nitrate and phosphate relation in new tank questin

[flobup]

Set up this tank about a month ago. my nitrate reading are .01 at most but my phosate is reading .86 and rising. was wondering if those two those two have any relation as two why? I do have a lot of diatioms forming on some of my rocks and I have read they increase phosphate levels.

TANK INFO:
im running carbon and phosban in my reactor. skimmer. fuge. 4 fish and around 8 LPS corals atm, 45 gallon cube tank.

thanks!

 

[Retro Reefer]

You want to shoot for approximately 100 to 1 Nitrates Vs. Phosphates so for example a good target would be 5ppm No3 to .05 Po4.. raising nitrates will help lower phosphates.

your moving a little to quickly as your tank hasn’t had time to completely cycle and stabilize at only 4 weeks old.. ideally you would just be adding your first starter fish at this point.

I would continue to use phosphate removing products such as phosguard and either stop your refugium (tanks way to young for one IMO) or cut it’s light schedule way back which will help raise nitrates.

 

[piranhaman00]

How are you measuring 0.01 nitrate?

 

[SCReef'n]

How are you measuring 0.01 nitrate?

This right here^

 

[lapin]

First step is confirm that your readings are good. (+1 above).
New test kit or LFS to test water.
New tank: your readings will be all over the place until it stablizes. (aprox 6 months)
Your tank will turn brown, green, red ect..... as stuff grows

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t see any reason to think nitrate and phosphate will ever track together since they have some entirely different export methods and even some different inputs in a new tank.

I also think targeting a ratio is not desirable. Dies it make any sense that if one is excessively high (or low) thst the other should be too?

my suggestion is to independently target nitrate and phosphate to desirable levels (neither too low nor too high, with too low being much worse than too high).

 

[flobup]

thanks for the all the reply’s fellas

 

[flobup]

How are you measuring 0.01 nitrate?

well i am using an API test kit for nitrate and it the water didnt change colors at all so i was asuming nitrates were around 1... using HANNAH to check phosphates

 

[flobup]

I don’t see any reason to think nitrate and phosphate will ever track together since they have some entirely different export methods and even some different inputs in a new tank.

I also think targeting a ratio is not desirable. Dies it make any sense that if one is excessively high (or low) thst the other should be too?

my suggestion is to independently target nitrate and phosphate to desirable levels (neither too low nor too high, with too low being much worse than too high).

thanks for the reply. im thinking i might need a new skimmer. could never get it dialed in properly on my prevous tank which ran for about a year.

 

[jda]

Your tank is probably way too new to worry about either, or rely on a test involving either.

If you used dry/dead rock and are bare bottom (or have very little sand), then the P is unbinding from the dry/dead rock. You will need to get a method to deal with this.

 

[flobup]

Your tank is probably way too new to worry about either, or rely on a test involving either.

If you used dry/dead rock and are bare bottom (or have very little sand), then the P is unbinding from the dry/dead rock. You will need to get a method to deal with this.

well it isn't really "new" I transferred all my LR and about 10g of water from an existing tank of about 13 months