0 nitrate and phosphate and how to create the mixture

[El_reverde]

Hello All.

What is the best approach to raise my 0 nitrate/phosphat?
I purchased food grade sodium nitrate and loudwolf sodium phosphate. And for the life of me I do not dare to make the mixture without being worried of killing off my already dying corals.

 

[El_reverde]

Thank you for the info. How big is your aquarium?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hello Randy. Longtime no chat, almost a year lol. After several weeks of manually dosing 5-6ml of Nit and 1-2ml Phos (both about 0) and the dino seems to be coming back and I am beginning to lose more of my SPS colonies. The #s were ok for a bit and some of my browned out SPS began to color up, but I think that my aquarium demands more than what I was manually dosing...maybe automate it.

Should I raise the Nit/phos ml's (my aquarium is 60gal bare bottom mixed reef) and how should I space it out through out the day. Btw, I auto dose Alk/Cal 2x a day.

Thanks in advance for any help with my ordeal

If you still read 0 ppm for nitrate and phosphate, I'd certainly dose more. I'm not sure spacing it out matters, but I doubt it can hurt.

 

[El_reverde]

Based on my 60gal how much more should I start off with? Also my UV lights scheduling with my cheato or a few hours before?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Based on my 60gal how much more should I start off with? Also my UV lights scheduling with my cheato or a few hours before?

If you are dosing now and see nothing detectable 24 h later, I think dosing 50-100% more each day is a fine thing to try.

 

[El_reverde]

Ah, ok. I was doing about 5-6ml of Nit and 1-2ml of Phos daily...so now 10ml of N and 4mk of Phos.