I'm batting a nitrate problem, salifert read 50 ,Po4 0 salifert, so far I tried vinegar ,NoPox =rtn plus no change ,water change no change , continumm md bacteria adition no chage, a few small cyano pads,could it be that I need phosphate to bring down my nitrates?
Phosphate limiting Nitrate reduction?
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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How long have you tried these, and at what doses?
Nitrate of 50 ppm is really high, hard to imagine that your nitrates could get that high and your phosphates be at zero. Wonder if your phosphate test is erroneous or vice versa
ctsps
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I had the same thing happen with a bio pellet reactor, didnt notice phos went to 0 and nitrates starting creeping up,dosed some phosphorus and acros colored and in 4 days nitrates dropped,i try to keep phos at .02
I check both of them with a few friend's first the nitrate I use a new salifert test kit that read 50 ,another salifert test of a friend 50,the interesting part now api less than 5 ,red sea 0.Phosphate double check using a more sensitive test double the water and reagent two salifert 0.
ctsps
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I had 25ppm nitrates about 5 days ago and now i have 5 ppm,i use seachem phos and dose about 2.5ml a day,i started to dose acropower at 2ml per day and will test tonite,i overdosed day 1 phos went to .14 next day (24hr) it was .03 reactor blasting down phos to de nitrate
Lynn52
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I've been fighting nitrates too. Mine are even higher. They were well over 100. Phosphates aren't 0 but pretty close. I lost a couple apparently healthy fish and a couple LPS, which started me looking for a problem. I did massive water changes every couple days and started vinegar dosing about 2 1/2 weeks ago. They are now registering just under 100. Things look better but not great.
brownsalt92
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100 is a lot my red sea kit was showing I was over 64+ no3 and my po4 was at a 3.06. I've gotten my nitrates down to 30 and my po4 down to .68 still getting it down been working on it since December water changes added matrix added phosguard just changed out my phosban with active carbon all sorts of things. Phosban was taking out to many elements. I Can't get my nitrates below a 30 BC I'm trying to catch a damsel in a trap with pellet food but my fox face eats all extra food.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Are you doing anything to export phosphate?
The norm is for nitrate reduction with organic carbon dosing to run out of nitrate, rather than run out of phosphate because for clearly understood reasons, it generally is tipped to excessive nitrate reduction relative to phosphate.
At 50 ppm, it may take more than 20 days to see a drop in nitrate, and I'd keep dosing the vinegar longer before adding phosphate.
However, phosphate dosing is an easy enough experiment if you think it might work.
The norm is for nitrate reduction with organic carbon dosing to run out of nitrate, rather than run out of phosphate because for clearly understood reasons, it generally is tipped to excessive nitrate reduction relative to phosphate.
At 50 ppm, it may take more than 20 days to see a drop in nitrate, and I'd keep dosing the vinegar longer before adding phosphate.
However, phosphate dosing is an easy enough experiment if you think it might work.
The only method I use to export phosphate is chaeto, the issue with the nutrients was cause by me a few months ago because I used nopox to almost dry my tank trying to kill dynos.I used Nopox and all my nutrients went to 0 and my corals pale out ,so I added Kno3 but just a little but since then it keep climbing. That's why I'm considering to dose phosphorus to fix the imbalance I created. Randy could it be posible the reason of the climbing nitrate was the strip of phosphate I created a few month back? Do you considere the use of phosphorus could make the things better?Are you doing anything to export phosphate?
The norm is for nitrate reduction with organic carbon dosing to run out of nitrate, rather than run out of phosphate because for clearly understood reasons, it generally is tipped to excessive nitrate reduction relative to phosphate.
At 50 ppm, it may take more than 20 days to see a drop in nitrate, and I'd keep dosing the vinegar longer before adding phosphate.
However, phosphate dosing is an easy enough experiment if you think it might work.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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I don't see anything you did that would decrease phosphate and not nitrate (except adding nitrate). There are not many processes likely to be happening in your tank that are adding nitrate and not phosphate, or that are reducing phosphate and not nitrate.
I'm skeptical about adding phosphate, and I'm not sure the kit you are usign can detect phosphate accurately enough at low levels to say it is limiting, but it is not a hard thing to try.
But as I said, I personally wouldn't do it yet.
I'm skeptical about adding phosphate, and I'm not sure the kit you are usign can detect phosphate accurately enough at low levels to say it is limiting, but it is not a hard thing to try.
But as I said, I personally wouldn't do it yet.
biom
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I think the problem is here, it is not possible Salifert to read 50, Red sea and API kits to read 0. Check again in LFS or prepare standart solution of nitrates. Salifert test for phosphates is really hard to read if PO4 is under 0.1 so probably phosphates aren't zero.
Topside Reef
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I fixed high nitrate with phosphate more than a few times and never noticed any side effects. If you add phosphate slowly you should be fine and see a noticeable reduction in nitrate within a week or two if not sooner.
Do you use seachem flourish phosphorus? Or just this?I fixed high nitrate with phosphate more than a few times and never noticed any side effects. If you add phosphate slowly you should be fine and see a noticeable reduction in nitrate within a week or two if not sooner.
