Parameters

[Currierfarms14]

Hello R2R. I’ve hit a small but important milestone. My current reef tank is one year old. I have a mixed reef (SPS,LPS, softies). I run two viparspectra 300 W over my 75 gallon bow front. I have a protein skimmer rated for up to 100 gallons, and a canister filter. My zoas have been growing, but not as quickly as I’d been hoping.
I’ve been testing my levels quite frequently to see if it may have something to do with that. My current parameters:

ammonia, nitrite: 0
Nitrate:0
Calcium:430
KH:8
Phosphate: 0

My current thought is that my nitrates are too low. I’ve never been a fan of ultra low nutrient systems, and here I am lol. There is no algae bloom in the tank consuming all the nitrates. I feed heavily in the tank, and also supplement the corals with reef roofs. I am not doing very frequent water changes. Generally do a 20% water change every couple of weeks.

1) can anyone see any reason my nitrates are constantly at zero, and have a solution?
2) any other factors from the given information of why my growth on my corals have been slow! Thank you for taking the time to read this long winded post lol

 

[Deep]

What livestock do you have? What do you feed?

 

[Currierfarms14]

I have a fox face rabbit fish, niger trigger, 2 clownfish, and a purple basslet. CUC (not a ton of them).

 

[Pistondog]

If you have nuisance algae, it might be using all the nutrients.

 

[Currierfarms14]

I am feeding frozen food from my LFS.

 

[Mono]

Hello R2R. I’ve hit a small but important milestone. My current reef tank is one year old. I have a mixed reef (SPS,LPS, softies). I run two viparspectra 300 W over my 75 gallon bow front. I have a protein skimmer rated for up to 100 gallons, and a canister filter. My zoas have been growing, but not as quickly as I’d been hoping.
I’ve been testing my levels quite frequently to see if it may have something to do with that. My current parameters:

ammonia, nitrite: 0
Nitrate:0
Calcium:430
KH:8
Phosphate: 0

My current thought is that my nitrates are too low. I’ve never been a fan of ultra low nutrient systems, and here I am lol. There is no algae bloom in the tank consuming all the nitrates. I feed heavily in the tank, and also supplement the corals with reef roofs. I am not doing very frequent water changes. Generally do a 20% water change every couple of weeks.

1) can anyone see any reason my nitrates are constantly at zero, and have a solution?
2) any other factors from the given information of why my growth on my corals have been slow! Thank you for taking the time to read this long winded post lol

How do you their growth has been slow?
What is your photo period?

 

[Currierfarms14]

If you have nuisance algae, it might be using all the nutrients.

I do not have much algae at all.

 

[Currierfarms14]

Blues are on 8 hours a day with white on for about 5 of those. Blues are around 84 and whites are at 27

 

[Deep]

I am feeding frozen food from my LFS.

switch to pellets or flakes for a while,, that will drive up nutrients.

 

[Currierfarms14]

switch to pellets or flakes for a while,, that will drive up nutrients.

I will have to try this. I was under the impression the frozen food would carry more Nitrates, so I appreciate the info.

 

[Gtinnel]

In my tank my nitrates stay around 1 and it doesn't seem to fluctuate much based on what kind or even how much food I feed. I'm guessing I have a lot of anaerobic bacteria in the tank to process the nitrate in nitrogen gas.
I can't say for sure what keeps your nitrates low but you really shouldn't leave it or phosphate at 0, that causes its own list of problems.
If you aren't able to feed more to raise them then dosing is always an option to elevate nitrate and phosphate.

 

[Timfish]

Your phosphorus is likely too low. There's plenty of research but Rich Ross' video is a good start. Here's 4 videos covering some of the research done on reefs many aquarists seem to be unaware of:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

Richard Ross "What's up with phosphate"

 

[Cell]

Consider running the skimmer only part time and see if that helps.

 

[anthonygf]

Like Cell said, I run mine when lights out, also try letting the skimate flow back into the filter sock section to keep most nutrients in tank. The filter will also remove unwanted stuff. This is what I have been doing for about a year now and my nitrates are stable at 5-10ppm.

 

[Uncle99]

Your nutrients are both zero.
They will starve.