No nutrients? What do I do.

[RJKain-777]

I’ve been seeing people keep nitrates and phosphates at low levels in there tanks, currently I have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates according to my Salifert and Hanna checker tests. A lot of my SPS are looking pale , so this is why I’m asking. I have quite a heavy bio load in my tank:
1 diamond giby
3 tangs
3 wrasses
2 clowns
1 damsel
1 royal gramma
1 striped goby

Is there anything I can do to get colours back? Currently dosing 5 ml a day of acro power...

 

[Hemmdog]

What is your current nutrient export method?

 

[RJKain-777]

Bubble Magnus curve 5 skimmer, and a refugium with chaeto and a 6500k cfl bulb on for 10 hours a day.

 

[foxt]

Have you been running at those levels for a while? What's the alk? How long have the corals been in the system?

 

[RJKain-777]

Corals been in the system since setting up. So 3 months now. Rock is from my old tank that was a few years old.
Alk is at 9.0
Levels have been like this for 2 weeks.

 

[ReeferBud]

Just dose potassium nitrate and sodium triphosphate. There are several good threads on here if you do a search that will explain how to do it. You can buy from amazon or loudwolf.

Here’s a calculator that many ise

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

I’ve been dosing myself for almost two years to keep no3 at 5-10ppm and PO4 at 0.03-0.08ppm. Works great.

 

[RJKain-777]

Do you notice better colour with nitrates and phosphates in your system?

 

[ReeferBud]

Yes. Very noticeable if I let nutrients drop to zero. Can tell by just looking at my sps

 

[rob safron]

I’ve been seeing people keep nitrates and phosphates at low levels in there tanks, currently I have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates according to my Salifert and Hanna checker tests. A lot of my SPS are looking pale , so this is why I’m asking. I have quite a heavy bio load in my tank:
1 diamond giby
3 tangs
3 wrasses
2 clowns
1 damsel
1 royal gramma
1 striped goby

Is there anything I can do to get colours back? Currently dosing 5 ml a day of acro power...

You can feed much heavier, turn down amount of skimming, if your carbon dosing lower it, start dosing higher amount of amino’s and other coral foods. If none of that works you can dose phosphate and nitrate, not my first choice.

 

[Idoc]

I had zero nutrients for a long time in my tank at the beginning... eventually baked with dinos and almost a year battle to eliminate. Dose No3 and Po4...

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Can you post a picture of your refugium?

You can also remove a much larger chunk of chaeto from your refugium. This will slow down the quantity of nutrients it uses, and allow your nitrates and phosphates to linger a little longer.

 

[RJKain-777]

Not a good photo but it’s all I have till I’m home.

 

[EW_Fish]

A few things you could try.

Take your alk to 8-8.5 Give that some time

Leave alk at 9 and try dosing trace colors ABCD (from red sea)

Leave alk at 9 feed more and cut fuge light down 2-4 hrs from original 10hrs

I don't think I saw what light you are running?

 

[RJKain-777]

Do you mean light on the tank? 2 hydra 26hd, and 2 Orphek OR blue plus bars.

For the fuge, a kessil h380.

I was thinking about setting up my spare dozer to run the ABCD as well, but don’t really know where to start, as I’m using a calcium reactor

A few things you could try.

Take your alk to 8-8.5 Give that some time

Leave alk at 9 and try dosing trace colors ABCD (from red sea)

Leave alk at 9 feed more and cut fuge light down 2-4 hrs from original 10hrs

I don't think I saw what light you are running?

 

[blasterman]

Just turn off your skimmer for awhile. With that many fish nitrate and phosphate will have to start going up.

I target my mixed reefs at 5-10ppm nitrate and all is well.

 

[EW_Fish]

Do you mean light on the tank? 2 hydra 26hd, and 2 Orphek OR blue plus bars.

For the fuge, a kessil h380.

I was thinking about setting up my spare dozer to run the ABCD as well, but don’t really know where to start, as I’m using a calcium reactor

Honestly I think you just need to dirty your water up a little bit. Feed more turn your fuge light down some and just keep an eye out on the tank

 

[Lasse]

How does your chaeto grow? If it grow well - just lower the lighting time over the fuge and take away some. If it does not grow well dose some NO3 and PO4. Problems with low PO4 and inorganic N, like dino and/or cyanobacteria, normally occurs after a rather long time with zero nutrients - when the reserves have been consumed (especially valid for PO4). If you dose PO4 - be careful. If your reserves is empty (reserves = PO4 bound in calcium phosphate, in the crystalline surface of sand and stones or in anaerobic areas as an example) you will read zero for a long time in the beginning and suddenly, there is a concentration of free PO4 in the water column.

I would send in an ICP test in order to see how my pattern of other compounds looks like before I start to dose other elements. I normally do not dose combined products. How often do you do WC and how much?

Sincerely Lasse