Relation between Nitrate and Phosphate

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

Hi all , I'm having a bit of a nitrate issue , I'm reading 12ppm Red Sea and .04 Hanna phosphates. I have been doing big water changes as it was closer to 30 Red Sea nitrates.

Now that I have lowered it considerably and don't want to keep wasting RO WATER AND SALT, as I changed around 500 gallons of water this week. System is close to 700 gallons total.

Would I have an issue trying to lower nitrates with low phosphates .04

Currently running a 100 gallon refugium full of caulerpa.

Would like to try to lower nitrates by starting DIY NOPOX.

Would my .04 phosphates be a limiting factor for nitrate reduction?

AllSignsPointToFish · May 22, 2016

It can't hurt to try. If the nitrates don't come down, you can try feeding more to get the phosphates in the right proportion.

May I ask why you're wanting to lower the nitrates? Are you having a nuisance algae problem? If not, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

AllSignsPointToFIsh said:
It can't hurt to try. If the nitrates don't come down, you can try feeding more to get the phosphates in the right proportion.

May I ask why you're wanting to lower the nitrates? Are you having a nuisance algae problem? If not, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I had an issue where a lot of my SPS died.

It got all the way up to 30 ppm of Nitrates. Dont know if i can relate the coral death to the high nutrient levels, but I'm doing everything on my hands to get my tank back on track.

AllSignsPointToFish · May 22, 2016

30 is pretty high, but it takes a lot of nitrates to become an issue. What symptoms did the SPS exhibit before death?

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

A brown film over them.

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

AllSignsPointToFIsh said:
30 is pretty high, but it takes a lot of nitrates to become an issue. What symptoms did the SPS exhibit before death?

Brown film over corals, maybe it was some sort of water contamination.

Last things added to water where BRS calcium Chloride, and some phytoplankton that was given to me.

Maybe something has to do with any of those two additions, my nitrates where around 4-5 ppm before.

AllSignsPointToFish · May 22, 2016

Brown jelly disease? I'm no expert, but I don't believe nitrates are known to cause that.

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

Don't know if brown jelly could affect SPS.

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

It was not hairy like brown jelly.

AllSignsPointToFish · May 22, 2016

I'm pretty sure brown jelly can affect SPS. I wish I be more help. Do you think the phytoplankton could've been bad or contaminated?

blacktippr · May 22, 2016

AllSignsPointToFIsh said:
I'm pretty sure brown jelly can affect SPS. I wish I be more help. Do you think the phytoplankton could've been bad or contaminated?

It Could have been.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 23, 2016

FWIW, 0.04 ppm phosphate is not going to be limiting for nitrate reduction via organic carbon dosing. I'd just watch it and make sure it does not get too low. If it does, you can look to other methods or dose phosphate.

cobast · May 24, 2016

I'm no expert BUT, re your phosphates. Throw in a bag of phosban or some other such product and you'll likely get it down to near enough to zero. And don't forget your test kits will seldom be that accurate anyway. Your kit is supposedly reading 1 part in 25,000,000. (.04ppm)
Re nitrates. 30 is high. My test kit went off and gave me false low readings and I couldn't work out why my soft corals were shrinking and dying back. It was the nitrate level which was actually ranging around 30 to 40. (after I bought a new kit) So get it down asap. As soon as I got my nitrates down, the corals started recovering. It's also why most people aim for zero nitrates. Have you guys got Aquacare Nitrate Remover over there? It's all the rage here in AUS and works well.
I don't know about brown films on corals.

AllSignsPointToFish · May 24, 2016

That might be true, but a friend of mine runs his tank around 30 ppm nitrates, and his tank is thriving. He's got so much xenia and Kenya tree that he supplies the LFS constantly.