New tank high nitrates and zero phosphate how to solve.

[maddox]

Hi all,
I have a started new reef tank, 180g its about 3 months, already cycled, few fishes, no corals. Feeding two to three times a days. my parameters past month was stable except AlK. Testing regulary every week, alkalinity started daily because it was 7 dkh then dropped until 4.5 and now i started dosing soda ash to keep it 7.9 dkh. In 24 tank consumes 0.3 dkh dont know where because no corals yet.
PH always stable 8
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates was always 2.5 even i was adding a new fish every 30 days after qt.
Phosphate was 0.03 fluctuating to 0.07
And last friday Nitrates raised to 10ppm
Phosphate was 0.05 and this friday i have Nitrates almost 50 i guess and phosphates 0.00, using Hanna ulr for phosphate and salifert for nitrate. Filtration just skimmer, roller not added yet and refugium not runing yet. Skimmer octopus elite 200 int, running on 3 lvl, gunk not much it goes full in 2 even 3 weeks, i noticed that in the evening skimmer just boiling with no foam. I have little diatoms now and green little spots startes to show on rocks.
I am afraid to go zero phosphate and get Dinos, so my plan is to make solution from trisodium phosphate and start raising PO4 and just when i will have it start carbon dosing to reduce nitrate or even start biopellet reactor and carbon dosing. Will it be a good way to go? As if I understand if i dont have PO4 nitrates wont go down? I need balance on them. Earlier i had 30gallon with same problem when started just i made a wrong thing when i saw high nitrates i immediatly put purigen and i went fast to 0 No3 and PO4 and i got lots of Dinos with lots of bubbles so i dont want same horror on this 180 tank.

 

[stephj03]

The good news is NO3 is the high one. WCs will work if if doing them works for you.

 

[blaxsun]

Are you at least running filter socks at present? You could try something like NOPOX as a temporary/interim measure. The sooner you can get your refugium and filter roll up and running the better as well (or at least the filter roller).

 

[maddox]

The good news is NO3 is the high one. WCs will work if if doing them works for you.

I am doing auto water change every other day 3gallons. Not helping.

 

[maddox]

Are you at least running filter socks at present? You could try something like NOPOX as a temporary/interim measure. The sooner you can get your refugium and filter roll up and running the better as well (or at least the filter roller).

I am temporary using filter cups with floss.

 

[stephj03]

With no corals yet, I would be a little more concerned with how fast it went up vs how high it got.

Can you duplicate the value with your test kit? Amy chance you have access to a different kit?

 

[blaxsun]

I am temporary using filter cups with floss.

How often are you changing out/tossing the floss?

 

[fachatga]

Removing 3 gallons from 180 won’t do anything. That’s like 1/2 percent of the nitrates you’ll remove. You’ll need to do big water changes to bring it down. Did you retest? That’s a huge spike. Or try a different test kit before you do something major to fix this?

 

[stephj03]

Does the water you use for WC test low?

 

[stephj03]

Removing 3 gallons from 180 won’t do anything. That’s like 1/2 percent of the nitrates you’ll remove. You’ll need to do big water changes to bring it down. Did you retest? That’s a huge spike. Or try a different test kit before you do something major to fix this?

Agree. Provided you think this was a one off event I'd Amazon 200g worth of IO purple box and do a couple of back to back 50% changes.

But again, if you really are importing 5-8 net ppm NO3/Dy or 40-50ppm in a shorter time that's a bigger deal and will leave you in the same spot a wk or two later.

 

[PeterC99]

Have you thought about a Refugium with chaeto? Keeps my overstocked/over fed 90g having low nitrates.

 

[maddox]

With no corals yet, I would be a little more concerned with how fast it went up vs how high it got.

Can you duplicate the value with your test kit? Amy chance you have access to a different kit?

It went from 2.5 to 20 in a week and from 20 to 50 in another week, yes i made test yeaterday and today result the same, i dont have other test kit but not a problem i will buy other brand to try.

 

[Rmckoy]

Went through similar once I set up this 230gal

but it was the other way . Zero nitrates and high phosphates .

a refigium helped a lot !
Dosing nitrates to bring them up to balance before exporting both equal .
problem is nitrates are easily removed compared to phosphates .
you don’t want to dose anything to remove both if one is already at zero .
That being said a large after change is the best option at this time .

Even a 10% water change will only reduce nitrates 10% at most . Depending on the water source

 

[maddox]

Does the water you use for WC test low?

Yes my wc is from rodi.

 

[Rmckoy]

Feed something high in phosphates to bring them up .
or even dose phosphates

 

[maddox]

Went through similar once I set up this 230gal

but it was the other way . Zero nitrates and high phosphates .

a refigium helped a lot !
Dosing nitrates to bring them up to balance before exporting both equal .
problem is nitrates are easily removed compared to phosphates .
you don’t want to dose anything to remove both if one is already at zero .
That being said a large after change is the best option at this time .

Even a 10% water change will only reduce nitrates 10% at most . Depending on the water source

So maybe i need to try big water change and see ir nitrates will come back fast or not, i have refugium just it is empty without any cheato and lighting just few rocks, i am thinking which way to go carbon dosing and bioreactor or start refugium.

 

[Rmckoy]

So maybe i need to try big water change and see ir nitrates will come back fast or not, i have refugium just it is empty without any cheato and lighting just few rocks, i am thinking which way to go carbon dosing and bioreactor or start refugium.

With no corals .
I would research and correct the issue .
water changes have little effect on phosphates .

 

[stephj03]

Agree, that's why I'd do a few big WC before bringing more supplements/dosing/media online.

Your N03 will come back down to earth without tanking your P04.

If they spike back up after WC, try to determine a cause, preferably before you start additional dosing/media.

 

[AustinBabler]

Did you ever get this all sorted out? I hope it doesn’t seem like I’m hijacking this thread. I’m having a similar issue with my tank. I run a refugium and an rsk 300 skimmer in my reefer 250 tank. It’s a 60 gallon tank once the sand and rock work is in it. I’m definitely far from being overstocked so my bio load is pretty light. After cycling I had a huge nitrate reading of over 50ppm so I did a 20 gallon water change and that got it to a manageable level. I also have a floating bag of carbon and chaeto in the fuge and I harvest it every other Friday. Now today I see I’m at 20 ppm of nitrate (which isn’t horrible I’ve read) but my phos is close to 0 at 0.02. I started feeding 2x a day. Only coral I have is a birds nest and a small frag of Xenia. I had a huge problem with nutrient export 3 weeks ago and hair algae everywhere so I set the skimmer up and cut the feeding to 1x a day. Now the hair algae is leaving slowly but I feel like I’m on the verge of getting a dinos disaster. I’ve got 2 clowns and a tang so I’m pretty happy on fish at the moment. I am going to start adding more corals though so maybe feeding reef roids will help bump the phos up a little.