Nitrate and Phosphate instability problem

[Tastee]

There are lots of different opinions about Phosphates. Some of the threads get very passionate arguing low/high, n/p ratios etc. For what it is worth I am very sure I killed or damaged a couple of softies and LPS by having very low P levels. They improved after I stopped running LC to remove P. For about a year I did nothing except dose, feed, skim and water change (small amounts infrequently). My tank is currently 0.1 P and 6 N. I started to see a little more nuisance algae growing so a couple of months ago I started dosing NoPoX at small levels to keep N from rising - currently dosing 1 ml/day in my 65g tank and N is stable at 6. I wouldn’t mind reducing N a little but I’m not really that worried if it stays at 6. At the moment the tank is happy and stable. I am not growing SPS in this tank however, so please take that into account. I’m not saying this won’t work for SPS, just that I have no experience myself.

 

[OREGONIC]

Just a quick update. Took GFO offline and started dosing seachem flourish phosphorous.

Acros are still pale but they have some crazy PE now

All PO4 testing were taken with ULR Phosphorous Hanna Checker at the same time daily.

Feb 3 0.018 ppm
Feb 4 0.021 ppm dosed 1mL
Feb 5 0.043 ppm dosed 1.5mL
Feb 6 0.061 ppm dosed 1.5mL

I usually check all my parameters before a water change on Sunday so I'll take a look at nitrates if they have decreased or not.

Will dose up to 0.1 ppm PO4 and then stop dosing. Will feed a little heavier when it gets to 0.1 ppm to try and maintain stable PO4 levels.

Currently feeding 1/2 cube hikari mysis , 1/4 tbsp NLS pellets
Will up to 1/2 cube hikari mysis, 1/2 tbsp NLS pellets when 0.1ppm PO4 is reached.
If PO4 is still dropping I will up to 1/2 cube hikari mysis and 1 tbsp NLS pellets

Any feedback is appreciated on my approach to this.

Did your nitrates drop?

 

[Duncan Tse]

Did your nitrates drop?

Hard to tell from the salifert nitrate tests. But before the color was for sure a 25ppm but now I'm seeing more of a 10-25.

I'll report back next week to see if my nitrates will drop more.

 

[Duncan Tse]

Its been about 2 weeks and here are my results so far.

I stopped dosing phosphates and my levels have remained a steady o.o6 which is good.

Nitrates are still at 25ppm so I started dosing noxpox.

Been on noxpox for a week now with a daily dose of 2mL on a 37gallon tank.

After a week, it seems like my phosphates have gone back down to 0 and my nitrates are getting lower as the color does not look exactly like 25 anymore on the salifert tests.

Question is do you think noxpox was that effectively that it bottomed out my phosphates that quick?

I will be dosing phosphates again daily until my nitrates come down to about 5ppm

Acros are looking less paler than before so I believe this approach is working.