Nitrate and phosphate levels

[Jrod381]

hello all I will start off by saying this my tank is doing very well I have even seen growth in my corals. I recently did purchase a flame fin tang which died and initially thought it had a disease, but I did not see any signs at all. I went to my local lfs and told them the issue and they stated after they tested water parameters it was due to high nitrate levels.

I have a 75 gal tank running for about 9months and like all tanks I do get some brown algae on the glass but not much, I have about a 10 gal sump with a 2” layer of Argonite, some live rock taken from my dt with dragons breath, chaeto and culerpa running for about 3 weeks.

I did have a spike at one point where nitrate hit 80ppm. I immediately did a large water change which dropped it to 40. I have done water changes consistently since then and cannot get levels under 20ppm nitrate. My phosphate level hovers around 1ppm sometimes goes lower but never under .37 and this is with rowaphos.

My lfs recommended that I take everything out of the tank and clean to get rid of the ditrus which I did, all rock was blown and shaken to get rid of any decaying matter, ( there was a lot due to over feeding from the wife and kids) I also cleaned out my sand bed with a siphon and gravel cleaner. Along with a water change of about 50 gal Yet my levels still have not lowered. My lfs said the only reason corals we’re doing well was because the magnesium and alk levels were high and that was the reason for the corals to not be affected. Since they tested my water it has been 3 weeks all my levels are where they should be except for nitrate and phosphate which remain at the same levels.

My question is should I be concerned for the corals which are still doing very well? And will the nitrate levels kill the fish? How do I bring these parameters down some more after everything I have done

Forgot to mention I am noticing some white spots on the back of the tank also not sure what that is

 

[Meo]

no, 80 ppm No3 and 1 ppm Po4 don't kill any fish. for corals, it depends on which kind: some softies are very happy with these values.

 

[Jrod381]

These are the white spots I am speaking of

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Those white spots are likely organisms, either coralline algae, or some soft organism.

 

[Dan_P]

hello all I will start off by saying this my tank is doing very well I have even seen growth in my corals. I recently did purchase a flame fin tang which died and initially thought it had a disease, but I did not see any signs at all. I went to my local lfs and told them the issue and they stated after they tested water parameters it was due to high nitrate levels.

I have a 75 gal tank running for about 9months and like all tanks I do get some brown algae on the glass but not much, I have about a 10 gal sump with a 2” layer of Argonite, some live rock taken from my dt with dragons breath, chaeto and culerpa running for about 3 weeks.

I did have a spike at one point where nitrate hit 80ppm. I immediately did a large water change which dropped it to 40. I have done water changes consistently since then and cannot get levels under 20ppm nitrate. My phosphate level hovers around 1ppm sometimes goes lower but never under .37 and this is with rowaphos.

My lfs recommended that I take everything out of the tank and clean to get rid of the ditrus which I did, all rock was blown and shaken to get rid of any decaying matter, ( there was a lot due to over feeding from the wife and kids) I also cleaned out my sand bed with a siphon and gravel cleaner. Along with a water change of about 50 gal Yet my levels still have not lowered. My lfs said the only reason corals we’re doing well was because the magnesium and alk levels were high and that was the reason for the corals to not be affected. Since they tested my water it has been 3 weeks all my levels are where they should be except for nitrate and phosphate which remain at the same levels.

My question is should I be concerned for the corals which are still doing very well? And will the nitrate levels kill the fish? How do I bring these parameters down some more after everything I have done

Forgot to mention I am noticing some white spots on the back of the tank also not sure what that is

I would have thought that a nine month life span was too short for an aquarium to accumulate much detritus. I can imagine that undisciplined feeding might lead to high nitrates as would adding fish too quickly. There is one thing about new systems, they might not have great capabilities for removing nitrate.

Here are some thoughts.

Phosphate level. If you are concerned about the phosphate level, use GFO to lower it and to keep it at the level you think right for your system, but not zero.

Nitrate level. Teach the family the right amount of food to feed the fish. Don’t starve the fish, just don’t over feed them. I seem to recall that non-juvenile fish eat a few percent of their body weight a day.

There are many ways to reduce nitrates. They all work but some methods may have more appeal to you. Here are the methods that come to mind: water changes, growing macro alga, growing bacteria, aka, carbon dosing, and using a coil denitrator. Water changes I think are the only proven abiotic method to remove nitrates. All the other are biotic methods, using organisms to assimilate nitrate into biomass or reducing it to nitrogen gas.

Keeping detritus from accumulating on surfaces is a good idea in general. Vacuuming the substrate might prove useful at times but I would question whether it did much to help you in this case.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

May I suggest stop listening to the store. I say come here and ask questions. That’s why we are here.

Nitrate isn’t toxic to fish until well over 400ppm. Nor Po4. And I would not recommend taking rock out and cleanings it, unless you do a cleaning like @brandon429 has a thread on.

Like Randy said white spots most likely something organic like filter feeders. The high No3 and Po4 can affect coral though.

What type of set up you have. There are lots of options to get your number in line. Do not rush anything though. But we do want to look more into why you lost the fish

 

[Jrod381]

I have a a r-100 eshopps sump with a reef octopus 110 skimmer, and 10 gal refugium with several macro algae fuge lights run opposite of my dt . Have 7” socks that I change out every week. I literally have done water changes for the past 3 weeks with my RODI and it has been exhausting to do so. I have tested my RODI water and it shows no nitrate or phosphate. I also would like to correct myself when I stated I cleaned the rock, all I basically did was blast it with water to clean any decaying material that was within the rock and shake them in water as well.

I use an api test kit and salifert for nitrate, and a fluval and my Hanna for phosphate.

What’s shocking is that my lfs is a very well known coral store as well so I felt very confident in the information they give me.

My tank is mainly soft and lps coral, I do have a couple sps pieces.

I was feeding reef roids once a week but i have since stopped with the high levels and let the corals feed from the nutrients.

I was also told to no longer feed frozen foods and only use small amount of flake for a little while until the levels go down.

I have never qt any of my fish but with the death of the tang I did buy a qt tank. I have 4 clowns, midas blenny, 3 Chromis, 1 neon dotty back and a green and spotted mandarin