Do I have too many fish? Skyrocket nitrate and zero phosphate.

[Felipe Ramos]

Hey guys, a short background:

I have a 120 gallon tank, sps tank, running calcium reactor, with a big refugium running 6 hours/day with live rock and chaeto, no GFO, using activated carbon and have the following fishes:

1 Scopas Tang Small
1 Yellow Tang Medium
1 Acquiles Tang Medium
1 Blue Tang Small
1 Saifin Tang Medium
1 Purple Tang Medium
1 Magnificent Foxface Medium
6 Anthias
1 Flame Hawkfish
1 Six Line
1 Pajama Cardinal
2 Danzels
2 Clownfishs
1 Blenny Tailspot

I'm a medium to heavy feeder and usually my parameters are ok but has been almost 6 months I'm fighting with my nitrate and doesn't matter what I do, it never goes down. I just tested and I got Nitrate 80 - 100ppm (Salifert Test) and Phosphates at 0 (Hanna Checker not the ULR). I was using Microbacter just because I had some left here but its definitely not working and I test two times per week.

What are my options? I love my fish too much but I'm ok if I have to let some of them go. I was reading about Vinegar or Vodka dosing but since I never dosed carbon I'm confused about it. Thanks in advance.

 

[Cory]

If you add phosphate your refugium will be able to lower nitrates quicker.

 

[Felipe Ramos]

Hey Cory thanks for your answer. I have a Flourish Phosphorus Bottle. Is it ok if I dose it? It says one cap per 40 gallons once or twice a week. Should I follow this or is there a better way to dose? There is a expert mode but I'm too noob for it lol

 

[Cory]

As long as there isnt any metals like copper, you can add it. I wouldn't dose based on tank size because you may overdose. Id start with a few mls and test your po4.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

how are you testing?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I would test with the ulr hanna checker before starting to add po4. The checker your using won’t show lower amounts of po4 in the water. If the ulr reads zero then I would try adding some po4. I guess you could just try adding some and see if the nitrate lowers a little over the next day.

 

[NanoDJS]

Where is your skimmer homie ?

 

[Felipe Ramos]

So, I added the phosphate yesterday... I added the dose to get it to 0.08 (almost the beginner dose) and I got it on 0.06. Just tested nitrate and phosphate as you can see. Nitrates looks like same color from yesterday between 50 and 100.

how are you testing?

Im testing using those Salifert and Hanna.

I would test with the ulr hanna checker before starting to add po4. The checker your using won’t show lower amounts of po4 in the water. If the ulr reads zero then I would try adding some po4. I guess you could just try adding some and see if the nitrate lowers a little over the next day.

Im not sure if lowered a bit.

Where is your skimmer homie ?

I do have a skimmer for my tank size, I clean it every 4 days.

--

I have a 20% waterchange ready to go into the tank... Should I do this or should I wait and see if Nitrate lowers a little bit more? My fuge time is from 00:00 to 06:00. Let me know what else I can do please.

Thanks in advance =) I will solve all my tank problems once for all this week no excuse hehe

 

[jstephens24]

is anything going bad or are you just chasing a number?

 

[nereefpat]

Yes, I think you have too many large-bodied fishes. 6 tangs and a rabbit will almost certainly give you nutrient issues in a 120. Some of them get too large for a 120 anyway.

 

[Felipe Ramos]

is anything going bad or are you just chasing a number?

Not chasing a number... I have some corals not doing well and I'm worried about the unbalanced phosphate / nitrate

Yes, I think you have too many large-bodied fishes. 6 tangs and a rabbit will almost certainly give you nutrient issues in a 120. Some of them get too large for a 120 anyway.

I will see how it goes this week but I will probably take two tangs out. Thank you

 

[Felipe Ramos]

I just tested again.

I have now lil bit less nitrate (little color diference) and phosphates are reading 0 again.

On the seachem flourish label it says once or two times per week, but I dosed on sunday and now I'm reading 0 again.

Should I dose more phosphate?

 

[nereefpat]

I would not be dosing phosphate unless you are carbon dosing and phosphate limited. I don't see the point.

 

[Felipe Ramos]

I would not be dosing phosphate unless you are carbon dosing and phosphate limited. I don't see the point.

Even with this high nitrate and the zero phosphate? Do you think the best solution is leave like this? Tbh in my previously tanks I always had Nitrate in 5ppt and phosphate at 0.04... I can't get this here I dont know why.

 

[nereefpat]

I don't believe that you have zero phosphate. The checker you are using isn't the right one for measuring really low levels. The best one for that is the ULR phosphorous. It reads in ppb phosporous. Dosing P won't bring down N unless you are carbon dosing and P limited, or running a really large algae scrubber and are P limited.

Is your tank newish? Start the tank with dry rock? Do you have too many fish? Too many large fish? Do you feed a lot? Those are reasons for high nitrates.

 

[Cory]

I don't believe that you have zero phosphate. The checker you are using isn't the right one for measuring really low levels. The best one for that is the ULR phosphorous. It reads in ppb phosporous. Dosing P won't bring down N unless you are carbon dosing and P limited, or running a really large algae scrubber and are P limited.

Is your tank newish? Start the tank with dry rock? Do you have too many fish? Too many large fish? Do you feed a lot? Those are reasons for high nitrates.

He has a refugium and his checker says 0. You dont think there is a deficiency of po4? I know that when my checker said 0 po4 and no3 was high, like his, i got dinos. Raising my po4 to .64ppm on the hanna made the dinos go away though.

 

[nereefpat]

He has a refugium and his checker says 0. You dont think there is a deficiency of po4? I know that when my checker said 0 po4 and no3 was high, like his, i got dinos. Raising my po4 to .64ppm on the hanna made the dinos go away though.

His is the wrong checker, and we aren't talking about dinos.

 

[Felipe Ramos]

I don't believe that you have zero phosphate. The checker you are using isn't the right one for measuring really low levels. The best one for that is the ULR phosphorous. It reads in ppb phosporous. Dosing P won't bring down N unless you are carbon dosing and P limited, or running a really large algae scrubber and are P limited.

Is your tank newish? Start the tank with dry rock? Do you have too many fish? Too many large fish? Do you feed a lot? Those are reasons for high nitrates.

I get it. I just ordered the ULR. I have a big refugium with Chaeto and live rock as I said... My tank is 2.5 years old, Started with Dry rock and I do have many fish but I dont consider them largue.. they are medium pretty much. I feed a cube of misis e pellets daily.

Even if its not 0 phosphate, it should be reading like 0.03 or something or am I wrong?

I had dinos 2 times in the past and I controlled with a UV and Blackout ... I'm not using the UV anymore.

 

[nereefpat]

I get it. I just ordered the ULR.

make sure it's the ULR phosphorous that reads phosphorous in parts per billion. That is, if you're interested in dosing phosphate. I wouldn't though, but it's up to you...some folks do.

 

[Cory]

Even if its not 0 phosphate, it should be reading like 0.03 or something or am I wrong?

The checkers accuracy says 3% so it could be .03ppm or actually 0ppm. But ime a little po4 doesn't hurt much besides more algae growth. And yes 0ppm on the checker is an invitation to dinos- you know you dont want them again. I know I don't lol.