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I am starting to think that my algae reactor filled with chaeto is too efficient. It's a big reactor of about 5 gallons, so it's rather like a refugium. But on my 90G tank I keep struggling to have some nitrate. I have to add 5 ppm nitrate every day to be able to measure any nitrate at all. SPS are starting to pale a bit. So right now I'm triyng to reduce flow through the reactor and also to reduce the photoperiod.
Macro Algae is proving to be VERY effective an nutrient control, so much so that we tend to overfeed the BRS160 in order to maintain undetectable nitrates and less than 0.08ppm phosphates. Have you tried feeding the tank more than usual or supplementing with some sort of food source like Red Sea Reef Energy A&B?
-Randy
Interesting to hear that about the BRS160! Right now I feed about 4 cubes per day. Have not started to feed any other food, like coral food or amino acids. Thinking about getting a doser for that and adding small amounts during the day.
Just FYI, I feed the BRS160 about (2x) Sprulina Brine, (1x) PE Mysis, (1x) PE Calanus, quarter sized handful of Seaweed Extreme pellets, and about 4-5 scoops of BRS Reef Chili. Daily !
Just FYI, I feed the BRS160 about (2x) Sprulina Brine, (1x) PE Mysis, (1x) PE Calanus, quarter sized handful of Seaweed Extreme pellets, and about 4-5 scoops of BRS Reef Chili. Daily !
I fear newcomers may get lost in the quest for ULNS. You can test 0 Nitrates and Phosphates while feeding heavily if you have good nutrient export of the excess (probably a good plan). You can also test 0 by feeding almost nothing with limited export (may be good). Likewise, a tank filled with hair algae can test 0 also if the algae is utilizing excess nutrients (not good). These three scenarios would test the same, but are very different. The absence or presence of nutrients alone, at a given time, is incomplete data for a successful aquarium.
My point is to note every system is different so no one should be in a rush to suddenly decide 0 nutrients, or conversely measurable nutrients are a holy grail for them.
my NO3 and PO4 are out of balance with my tank stripping NO3 out while leaving PO4 which is why GHA, cyano and red turf algae are blooming. I suspect the algae is stripping ammonia not leaving enough enough NO3 for the corals to uptake it with the PO4.
All @ one time? or throughout the day.... and the weekends?Just FYI, I feed the BRS160 about (2x) Sprulina Brine, (1x) PE Mysis, (1x) PE Calanus, quarter sized handful of Seaweed Extreme pellets, and about 4-5 scoops of BRS Reef Chili. Daily !
All @ one time? or throughout the day.... and the weekends?
I don’t think Chaeto will grow if there are too low nutrients in the tank. Basically if the Cheato is heathy and growing then you have plenty nutrients in your tank.
My concern is that nitrates get to zero, as long as there is phosphate, the chaeto will use up a lot of nitrate because of the phosphate to nitrate ratio in uptake. For now I keep adding 5 PPM of KNO3 every day.
Yeah, I think the reefing community has now come to the point where excess nutrients is not a problem anymore. Now the problem is how to balance those nutrients. I did a terrible job by taking my reef tank to zeros all around.
I bought the h380 and the controller only to find out I cant use the controller..On the back of the box it says " and future products" so something is in the works, I dout that I will purchase another but at least I should be able to unload it.Even kessil h380 can't do that ...