Nitrates question

anthonys51 · Feb 27, 2017

Does having high nitrates with low phosphates kill faster than having high in both. I am basically asking because my new tank ran 75ppm nitrates and 2.06 phosphates and none of the old stuff I moved over died. 2 months later numbers are down to 2ppn and .27 respectfully. But my friends tank had 30ppm nitrates and runs Gfo so phosphates is .03.ppm. All his stuff seems to die. Wondering if it was both being equal thst helped me or just the short amount of time

wkscott · Feb 27, 2017

You typically want to keep your phosphate lower than your nitrate. My nitrate always runs over 40 with my phosphate near zero. My corals grow very well.

anthonys51 · Feb 27, 2017

What kind of corals do you have

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2017

anthonys51 said:
Does having high nitrates with low phosphates kill faster than having high in both. I am basically asking because my new tank ran 75ppm nitrates and 2.06 phosphates and none of the old stuff I moved over died. 2 months later numbers are down to 2ppn and .27 respectfully. But my friends tank had 30ppm nitrates and runs Gfo so phosphates is .03.ppm. All his stuff seems to die. Wondering if it was both being equal thst helped me or just the short amount of time

I don't think it likely that any of those combinations of nitrate and phosphate are killing corals. All of these levels supply sufficient N and P.

anthonys51 · Feb 28, 2017

So what levels are deadly to corals. Or is there no magic number.

anthonys51 · Feb 28, 2017

So what levels are deadly to corals. Or is there no magic number.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2017

Nitrate and phosphate are not deadly. 1 ppm phosphate and 100 ppm nitrate is not going to kill them.

They can brown up with extra zoox at high nutrient levels, and algae may become a big problem, but corals can thrive.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2017

https://reefs.com/magazine/skeptical-reefkeeping-ix-130/

from it:

Rich’s 150 gallon display, on a 300 gallon system, is running a phosphate level of 1.24 ppm, a level at 24.8 times higher than the often recommended .05 ppm. Photo by Richard Ross. (edit by Randy: I believe the nitrate was also very high)

/130/

anthonys51 · Feb 28, 2017

I read that. But I used to have a tank with 30-50 nitrates and low phosphates and one by one my lps would melt. Is it your believe that the nitrates didn't kill them. Or if your going to have one high you need the other high

Also thank you for your time. Your one of the reasons I joined reef2reef