Phosphate 0 but nitrates high

Benhuan · Jul 14, 2020

Hi all,
My tank is about 3 months old currently following BRS 4 month cycle. Got a refugium recently which brought my phosphates to 0. My nitrates however, are at 20-40 ppm. Currently dosing nopox for about 5 days now but hasn’t really changed much. Any help to bring nitrates down to about 2ppm would be appreciated. Currently have no corals, powder blue, blue tang, purple tang, and 2 clowns.

splitting_lanes · Jul 14, 2020

Add some phosphates, say enough of a dose to bring it up to .05

that should help reduce nitrates.

jstncoffman · Jul 14, 2020

Benhuan said:
Hi all,
My tank is about 3 months old currently following BRS 4 month cycle. Got a refugium recently which brought my phosphates to 0. My nitrates however, are at 20-40 ppm. Currently dosing nopox for about 5 days now but hasn’t really changed much. Any help to bring nitrates down to about 2ppm would be appreciated. Currently have no corals, powder blue, blue tang, purple tang, and 2 clowns.

I'd lay off the NOpox, tank is still Young, your cycle must fully do its thing, also get me more tank parms

jstncoffman · Jul 14, 2020

If you would also give a tank build thread to let us know what you did live rock? Live sand? How many gallons? Tank parms? Lights? Ect

DeniableArc · Jul 15, 2020

Nopox will not work at reducing nitrates with 0 phosphate. Slowly dose phosphate and I would get a Hanna ultra low Checker to confirm your level.

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

jstncoffman said:
If you would also give a tank build thread to let us know what you did live rock? Live sand? How many gallons? Tank parms? Lights? Ect

I might start one when im on uni break. Currently have a 700 litre tank 6ft. Bare bottom, started with real reef rock not live rock lights are radions (going to go sps). Tested 10 min ago, Nitrate 20-40 ppm colour is in between (API test kit, I have a red sea one but the max it measures is 4ppm) , phosphate 0.01 (red sea test kit), salinity 35ppm, temp 25 degrees celsius, Alk 8.1, calc 420, mg 1300.

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

DeniableArc said:
Nopox will not work at reducing nitrates with 0 phosphate. Slowly dose phosphate and I would get a Hanna ultra low Checker to confirm your level.

How would i dose phosphates, i live in Australia so i don't get access to a lot of stuff like brightwell aquatics stuff :/

DeniableArc · Jul 15, 2020

Benhuan said:
How would i dose phosphates, i live in Australia so i don't get access to a lot of stuff like brightwell aquatics stuff :/

G’day I was in your exact same boat with dosing, I bottomed out phosphate then nitrate wouldn’t budge and I got Dino’s. I’m in Australia and I have been using continuum unls phos. Just keep in mind that your rock will soak up a lot of the dosed phosphate till it reaches equilibrium with the water so you may have to dose for a week just to get a reading but go slow. A true 0 of phosphate from carbon dosing will lead to big problems.

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

DeniableArc said:
G’day I was in your exact same boat with dosing, I bottomed out phosphate then nitrate wouldn’t budge and I got Dino’s. I’m in Australia and I have been using continuum unls phos. Just keep in mind that your rock will soak up a lot of the dosed phosphate till it reaches equilibrium with the water so you may have to dose for a week just to get a reading but go slow. A true 0 of phosphate from carbon dosing will lead to big problems.

Sweet as. Cheers I’ll get that tmr then. Should I reduce my refugium photo period?

Thaxxx · Jul 15, 2020

Benhuan said:
I might start one when im on uni break. Currently have a 700 litre tank 6ft. Bare bottom, started with real reef rock not live rock lights are radions (going to go sps). Tested 10 min ago, Nitrate 20-40 ppm colour is in between (API test kit, I have a red sea one but the max it measures is 4ppm) , phosphate 0.01 (red sea test kit), salinity 35ppm, temp 25 degrees celsius, Alk 8.1, calc 420, mg 1300.

There are two ways of testing with the Red Sea Nitrate pro test kit.
You tested for low nitrates. Read your directions and do the HIGH nitrate test.

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

Thaxxx said:
There are two ways of testing with the Red Sea Nitrate pro test kit.
You tested for low nitrates. Read your directions and do the HIGH nitrate test.

Oh I did not know... I’ll do that now. Thank you!

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

Thaxxx said:
There are two ways of testing with the Red Sea Nitrate pro test kit.
You tested for low nitrates. Read your directions and do the HIGH nitrate test.

Just retested and nitrates are at approx 20 ppm colour was just a bit darker then 16ppm.

canadianeh · Jul 15, 2020

How big is your tank? The quickest way to bring the nitrates down is to do large water change in single shot. Or do multiple medium large water change every day. Be very conservative on your feeding to.

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

canadianeh said:
How big is your tank? The quickest way to bring the nitrates down is to do large water change in single shot. Or do multiple medium large water change every day. Be very conservative on your feeding to.

700 litres or 180 gallon display with aprrox 100 litre or 30ish gallon sump. Just retested the nitrates. It is at 20 ppm ish. I might do a 100 litre water change tmr. I have done 3 water changes prior didn't really do much...

canadianeh · Jul 15, 2020

Benhuan said:
700 litres or 180 gallon display with aprrox 100 litre or 30ish gallon sump. Just retested the nitrates. It is at 20 ppm ish. I might do a 100 litre water change tmr. I have done 3 water changes prior didn't really do much...

My Nitrates was over 100 ppm and I did few medium size WC and then one 50% WC. I brought it down to 20 ppm in a few days. Now my nitrate is 5 ppm.

Benhuan · Jul 15, 2020

canadianeh said:
My Nitrates was over 100 ppm and I did few medium size WC and then one 50% WC. I brought it down to 20 ppm in a few days. Now my nitrate is 5 ppm.

Nice! How did u get the 20 down to 5? WC still? How are u maintaining the nitrates at a stable level?

canadianeh · Jul 15, 2020

Benhuan said:
Nice! How did u get the 20 down to 5? WC still? How are u maintaining the nitrates at a stable level?

Check out my build thread for the detail data and equipments. I recorded all the numbers during and post cycling.

I am using Clarisea filter roll instead of sock filter. I think this helps. It has been working great.

I am also using Marinepure balls. No refugium right now. Water change of 10% is done every week. I only have two clownfish right now and I only feed what they want to eat and so very little of food falls to the bottom of the tank. I have corals and feed them too.

How old is your tank? Mine is about 2 months.

Smarkow · Jul 15, 2020

Often a test kit For nitrate/P reading zero just means that the element in question is present but being used up rapidly.

Given the choice between nitrates OR phosphates being zero, I would gladly take your situation.

Any tank shots? If the tank looks good, keep on keeping on?