Phosphate 0.006.

[Miami Reef]

Tank is 1.5 months old with corals, fish, and inverts. I haven’t had a water change for a few weeks already but my phosphates hovers around 0.015 to 0.006. I just tested it with my ULR Hannah and I got 0.006ppm.

For filtration I have 5 micron socks that I’m changing out every day. I have a new protein skimmer which is also running.

My nitrates are 1ppm.

I have 7 tangs some large as well as 7 smaller fish in the tank. No ammonia.

I feed 3 times a day with frozen food. Reef energy AB+ and phytoplankton once a week.

Are my levels ok? I have LPS in my tank and some easy to care for SPS. I know my tank is young for corals, it wasn’t my fault. They were gift corals.

 

[Miami Reef]

I forgot to mention that I was dosing vibrant and vodka sparingly to increase bacteria.


I’m stopping the carbon dose. Removed my filter socks, closed my skimmer. Basically going to let everything run a little dirtier. Also fed the corals because once a week is basically starving for such a low nutrient tank.

 

[Marc2952]

From my experience LPS arent happy at such low nutrient levels, i tried vibrant and had a bad experience with it as it tanked my nutrients to the point i had a bad case of dinos. Now i keep my nitrates at 10ppm and phosphates at 0.05 and all my corals seem happy. But every tank is different at the end of the day.

 

[Tcook]

I agree. LPS will need higher nutrients and I would be worried about a Dino outbreak as well. Especially if you are killing off the competition with Vibrant. No more algae treatments for this young tank. Follow the PO4 frequently to see if the feeding is bringing it up.

 

[BostonReefer300]

You're getting good advice already here. My question is 7 tangs? How big is your tank? Are you feeding the tangs and other herbivores any nori or the like? Well fed tangs will add plenty of "nutrients" (also known as poop) to your tank in short order. They will also help keep algae under control if you're aiming for 10 ppm nitrate and 0.1 ppm PO4. By the way, which Hanna test are you using to figure out phosphate? HI736 for ULR Phosphorus or HI774 for ULR Phosphate? In my experience, you really want to use the former because of the relevant range of interest. You just need to remember to convert the reading from phosphorus to phosphate using the conversion table.

 

[Miami Reef]

You're getting good advice already here. My question is 7 tangs? How big is your tank? Are you feeding the tangs and other herbivores any nori or the like? Well fed tangs will add plenty of "nutrients" (also known as poop) to your tank in short order. They will also help keep algae under control if you're aiming for 10 ppm nitrate and 0.1 ppm PO4. By the way, which Hanna test are you using to figure out phosphate? HI736 for ULR Phosphorus or HI774 for ULR Phosphate? In my experience, you really want to use the former because of the relevant range of interest. You just need to remember to convert the reading from phosphorus to phosphate using the conversion table.

300+ gallons. Yes. Feeding red and green seaweed once to twice a day on a clip. They like the seaweed a lot.

I have the HI736 Phosphorus PPB. I had to use the conversion table for my ppm results.