Nitrates and phosphate struggles.

[wjm6449]

I have a new tank (3 months 125 gallon, and been documenting my nitrates and phosphates and struggling to raise them. I have 3 tangs, lawnmower blenny, diamond goby, anthia, flame hawkfish, exsquisite wrasse, another blenny, two clowns. I've for two weeks been dosing nitrates and barely getting a rise. Phosphates I just began dosing last night similiarly; see below:

Also, to note, I had nutrient bombed my tank and did heavy water changes August 13th (like near 80%) due to a vacation. I'm currently running an oversized skimmer, and three filter socks, along with Carbon.

What is the best solution, just begin to overfeed my tank with pellets? Continue dosing on top of it? My Goal is to support a mixed LPS/SPS reef tank. So from my understanding Nitrates I want almost at or around 10, and phosphates around .1?

16-Aug​	PHOS 0.007​	NITRATE 0.7​
29-Aug​	0.08​	1.7​
3 - Sep	0.09​	1.9​

 

[bobnicaragua]

I would keep them where they are personally. I use an auto feeder loaded with pellets, plus feed frozen and nori at night.

If you switch to the filter socks that are 1/2 mesh and 1/2 felt your nutrients should go up. Mine went up so much after a few months that I switched back to just felt.

 

[wjm6449]

I would keep them where they are personally. I use an auto feeder loaded with pellets, plus feed frozen and nori at night.

Well, I mean Phosphates seem golden, however my nitrates are low... I also have a hammer that wont come out, whereas I have two torches and another hammer that has come out... No pests on the hammer I'm referencing. Temp is at 78 degrees. I dont have any other parameters at this time - need to buy the hanna checkers. Also I feed daily have a cube of mysis, and a half sheet of nori (all my fish are juvies, and pretty tiny)

 

[PotatoPig]

Look into Randy’s DIY ammonia dosing for a much more economical way to add bioavailable nitrogen:

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

For phosphates - these might be getting absorbed by rocks for the time being. If they stay low then you could dose reef roids and not have to worry too much about them being high in phosphates.

 

[get-salty]

Reef-roids by Polylab, will def do the trick.

 

[bobnicaragua]

You have a young tank. I would keep your nutrients fairly low. They’re in a pretty good range now, especially for SPS, which is what you need to cater to in a mixed reef.

I seriously doubt that your hammer is closed because your nitrates are 2.

 

[exnisstech]

Euphylia can be difficult and not a coral I would recommend for a new tank. I struggle to keep them even after 8+ years. Your numbers look good to me. I like to watch numbers and not intervene too soon when starting a new tank. Often things settle in after some time an intervening too soon can complicate that process IME

 

[Solo McReefer]

GFO can pull your phosphate levels down as far as you want

And further than what you want

Make sure you test phosphate when your doing this