Phosphate and nitrate

adamsfour · Jul 30, 2023

Hello reefer
I am having a problem getting my nitrates and phosphate under control. My 110 gallon tank is 10 years old and really, until recently, never had an issue with phosphate or nitrate. I have a pellet reactor, GFO filter, and using x nitrate and phoguard. I also have an algae scrubber. I run an icp test about every 6-8 weeks and about 6 weeks ago notice that phosphate and nitrate were higher than I’ve seen. I do 20 percent water change weekly. As of this morning my Hanna tests showed nitrates 11.5 ppm and phosphate .09 ppm. Overall corals look fine with one exception my leather coral is not looking good. I assume it’s related. Really nothing has changed for years and I can’t figure out the source

Miami Reef · Jul 30, 2023

I can say with certainty that those nutrient levels will not cause a leather coral to have issues.

X-37B · Jul 30, 2023

Those numbers are fine, just keep them in range. If your system looks good dont change it.
I run po4<.1 and no3 >5.

adamsfour · Jul 30, 2023

Tanks for the reply. In terms of leather coral. I tend to agree. I am not sure what the coral problem. The coral been in there for years and certainly has had its ups and down. It’s definitely not dead but normally it would have lots of green points and has had none for a few weeks.

Miami Reef · Jul 30, 2023

Do you use activated carbon? It might help.

adamsfour · Jul 30, 2023

Ah forgot to mention. Yes I do chemipure

dschuffert · Jul 30, 2023

You're Nitrates and Phosphates look acceptable to me. Can you share the last ICP test results? I also wonder if anything changed with your flow around the leather.

adamsfour · Jul 30, 2023

Here are the ICP results. This was a month ago and the phosphate has dropped a bit according to Hanna. Cal 464, Alk 9.78 and Mag 1588 according to trident and mostly agree with ICP.

exnisstech · Jul 30, 2023

Any chance the leather is shedding. My N and P are considerably higher than yours (N 18 P 0.5) and my leathers are fine. They do shed every so often and sometimes just sulk for unknown reasons.
As far as your nutrient levels I would not do anything at this point JMO