Nitrates 4ppm, Phophates 0.535ppb Help what the heck?!?!

[Gomi's Reef]

Asking for my dad's tank.
650L(ish)/160Gal mixed reef.
He;s dosing large amounts of nopox to try and fix this issue to no avail.

It's my understanding that the actual ratio between these is off. As I think in most tanks with PO4 this high you'd expect nitrates to be at 50+ am I right?

Thanks for any input and ideas

 

[ajhudson15]

That's pretty much what I run my sps tank at. those numbers arent bad

 

[mitch91175]

Asking for my dad's tank.
650L(ish)/160Gal mixed reef.
He;s dosing large amounts of nopox to try and fix this issue to no avail.

It's my understanding that the actual ratio between these is off. As I think in most tanks with PO4 this high you'd expect nitrates to be at 50+ am I right?

Thanks for any input and ideas

From my understanding, consumption doesn’t always equal when it related to NO3 and PO4. The NO3 of 4ppm is fine. Can you try to identify the source of the phosphates? Maybe it is in the food or in change water. Where does he get his water from?

 

[Gomi's Reef]

Asking for my dad's tank.
650L(ish)/160Gal mixed reef.
He;s dosing large amounts of nopox to try and fix this issue to no avail.

It's my understanding that the actual ratio between these is off. As I think in most tanks with PO4 this high you'd expect nitrates to be at 50+ am I right?

Thanks for any input and ideas

From my understanding, consumption doesn’t always equal when it related to NO3 and PO4. The NO3 of 4ppm is fine. Can you try to identify the source of the phosphates? Maybe it is in the food or in change water. Where does he get his water from?

Home RO/DI kit, and yeah I make him test the output water on a regular basis so it's not that.
It is heavily stocked and he can be a heavy handed feeder. As a result I tried to make sure in the system design it had an adequate sized skimmer. I don't remember the model but we now have a very well sixed Reef Octopus on there.

One possible source could be the rock. It's actual live rock from an old (very dirty) system. I fear that this is continually leaching PO4 into the tank, that said this system is not new anymore and I would expect that that process would have finished by now.

 

[Gomi's Reef]

That's pretty much what I run my sps tank at. those numbers arent bad

Yeah see some SPS have grown great. Others not so much so and oddly some LPS have started to struggle under these conditions.

Are we trying too hard in aiming for these benchmarks that actually probably don't apply like they did 10-20 years ago??

 

[mitch91175]

If everything is fine in the system and have good growth I wouldn't be overly concerned with the PO4 level. I still check the RODI for phosphates just to make sure then just know that 0.5ppb is where his tank will hold. Feeding heavily will introduce phosphates.

 

[mitch91175]

Never used NOPOX, but from what I just read is that you definitely do not want to overdose it.

 

[Gomi's Reef]

If everything is fine in the system and have good growth I wouldn't be overly concerned with the PO4 level. I still check the RODI for phosphates just to make sure then just know that 0.5ppb is where his tank will hold. Feeding heavily will introduce phosphates.

Yeah he's been told off multiple times for being a heavy feeder. He normally responds well the passive fish don't get any if i don't. And of course that's where sensible fish selection comes in... He'll listen to me one day...

 

[Gomi's Reef]

Never used NOPOX, but from what I just read is that you definitely do not want to overdose it.

Once upon a time ago he was overdosing without realising it called red sea and they advised to lower it and we saw an improvement. So we're not overdosing the NOPOX.... currently

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Just to clarify for folks, the title must be wrong and the phosphate level is 0.5 ppm.

NOPOX is not a good way to reduce phosphate. All types of organic dosing are very heavy on nitrate removal relative to phosphate.

 

[Gomi's Reef]

Just to clarify for folks, the title must be wrong and the phosphate level is 0.5 ppm.

NOPOX is not a good way to reduce phosphate. All types of organic dosing are very heavy on nitrate removal relative to phosphate.

Oops my bad on the title. So how best to get rid of PO4... rowa/gfo?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Oops my bad on the title. So how best to get rid of PO4... rowa/gfo?

GFO or other binder is a fine way, especially in am imbalanced situation like this.

This has more:

Phosphate In The Reef Aquarium
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/?p=3184

 

[Gomi's Reef]

GFO or other binder is a fine way, especially in am imbalanced situation like this.

This has more:

Phosphate In The Reef Aquarium
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/?p=3184

Cheers!!

 

[AKReef]

I had a similar experience with using NOPOX. Nitrates were low, but phosphates were high. I had to use GFO to remove the excess phosphate. I know Red Sea says not to use GFO at the same time, but I've been doing it for over a year now and it seems to work very well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I had a similar experience with using NOPOX. Nitrates were low, but phosphates were high. I had to use GFO to remove the excess phosphate. I know Red Sea says not to use GFO at the same time, but I've been doing it for over a year now and it seems to work very well.

If they say that, its poor advice. It is common/normal and well understood to have phosphate left over when organic carbon dosing drives down nitrate.

 

[O'l Salty]

Don't change anything too fast it will knock your tank out of balance and create new problems.