Blog Comments

What is your current calcium level? Mg is about 100ppm too low.

You can clean the green sheen off the glass regularly to keep that at bay. The pH level is a little low, but according to Randy Holmes-Farley, there are tanks out there that do fine from 7.7 to 7.9 daily. Yours is running 7.8 to 8.0 ... totally fine.

Your tank is how old? What kinds of corals? Which are growing and which aren't? Any chance the tangs or angels are nipping at those corals?

I have a low fish load. I have a Naso tang, Sailfin tang, majestic angel, juvenile emperor angel, two yellow tail fusiliers and two cinnamon clowns.

About 50Kg of live rock. I feed in the morning and night.

My main issue is that I'm not getting good coral growth and I have a bright green algae growing in parts of my tank. Mainly on the bottom glass.
My main concern is the low PH, what should I do to raise it?

For any type of carbon dosing (including bio-pellets), I don't believe 2 months is long enough to see the benefits. That is the minimum amount of time before any nitrates or phosphates will start to drop... and then they'll drop slowly. Also, you'll need both phosphates and nitrates in order for carbon dosing to work. If your tank is truly devoid of phosphates (I doubt it), carbon dosing will not bring down nitrates.

Is there a problem the 5-10 nitrates are causing? What type of issues are you seeing? How much livestock is in your tank and how much do you feed? If you are stocked on the heavy side, it's possible your nitrates will always be in the 5-10 range.

Other thoughts?

i have the same problem with my pH the best i can get it to now is about 8

The biopellets erode over time as the bacteria feeds off of it. It is going to take weeks, not days. So if you're tank is doing well, don't make big changes. If your tank needs issues corrected, that's different. Any PO4 is better than none, and remember there are two kinds, organic and inorganic. We only test for one kind. Additionally, my tank has read 0 PO4 for the entire seven months I've run biopellets so technically speaking there wasn't any available (theoretically).

Feed more often in tiny portions, and give it more time. That's my suggestion.

Thanks for your help guy's,

I'm using the two little fishes bio pellets. 400ml

I'm gonna take the GFO online for a few day's and feed more to see if it makes a diffrence?

I assumed that the bio pellets slowly de solve and that is how the bacteria gets into the tank to consume Nitrate?

what level of po4 should I be aiming at?

From what I been told my local club chemist, bacteria growth with biopellets will drop nitrates 10.5ppm for every 1ppm of phosphate. 1ppm of phosphate is quite a bit by our standards. I would also stop using GFO as Myhahockeykid suggested. It might also be prudent to feed your fish more to help generate those phosphates.

the gfo is ok to use. ive been using them for about a year and never seen them completly remove phospahtes. ive been using gfo with no ill effects. in fact the makers of np biopellets recomends using there po4x4 in conjuction with pellets. http://www.po4x4.com/Site/. what pellets are you using, how many ML of pellets. also there is a chance your flow could be to strong, and you could be blowing off the bacteria. people forget the pellets are a bacterial filtration thats alive.

Yep, the biopellets NEED to pull out phosphate along with nitrate. I'd pull the GFO (slowly) and even if they rise the pellets will pull them back down. I run the pellets and have 0 nitrates on a salifert (my sps are very light colored due to the lack of nitrate even though I feed 3x a day with frozen and then liquid coral foods every other night). My phosphate is 3 ppB. You need phosphate to get out nitrate with the pellets.

I also forgot to add that I run a Titan trigger skimmer with the outlet of the Biopellet reactor near the inlet of the skimmer.

mother nature is certainly humbling to the average reefer..... great images.....sooo jealous!

Thanks for your feedback guys. @ Jessy, cool thanks, I would be honoured to write one up.

Hi! If you'd like to write a full trip report article including photos and details of the area and your experience we'd love to feature you in our scuba section of articles on the home page. Please let me know if you are interested and I can give you access.

very cool looks like a great time!

Hey there, now those are some gorgious pictures, great job.

Saw the slideshow, awesome pictures mate!

my choice would be aquatic system design calcium reactor, support USA made.

The Korallin 1502 is more than adequate for your system. What you'll want is the Korallin 1502, 5lb Co2 Tank, Dual Gauge Regulator with CGA-320 fitting, Co2 Shut off Solenoid, and PH Controller for the Solenoid. This is the "autopilot system" ... It will take a few days or so of very small adjustments to get the reactor dialed in, but after that it's pretty much solid as a rock...

600 litres or 160 gallons.

I need some advice on buying a calcium reactor.

I'm a huge fan of the Korallin Calcium Reactors. I really like the little 1502 model they have. What is the water volume of your system?