Elevated phosphates, 0 nitrates

[Gary Passwaters]

So I knew that my phosphates have been elevated for a while. I’ve been trying to bring it down. I’ve tried phosguard and Brightwell phosphat-e and i’ve gotten it down from 0.41 to 0.14. I hadn’t tested my nitrates in a long time and when I checked them today they were 0. What, if anything, should I be doing. Only real complaint with my corals is slow growth, not as much polyp extension as I would like, and most of my Acropora have turned green in color

tank is 55g w/20g sump, coralife super skimmer 65 and Chaeto in sump. Feed pe pellets once per day

 

[Spare time]

I would just get a bottle of neonitro or something similar and get it up a little bit.

 

[Duffer]

I would dose some nitrates or at least try over feeding

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I would dose some nitrates or at least try over feeding

Extra feeding may not balance the system, just increase the po4 more since nitrate seems to be the bottle neck. I’ve heard people dosing nitrate when they had higher phos and it brought pho’s back down. I dosed nitrate in the past with some success. I used potassium nitrate from Lowe’s but you can also buy sodium nitrate online if you don’t want the potassium.

The chaeto will likely have a growth spurt since its likely nitrate starved. If you dose no3, I’d trim the chaeto back quiet a bit.

 

[Dorsetsteve]

Add Nitrate. Make a stock solution of Sodium Nitrate and start daily additions building it up and monitoring, you may find that the sudden availability causes phosphate to drop quite quickly so proceed with some care.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

So you guys are saying if I dose nitrate will mostly bring down phosphate? If so I will be a happy boy since I got high phosphate and almost undetectable nitrate. Will be getting neonitro

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So you guys are saying if I dose nitrate will mostly bring down phosphate? If so I will be a happy boy since I got high phosphate and almost undetectable nitrate. Will be getting neonitro

Maybe, maybe not.
Phosphate will only decline if something starts to grow faster due to the available nitrate.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Maybe, maybe not.
Phosphate will only decline if something starts to grow faster due to the available nitrate.

Ok.

 

[ScottB]

Maybe, maybe not.
Phosphate will only decline if something starts to grow faster due to the available nitrate.

It has been my repeated experience (a handful or so) that when I raise depleted NO3 that my PO4 always falls and rather quickly. So, talking about uptake:
a) It "feels" like it is too quick to reflect increased coral uptake. But I do have a lot of coral surface area in the system tho...
b) Maybe macro or other algae -- but can that gear up in a matter of 2-3 days? I suppose film algae launches quickly.
c) Could it be bacterial consumption somehow? I would've thought they would be different bacteria, but I dunno.
d) This is my very personal hypothesis that may not apply to many: Lurking dinoflagellates. The naughty kind.
d) All of the above.