I got Fraggy today

[ChuckG]

Nitrates seem to stay at 5 which isn't bad although I think I'm going to pick up another test kit to verify this.

Someone else suggested maybe not enough flow through the frag tank and back to the main system. This is one of the things I will replumb in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I added a HOB overflow onto the frag tank. Since I stopped the zeo and added the extra flow through the frag tank at about the same time and the algae started to decline it's hard to say which did it or if it was a combination of both. I'm going to increase the size of the overflow and turn it into a herbie style overflow for noise and bubble issues.

[Gecko]

Do you have chaeto and or mangroves?

[ChuckG]

No. I emptied out the fuge when I went Zeo. I'm not sure if I'll turn it back into a fuge now or not. Fuges are great for pod production but I've been reading that there is debate over how well they actually reduce nitrates. Some are even saying that you would need a fuge at least as big as the main tank in order for it to be a significant source of nitrate reduction.

[Gecko]

I don’t know Chuck; I feel any help what so ever is better than none. I would get that refugium up and running.

I have also read great things about mangroves and my favorite LFS has a refugium full of them and their corals and frags are second to none.

On a side note maybe you could pick some Fla. mangroves on the collecting trip and implement them into your system?

[ChuckG]

I know of several local people that have mangroves and they all say that they can't see a significant reduction in nitrates as a result.

If I start to have a problem with nitrates I'll probably consider a denitrator.

[ChuckG]

Frags are looking good.

[Thomas]

Looks great Chuck. Nice work. I also heard it would take a large amount of algae either Chaeto or other to lower the nitrates any significant amount. I had the Chaeto to see if I could notice a pH stabilization between night and day. I saw no difference at all. Now I could run the exact tank I have now with the exact same creatures on a reverse light cycle and that would probably do the trick.

[ChuckG]

I still believe in refugiums but I'm leaning more towards pod population and diversity within the system rather than nutrient exportation.

[ricosuave]

I wish I had that kind of luck with my fragging. The colors are so vivid, red,blue, green...

[Gecko]

The frags look awesome...