Help dosing no3 and po4

[marcogig]

Hi all,
Trying to fight dino I wish to rise my Po4 and No3 to decente levels. I have 20 liters mixer reef
I bought seachem phosforous and nitrogen.
I dosed nitrogen 3 times at calculated dose 1,6ml. After that No3 rised from 0 to 3mg/l. It should rise to 5 with just one dose, so I donato understand why
With po4 the problem is worst, dosing 0.3 3 times po4 are still <0.01.
Today i see much more algae, maybe diatoms and ciano. Dino about the same. Do you have any suggestions? Thks

 

[Lavey29]

I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for multiple months before I saw consistent measurable numbers. You nuisance algae is consuming it and your rocks and sand are binding phosphate. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only no whites. Get diverse cleaner crew with urchins and turbos. Weekly water changes with lots of manual removal. Dose pods and phytoplankton. Dose PNS probio which is a natural heterotrophic bacteria that eliminates organic waste.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi all,
Trying to fight dino I wish to rise my Po4 and No3 to decente levels. I have 20 liters mixer reef
I bought seachem phosforous and nitrogen.
I dosed nitrogen 3 times at calculated dose 1,6ml. After that No3 rised from 0 to 3mg/l. It should rise to 5 with just one dose, so I donato understand why
With po4 the problem is worst, dosing 0.3 3 times po4 are still <0.01.
Today i see much more algae, maybe diatoms and ciano. Dino about the same. Do you have any suggestions? Thks

There are lots of errors in such a calculation and measurement, and there is also consumption all the time, so there's no expectation that the predicted numbers will be perfect.

Treat dosing N and P as a trial and error endeavor, with the calculated dose just a starting point.

 

[marcogig]

But the algae explosion doesn't mean exceding nutrients?

 

[Lavey29]

But the algae explosion doesn't mean exceding nutrients?

How old is your tank? you do realize that the first year is filled with a variety of ugly phase algae right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

But the algae explosion doesn't mean exceding nutrients?

No. Algae can thrive in most situations that corals can.

 

[Garf]

But the algae explosion doesn't mean exceding nutrients?

Does algae grow in the ocean, where nutrients are vanishingly low?

 

[marcogig]

How old is your tank? you do realize that the first year is filled with a variety of ugly phase algae right?

4 months

 

[Lavey29]

4 months

Yea so you got another 8 months of algae phases most likely. If your nutrients levels are bottomed out it only gets worse too.