Help with phosphate and no pox please

[stifflingspoon]

Good day reefers, I am stuck on my journey and thought I’d get some advice.
I have a 120 litre mixed aquarium. It’s about 190 days old.
I have changed out the main display tock about 2 months ago. The piece was dry rock.
I have recently been getting phosphate around
0.1ppm and nitrate around 4-5ppm
7-8kH
440 cal
Mag?

so the question is. Would anyone start using nopox to bring those nitrate and phosphate down?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No, the values are fine, and it will drop nitrate much more than phosphate.

 

[T-J]

I wouldn't. In fact, I try to aim for about 10 for nitrates.

 

[polyppal]

yeah your parameters look good, if you really wanted to reduce po4 more might try a controlled application of GFO

 

[Lavey29]

Your numbers look fine maybe get nitrate closer to 10

 

[stifflingspoon]

yeah your parameters look good, if you really wanted to reduce po4 more might try a controlled application of GFO

Iv been aiming at 0.03 phosphate so iv been told. Would be happy with 0.05. Iv heard anything over 0.05 phosphate and 5 nitrate stunts growth

 

[stifflingspoon]

I wouldn't. In fact, I try to aim for about 10 for nitrates.

Why is this? Iv heard anything over 5 nitrate stunts growth and to aim for about 2. What phosphate do you run with 10 nitrate?

 

[Yazannreef]

Honestly, this conversation is very debatable. All reefers that show and say that they run high nitrates and phosphates are seasoned reefers with their tanks being very mature to uptake those high nutrients levels. For new reefers on the 1 year mark or less I would aim for 0.03 to 0.05 phos and 5 nitrate. When the system matures enough and can uptake the high nitrates and phos then you can start raising them.
Algae will accure in newer reef tanks if the bioload is heavy and the levels are high. Your skimmer might pull some and chaeto might also do wonders but I wouldn't go crazy raising the levels just because people say to do so!!

Watch your tank and see what your eyes tell you.

 

[polyppal]

Is this SPS tank? are you having any issues with algae or growth or just worried about the current numbers? My LPS tank would be envious of those params

If you want to get the phosphate down a little more, run some GFO in a reactor, but check it daily because it has a habit of stripping all the po4 out if your not careful...

 

[stifflingspoon]

Is this SPS tank? are you having any issues with algae or growth or just worried about the current numbers? My LPS tank would be envious of those params

If you want to get the phosphate down a little more, run some GFO in a reactor, but check it daily because it has a habit of stripping all the po4 out if your not careful...

I have a few pieces of sps. Acro doesn’t do so well, bleaches within a week. Birds nest and same Monti doing well. When I swapped the display rock out. I had low nutrition for about a week or 2 then POW algae from memory. Some snails make light work of it though.
LPS loves it but have had a few pieces go.
Will look into gfo

 

[stifflingspoon]

 

[Yazannreef]

I have a few pieces of sps. Acro doesn’t do so well, bleaches within a week. Birds nest and same Monti doing well. When I swapped the display rock out. I had low nutrition for about a week or 2 then POW algae from memory. Some snails make light work of it though.
LPS loves it but have had a few pieces go.
Will look into gfo

Please don't use GFO. Your levels are not high enough to start stripping your water of phosphates. Matter and fact you will hit 0 phos and more.problems will show up with lack of nutrients.
I would stick with Water changes and controlled feeding for now.
Give your system time to go thru it's stages before you start adding stuff to your tank.

Your tank looks good from what I see. Keep your major elements in check and water changes will take care of your trace elements. When corals start growing out and bacteria start establishing in your rock and substrate then you can start dosing stuff to keep up with the growth/ coloration ect..

Also adding new non established rocks to your tank is an algae opportunity naturally. Let the rock mature and go thru the algae stage and it will go away eventually.

 

[stifflingspoon]

Please don't use GFO. Your levels are not high enough to start stripping your water of phosphates. Matter and fact you will hit 0 phos and more.problems will show up with lack of nutrients.
I would stick with Water changes and controlled feeding for now.
Give your system time to go thru it's stages before you start adding stuff to your tank.

Your tank looks good from what I see. Keep your major elements in check and water changes will take care of your trace elements. When corals start growing out and bacteria start establishing in your rock and substrate then you can start dosing stuff to keep up with the growth/ coloration ect..

Also adding new non established rocks to your tank is an algae opportunity naturally. Let the rock mature and go thru the algae stage and it will go away eventually.

Cheers mate, will do. Iv done 2x40L water changes the last 2 days and phosphate went from 0.12 to 0.10 would you keep doing water changes? And how often?

 

[Yazannreef]

Space out your water changes every 3 days or so. Do 10% water changes and watch your tank and test your phos and nitrate accordingly. Your tank is not in critical mode and I would not do heavy water changes at all. Feed a bit less or spot feed your corals and your fish enough for the to eat not the algae.turn off your pump to facilitate the spot feeding.
Also your light source might be a factor in algae growth. Not sure how long you run your light but I would cut down by 1/2 an hour gradually over two weeks and reach the 8 hours light duration per day.

 

[Pistondog]

Good day reefers, I am stuck on my journey and thought I’d get some advice.
I have a 120 litre mixed aquarium. It’s about 190 days old.
I have changed out the main display tock about 2 months ago. The piece was dry rock.
I have recently been getting phosphate around
0.1ppm and nitrate around 4-5ppm
7-8kH
440 cal
Mag?

so the question is. Would anyone start using nopox to bring those nitrate and phosphate down?

Likely your new rock is leaching phosphate. It will stop in a few months. Weekly water changes should work. Tank looks great. Stay the course.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Iv been aiming at 0.03 phosphate so iv been told. Would be happy with 0.05. Iv heard anything over 0.05 phosphate and 5 nitrate stunts growth

0.03 ppm phosphate is fine. So is 0.1 ppm.

The stunts growth comment lacks evidence.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Please don't use GFO. Your levels are not high enough to start stripping your water of phosphates. Matter and fact you will hit 0 phos and more.problems will show up with lack of nutrients.

Assuming you use too much, that can be true.

You can use as little GFO as you like. I used GFO and other methods together 24/7 for many years and never had a lack of phosphate.

 

[RGoltz]

I think the NO3 and PO4 are fine and the tank looks good. I would not force any change through the use of chemicals or media. Personally I would dose Prodibio to encourage some bacterial diversity.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Personally I would dose Prodibio to encourage some bacterial diversity.

Assuming it accomplishes that, what benefit do you thin it confers to a reef tank?

 

[RGoltz]

Assuming it accomplishes that, what benefit do you thin it confers to a reef tank?

I started a tank with dry rock and faced persistent high NO3 but relatively low PO4. I was able to lower NO3 while dosing bacteria but even as I say that I must admit I probably was keeping up better with other practices at this same time.

I suppose this is what I have found more interesting: When using NoPox you are really attempting to increase the amount of bacteria and also fuel the metabolic processes - and thus nutrient consumption - of the bacteria. My experience was that nutrient reduction in my system was a matter of fueling the population with both carbon and phosphate (I appeared to be limited in both). The system then regularly consumed NO3 and PO4 (raising alkalinity quite a bit along the way as you have discussed elsewhere). As the bacterial population balanced I was able to taper off the NoPox but still feed the system some phosphate.

All that leads me to start with bacteria and then attempt to observe what is limited in your system and take the next step.