Help please... My Phospates are high, but Nitrates are Low

[calanprc]

Please provide me some suggestions on my phosphate/nitrate issue. About a week and a half ago, I was fighting green hair algae and my Phosphates were .12 and nitrates were 9.7 (using Hanna Checkers) . I dosed NOPX per directions and checked and re-dosed every 24 hours into my 130 gallon reef tank. I have stopped dosing NOPX once my nitrates stated reading below 1 ppm. Today my parms are phosphates .12 and my nitrates are .8 . I know my Nitrates should be between 1-3 ppm, but my phosphates are really out of wack. Not sure how to get this down between .01 - .03 PPM. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I've only been feeding my fish a small amount of nori on a clip. I change my filter socks and clean the skimmer daily. I'm also using RODI water for my reef tank.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

phosphate will drop in relation to nitrate. hence the redfield 16:1 ratio. If your nitrate is at or near zero, you will need to dose nitrate to lower phosphate.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Also, when using Nopox , i only use a quarter of their recommended dosage.

 

[homer1475]

Nitrate limited, simple solution. Dose nitrates to continue to bring down phosphates. Or just use a phosphate remover like GFO.

FWIW....
The redfield ratio means jack in our tanks. No idea why it's quoted so much. If anyone actually read the article they would understand it means jack squat. Just ask @Randy Holmes-Farley what he thinks about the redfeild ratio in relation to our tanks.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Nitrate limited, simple solution. Dose nitrates to continue to bring down phosphates. Or just use a phosphate remover like GFO.

FWIW....
The redfield ratio means jack in our tanks. No idea why it's quoted so much. If anyone actually read the article they would understand it means jack squat. Just ask @Randy Holmes-Farley what he thinks about the redfeild ratio in relation to our tanks.

I bet old man Redfield is rolling in his grave over that one!

 

[Lavey29]

OP why are you trying to run a ULNS? Typically only very experienced reefers with SPS dominant tanks run this set up. Is this what you are trying to do? If you have soft and LPS coral you want nitrates at 10 and phosphate. 05 to .1. Your .12 phosphate level is fine for those corals. Not sure what you are trying to achieve but if you bottom out nutrients you will get dinos. That's why only very experienced reefers can maintain ULNS.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I bet old man Redfield is rolling in his grave over that one!

I expect he is, at how reefers abuse his correct original interpretations.

It's misleading (IMO) to invoke the Redfield ratio in reef tank husbandry except in the most general sense: organisms in a reef tank contain relatively more N than P, as do body tissues (foods).

But there are lots of processes in a reef tank that add or remove one and not the other of N and P, making ratios misleading at best.

Denitrification depletes N and not P.
Phosphate binding to rock and sand can deplete P and not N.
Phosphate release from rocka nd sand can add P and not N.
Nitrogen fixing organisms, such as some species of cyanobacteria, can add N by taking it from the air.
Tap water and RO/DI water often contains a lot more P than N.
Salt mixes have more N than P, typically.

And the ratios of N and P consumed by organisms in our tanks are certainly not fixed to the Redfield ratio (he never claimed such a thing as far as I know).

The N ; P ratios in macroalgae, for example, vary considerably even when grown in the same bay in Hawaii:

Wayback Machine

See table 2, where the N : P ratio in these macroalgae species tested varies from 199:1 to 27:1.

 

[fasterznu]

Rowaphos helped me a lot, you want your nitrates a bit higher but the rowaphos should help lower the phosphates to a better level.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I expect he is, at how reefers abuse his correct original interpretations.

And rolling and rolling and rolling.......

I can't add much information for @calanprc , I use brightwell neonitro and Neophos and stick to their recommended values, so i would say N&P are to high but that doesn't mean anything for your system, and corals .

 

[LRT]

Please provide me some suggestions on my phosphate/nitrate issue. About a week and a half ago, I was fighting green hair algae and my Phosphates were .12 and nitrates were 9.7 (using Hanna Checkers) . I dosed NOPX per directions and checked and re-dosed every 24 hours into my 130 gallon reef tank. I have stopped dosing NOPX once my nitrates stated reading below 1 ppm. Today my parms are phosphates .12 and my nitrates are .8 . I know my Nitrates should be between 1-3 ppm, but my phosphates are really out of wack. Not sure how to get this down between .01 - .03 PPM. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I've only been feeding my fish a small amount of nori on a clip. I change my filter socks and clean the skimmer daily. I'm also using RODI water for my reef tank.

Not sure I see an issue here. I bet a ton of reefs are running super close to these nutrient levels without any issues at all. Some reefers actually dose to get these kind of levels. Are you running into problems?

 

[Miniyork]

Dose nitrate, add gfo and remove nori and test test tes

 

[Cbones1979]

Not sure I see an issue here. I bet a ton of reefs are running super close to these nutrient levels without any issues at all. Some reefers actually dose to get these kind of levels. Are you running into problems?

Yeah I’d love those numbers. I’m at 3 nitrates and .13 phosphates now.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

I expect he is, at how reefers abuse his correct original interpretations.

It's misleading (IMO) to invoke the Redfield ratio in reef tank husbandry except in the most general sense: organisms in a reef tank contain relatively more N than P, as do body tissues (foods).

But there are lots of processes in a reef tank that add or remove one and not the other of N and P, making ratios misleading at best.

Denitrification depletes N and not P.
Phosphate binding to rock and sand can deplete P and not N.
Phosphate release from rocka nd sand can add P and not N.
Nitrogen fixing organisms, such as some species of cyanobacteria, can add N by taking it from the air.
Tap water and RO/DI water often contains a lot more P than N.
Salt mixes have more N than P, typically.

And the ratios of N and P consumed by organisms in our tanks are certainly not fixed to the Redfield ratio (he never claimed such a thing as far as I know).

The N ; P ratios in macroalgae, for example, vary considerably even when grown in the same bay in Hawaii:

Wayback Machine

See table 2, where the N : P ratio in these macroalgae species tested varies from 199:1 to 27:1.

Great post, thanks Randy!