I have difficulty raising nitrate and phosphate above undetectable levels in my 150g tank system. I have an inconsequential amount of hair algae, and a little bit of normal algal glass growth. My corals are all growing really well, but they’re all browning. I have a small yellow tang, a lawnmower blenny, three assessors, two Panamic barnacle blennies, and three zebra dartfish. Then a few other crabs and snails. I feed 2-3 cubes of frozen food a day. I have filter socks, and I run a skimmer maybe 5-10 hours per week. I do a 20% water change once a month. No refugium or any other sort of nutrient export. I had an 80g tank/sump set up for 8 months before I plumbed in another 70g about a month ago, and I had the same issue with over feeding but no detectable nitrates or phosphates in that tank.
While I plan to increase bioload slowly over the coming months, I’d like to increase nitrates and phosphates for a couple of reasons. First is coral coloration, and second is that I haven’t ever heard anything good coming from 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate. Given that I culture phytoplankton and use F2 2-part to do so, would it be a bad idea to microdose F2 in my system to boost nitrates and phosphates slowly? I add the phyto to my tank anyway, so I figure there can’t be terrible additives in it.
Thoughts? Is this a terrible idea? Anyone have experience doing this?
While I plan to increase bioload slowly over the coming months, I’d like to increase nitrates and phosphates for a couple of reasons. First is coral coloration, and second is that I haven’t ever heard anything good coming from 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate. Given that I culture phytoplankton and use F2 2-part to do so, would it be a bad idea to microdose F2 in my system to boost nitrates and phosphates slowly? I add the phyto to my tank anyway, so I figure there can’t be terrible additives in it.
Thoughts? Is this a terrible idea? Anyone have experience doing this?
