Phosphate 0, nitrate sky high. Why?

[lba4590]

I am having cycle after cycle of cyano issues and my tank is totally out of balance. It’s 2 years old, 120g and about a year ago, it was beautiful and issue free. Now I have lost 75% of my corals, entire tank is covered in bubble algae, all my coralline died, and I’m just about ready to give up.

My phosphate is consistently 0, while my nitrates are around 30-40 (Hanna testers for both). I do monthly 30% water changes. Tried dosing phosphate and that led to another cyano explosion and caused the bubble algae to take over as well. Can someone help me understand what is consuming all my phosphate? And where to go from here?

I dose nopox, but hardly any - like 2ml a day. Everything else is stable.

 

[Koh23]

Remember what u exactly did at last moment when tank was ok....

Surely you do something, maybe something that u cannot relate to problems, maybe u dose something, change something, add something..

No action = no reaction, so, very slim chance that problem appears from nothing....

 

[PeterEde]

I have been fighting the same problem with high NO3 and undetected PO4
I was dosing NOPOX to no affect. Until I started dosing Phosphorous.
My NO3 as of yesterday was 17 down from a high of 50+

 

[Ryusheng*]

I am having cycle after cycle of cyano issues and my tank is totally out of balance. It’s 2 years old, 120g and about a year ago, it was beautiful and issue free. Now I have lost 75% of my corals, entire tank is covered in bubble algae, all my coralline died, and I’m just about ready to give up.

My phosphate is consistently 0, while my nitrates are around 30-40 (Hanna testers for both). I do monthly 30% water changes. Tried dosing phosphate and that led to another cyano explosion and caused the bubble algae to take over as well. Can someone help me understand what is consuming all my phosphate? And where to go from here?

I dose nopox, but hardly any - like 2ml a day. Everything else is stable.

I have bubble algea and i think brown algea or mb diatoms problem before and I had turbo snails and blenny cleaning them up.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I am having cycle after cycle of cyano issues and my tank is totally out of balance. It’s 2 years old, 120g and about a year ago, it was beautiful and issue free. Now I have lost 75% of my corals, entire tank is covered in bubble algae, all my coralline died, and I’m just about ready to give up.

My phosphate is consistently 0, while my nitrates are around 30-40 (Hanna testers for both). I do monthly 30% water changes. Tried dosing phosphate and that led to another cyano explosion and caused the bubble algae to take over as well. Can someone help me understand what is consuming all my phosphate? And where to go from here?

I dose nopox, but hardly any - like 2ml a day. Everything else is stable.

Phosphates are a limiting factor for nitrates and the addition of carbon, meaning that is most likely the addition of carbon without phosphates that is fuelling your Cyanobacteria.

personally I would stop the addition of nopox for a wile and just add phosphates to reduce the carbon that may be in abundance in your tank, once stable again and your tank stopping depleting phosphates evaluate the situation again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am having cycle after cycle of cyano issues and my tank is totally out of balance. It’s 2 years old, 120g and about a year ago, it was beautiful and issue free. Now I have lost 75% of my corals, entire tank is covered in bubble algae, all my coralline died, and I’m just about ready to give up.

My phosphate is consistently 0, while my nitrates are around 30-40 (Hanna testers for both). I do monthly 30% water changes. Tried dosing phosphate and that led to another cyano explosion and caused the bubble algae to take over as well. Can someone help me understand what is consuming all my phosphate? And where to go from here?

I dose nopox, but hardly any - like 2ml a day. Everything else is stable.

Phosphate can be "consumed" by binding to bare rock and sand surfaces, while nitrate cannot.

That effect can lead to undetectable phosphate and a good plan to eliminate that issue is to dose phosphate until you reach detectable levels again.

 

[jda]

What is not exported by the uptick in bacteria from the nopox is being bound to the aragonite. If you stop the nopox, just continued fish feedings should raise it a bit.

You don't even have 1 ppb of phosphate/phosphorous on a hannah ultra low? That is like new-tank incredibly low.