Urgent help needed Nitra Guard Bio Cubes corals closing

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stibby

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Hi everyone,

I have recently started using nitra guard bio cubes and since doing so my lps corals and anemone have closed and changing colors. Nitrates are still 50ppm. I am running these alongside miracle mud with macroalgae and my refugium is looking dirty. I am only using a skimmer rated for the size of my tank but I understand with this type of carbon dosing that shouldn't matter. Any advice please guys....

Paul
 
And what algae are you running in your miracle mud?
 
Nitra guard

My system is 300 liters and I am using 900 mls of biocubes. I have chaeto and caluerpra in my refugium. I am running the cubes under my overflow outlet in the sump
 
I removed a large chunk of sand in my main display 2 weeks ago as I was having an ongoing nitrate problem which wasn't being controlled with my miracle mud refugium and skimmer so I made my display a shallow sand bed and that put my nitrates up even higher which is why I started on the biocubes
 
Firstly that is a lot of cubes for your volume. When they kick in they are going to drop your nitrates and phosphates extremely quickly which could cause your corals to go into shock. As a comparison, I run 1000ml of cubes in 1800L of water.

How is the colour of the corals changing? Are they bleaching? What was your nitrate level the day that you added the cubes?
 
stibby said:
I removed a large chunk of sand in my main display 2 weeks ago as I was having an ongoing nitrate problem which wasn't being controlled with my miracle mud refugium and skimmer so I made my display a shallow sand bed and that put my nitrates up even higher which is why I started on the biocubes
Click to expand...

By how much did your nitrates go up? I suspect that this could have been the initial cause of the corals sulking. The cubes, only being in the tank for a week should not have kicked in with force so you should not have seen a real drop in nitrates and phosphates.

My money is on another factor and not the cubes.
 
They were 60ppm so I was advised to use 900mls

image.jpg
 
No, do not temove them, just wait. On a 60ppm NO3, 900mls not overkill.do you have an airstone under them in their bag, if not, please install.
The browning of your fuge has nothing to do with cubes, culprit = ripping out of sandbed>huge nutrient influx.
Few water changes in order and get ready to remove the mud soon.... In about two weeks.
During 1st installation of cubes, bound to be a minimal release of Organic C into water, negligabke, excpt when you go for max dose. With loads of free N, P avail post sandbed disturbance, a huge population of microorganisms and a bit of organic C thrown into the mix... Could get interesting... Think it did in your case.
 
Why will you be keeping it?
 
Alright guys I have just added significant oxygen to the biocubes with a strong air pump and stones using the bomb method. I hope this helps things
 
Carbon sorce dosing of any kind requires your skimmer to be rated 30% higher than your total volume.
Also for lps and softies I'd recomendations half the dose a full sps system can go with a recomendations dose
but
to start keep the dose administered and as the level subsides you can remove some of the cubes. The removed cubes can be dried out and reused at a later stage.
 
Cubes take about 2 weeks before they are 100% effective. Should see differences in your readings from then.

It is after all a biological filter. And the same as with DSB, or your mud, takes time to develop or mature. Ripping out other biological filtration parts of your system before the cubes mature will impact your system. Its not the cubes fault, rather the sudden lack of biological filtration.

Wait another week before making the next big change.
 
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