Nutrients bottomed out

wazupjames · Jan 8, 2022

Nitrates and Phosphates are reading 0.00 on Hanna Checkers.
Tank - Red Sea XL 200
Daily Nutrient Import - 2 drops Aqua Forest Aminos every morning.
16ml AB + and 1/4 teaspoon reefroids every night.
Pellets twice per day for 1 fish.
Also spot feed acans, blastos, Euphyllia every Sunday night with mysis.
Tank is loaded with coral, everything is doing fairly well but zoas aren't thriving and SPS colors aren't as vibrant.
Export - Skimmer, Chemi-Pure Blue, change filter floss every 3 days, 5 gallon water change once per week.

Looking for thoughts on how to increase nitrate and phosphate. Maybe from those that have dealt with this issue. Did you increase the amount of coral food? Add a few fish for increased bioload? Dosed neophos or something similar? What worked for you? Did your change cause any other issues?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

a.t.t.r · Jan 8, 2022

I have started dumping 3/4 of my skimmer cup back into the tank.

Jekyl · Jan 8, 2022

Pull the drain plug on the skimmer cup. Allow it to drain back into tank.

Lavey29 · Jan 8, 2022

Pull your chemipure blue out. Maybe shut skimmer down for 8 hours a day. Got to biweekly water change. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for multiple weeks to get my numbers up.

Stoney · Jan 8, 2022

Low nutrients is a blessing, means you can go nuts with the coral food. Most of my tanks end up nutrient deficient so I just keep increasing reef roids until PO4 is within range and then dose NO3, which usually lags behind.

Spare time · Jan 8, 2022

wazupjames said:
Nitrates and Phosphates are reading 0.00 on Hanna Checkers.
Tank - Red Sea XL 200
Daily Nutrient Import - 2 drops Aqua Forest Aminos every morning.
16ml AB + and 1/4 teaspoon reefroids every night.
Pellets twice per day for 1 fish.
Also spot feed acans, blastos, Euphyllia every Sunday night with mysis.
Tank is loaded with coral, everything is doing fairly well but zoas aren't thriving and SPS colors aren't as vibrant.
Export - Skimmer, Chemi-Pure Blue, change filter floss every 3 days, 5 gallon water change once per week.

Looking for thoughts on how to increase nitrate and phosphate. Maybe from those that have dealt with this issue. Did you increase the amount of coral food? Add a few fish for increased bioload? Dosed neophos or something similar? What worked for you? Did your change cause any other issues?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Put the skimmer on a timer, remove the chemi pure blue (just use carbon, as blue has a phosphate remover and purigen). Stop the water changes (assuming you dose elements already).

Alternatively, you can up the dosage of coral foods.