question about coral growth, coloration and phosphate control

[DFR]

Ok, just 2 more comments and I think that’s it from me.  

With the skimmer, set it to a dry collection and leave it.  It’ll probably go through phases where it looks like it not producing much bubbles but this is unavoidable.  Another thing you could do is put it on a timer. Addressing the skimmer should also help things normalize/balance a little. 

Lastly, since your fish load isn’t drastic, I’d also ween off the nopox.  I’d first keep the gfo running a little longer while slowly decreasing the nopox.  This should cause the nitrate to raise a little quicker than the phosphate (just to get ratio a little closer).  Then slowly cease with the gfo also.

Your skimmer and fuge should be able to handle your load no problem.

[realypk]

So i actually visited his tank when picking up sump and skimmer, and noticed he was using black sand which looked alot like tahitian black which i had a nightmare of time with a few years back. The stuff was basically toxic. You fellas think the tahitian black may have something to do with it?

 

When i used it stuff would die fast after entering tank with exception of macro algea and lps. My water params were great but then turns out when i did a test vanadium levels were higher than could be measured by the lab, literally through the roof. Toxic levels.

Edited March 3, 2019 by realypk

[A.ocellaris]

On 3/3/2019 at 12:38 PM, realypk said:

So i actually visited his tank when picking up sump and skimmer, and noticed he was using black sand which looked alot like tahitian black which i had a nightmare of time with a few years back. The stuff was basically toxic. You fellas think the tahitian black may have something to do with it?

 

When i used it stuff would die fast after entering tank with exception of macro algea and lps. My water params were great but then turns out when i did a test vanadium levels were higher than could be measured by the lab, literally through the roof. Toxic levels.

 

Tahitian moon sand... you can ask me anything about it lol, you can take a look at my post:

Simply put, take the sand out of your tank and do a 100% water change (please read my post above). The corals that survived didn't have any growth in 10 months... after removing it everything is growing fast!

Edited March 4, 2019 by A.ocellaris