
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) deltec sc 1351 - 350-600 liter
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels Po4 0,05 No3 2,5
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels ca 430 Alk 7,8 mg 1370
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) Skimmer, filter roller, carbon in bag, zeovit in auto reactor.
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 2x Hydra 26 hd saxby 2x t5 39w blue plus 2x t5 24w coral plus
12. What corals do you keep lps sps including across (still frags)

13. Tissue color (light or dark) dark I think
14. How long has the tank been running 11 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system a good stable sid system with good growth and collor
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) Triton other methods
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) 25 kg aquaforest synthetic rock
18. Any present problems low Po4
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) some acropora have white polyps at night and some seem slimy white.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) No3 red sea pro and salifert, Po4 hanna, alk Hanna, mg aquaforest, CA red sea pro, salinity dd refractometer.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
zeolite 750ml, bak 3x 3 drops a week, start 2x 0,2ml day, food 3x 1 drop week, cv 3x 1 drop week, cyano clean 3x drop and coral snow 6ml 1x week, zym 1x 1/5 teaspoon week.

22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) salinity 35 ppm temp 25C
23. Which salt brand do you use tropic marine pro.

Im running zeovit for a little over 5 months now.
The nutrients are pretty low now with No3 at 2,5 but Po4 is constantly at 0,00.
So as far as I know that's a recepie for dinos so I am feeding more to increase Po4.
I was feeding 1x a day pelets with auto feeder, 1x 1 cube of frozen food (every day another cind) and 3x a week nori.
I have been feeding nori every day now for 3 weeks and target feed all lps 2x a week with reefroids.
Po4 would raise to max 0,015 on the day I feed roids but the day after it was 0,00 again.
I am feeding alot more pelets now since 1 week including the nori and roids and Po4 is now 0,05.

So would say this is better and Po4 should be around 0,08 - 0,03, but what do you guys think?

Thanks in advance,

Gertjan

[jacky]

Personal taste, close to the water quality parameters of New South Wales, prefer PO4 = 0, coral health performance is good, no problem. The low-nutrient environment is not a problem that caused dinosaurs, it must have its source, such as equipment, hoses, materials, etc. Please also remember that low nutrient water parameters are absolutely optimal for coral growth/color. It is like a magnifying glass, revealing other hidden problems. Also, be aware of fluctuations in nutrient levels, which may cause corals to not adapt immediately

[Aquajan]

Hi,
I have looked at the first 10 featured tanks and they have all unreadable Po4 to at most 0,03.
So I guess im gonna step back a bit with the food.
I do want to have a concistent presence of Po4 so I am gonna look for the balance at around 0,01-0,03.
I do see my No3 is still a bit high with 2,5 although I do hav 50% lps 50% sps for the lps those nitrates might be nice.

[jacky]

Almost all corals (SPS, LPS) are healthy/growing well in water parameters with low malnutrition and stability. Since using the ZeoVit system (more than 5 months), NO3 is still measurable, which makes me a little confused. What is the reactor flow rate? Do current corals show growth, and do polyps expand? In terms of personal taste, starting with PO4>0.03ppm, the coral looks darker/heavier and not bright

[Aquajan]

Yea nitrate is probably still measurable becouse I had a bunch of marine pure in the sump what turned out to be a nitrate factory so I removed it over six weeks and the last piece I removed 1 month ago.
Befor I removed it No3 was 20 after running zeovit about 2,5 months.

On top of that my doser stopped dosing zeostart becous somehow the tube lost vacuum for I don't know how long and I did not notice until 2 weeks ago.
So No3 is still dropping bit by bit.

The reactor is the skims zar-127 and the flow is about 360l per hour (on controller) but I can not measure the flow becous of the way the reactor is build.
I know the flow is higher than recommended (max 300 lph) but if I want to lower the flow it will drop to 240l per hour.
I would guess the flow rates that they give for the reactor are for an empty reactor so with the stones in it should drop a bit.
So to lower No3 I went with the higher flow.

[G.Alexander]

Hello Gertjan, as you already mention many run their systems at undetectable PO4 levels without a problem, this is what I have done in my tanks also without any presence of Dinoflagellate. The Nori algae do contain a lot of iodine, if you have any issues with Cyanos it is better to stop feeding them while they are present.

If your corals are doing fine and if they are growing well I would personally not try to increase PO4. Coral growth can be massive even if PO4 is not detectable.

G.Alexander