Sky high phosphates and 0.75 nitrates

CoralWealth · Jul 12, 2019

Hello!

So I have a SPS dominanted tank. I have included a video below so you can see it.

I just tested phosphates with the hanna ulr, I did 2 tests. One was 92 and the other was 90, so it is definitely accurate.

I then tested nitrate with the red sea test kit, it was either 0.5 or 0.75 so really low.

I do not do anything for nitrates or phosphate besides skimmer and a 10% water change weekly.

What makes phosphates so high and nitrates so low? Feed too much, too high of a bioload? What should I do besides run GFO, because I will not do that honestly.

I am going to start dosing phosphate rx very slowly and test my phosphate everyday to see how it is dropping. As you can see in the video, I have no algae anywhere in the tank but I know that all my tangs and urchins help a ton with that.

Old Fritz · Jul 13, 2019

Is there anything you commonly dose into the tank? For instance a good number of seachem products contain phosphates. It could also be from tap water. Nitrates are naturally made from the nitrogen cycle but can also be added into the tank from tap water as well as food and from waste breaking down.

CoralWealth · Jul 13, 2019

Old Fritz said:
Is there anything you commonly dose into the tank? For instance a good number of seachem products contain phosphates. It could also be from tap water. Nitrates are naturally made from the nitrogen cycle but can also be added into the tank from tap water as well as food and from waste breaking down.

Nope I don’t add anything. I don’t use tap water, I use a 6 stage RO/DI filter.

leepink23 · Jul 13, 2019

What foods do you feed? I believe dosing Nitrates will make your phosphate drop as well, but read up on it before considering. I have used phosphate rx and prefer it over gfo.

fish farmer · Jul 13, 2019

Are those nitrate and phosphate numbers reversed? Should it be phos at .5/.75 and nitrate at 90?

CoralWealth · Jul 13, 2019

fish farmer said:
Are those nitrate and phosphate numbers reversed? Should it be phos at .5/.75 and nitrate at 90?

No they are correct.

CoralWealth · Jul 13, 2019

leepink23 said:
What foods do you feed? I believe dosing Nitrates will make your phosphate drop as well, but read up on it before considering. I have used phosphate rx and prefer it over gfo.

Just frozen mysis and brine shrimp

GregOyeah · Jul 13, 2019

Start dosing nitrate and your phosphates will start to plummet, unless you’re currently and continue adding something to the tank that’s shooting the po4 up of course

KrisReef · Jul 13, 2019

codydemmel4 said:
No they are correct.

ULR Phosporus 90ppb =0.276ppm Phosphate, ?

philosophile · Jul 14, 2019

codydemmel4 said:
What makes phosphates so high and nitrates so low? Feed too much, too high of a bioload? What should I do besides run GFO, because I will not do that

Carbon, nitrate, and phosphate are used up by typical exporters in different amounts. If you're primarily exporting these via skimming and waterchange, then you'll lower the amount of phosphate the least, because bacteria that is skimmed out will utilize carbon, and nitrate way more than phosphate. so over time phosphate numbers will slowly rise without a few large water changes to significantly dilute the phosphate or media like GFO or lanthanum and a very fine filter for removing lanthanum.

Big E · Jul 14, 2019

codydemmel4 said:
Hello!

So I have a SPS dominanted tank. I have included a video below so you can see it.

I just tested phosphates with the hanna ulr, I did 2 tests. One was 92 and the other was 90, so it is definitely accurate.

I then tested nitrate with the red sea test kit, it was either 0.5 or 0.75 so really low.

I do not do anything for nitrates or phosphate besides skimmer and a 10% water change weekly.

What makes phosphates so high and nitrates so low? Feed too much, too high of a bioload? What should I do besides run GFO, because I will not do that honestly.

I am going to start dosing phosphate rx very slowly and test my phosphate everyday to see how it is dropping. As you can see in the video, I have no algae anywhere in the tank but I know that all my tangs and urchins help a ton with that.

Your results are typically how my tanks run. My skimmer, live rock keep nitrates in check. My phosphates will continue to rise if I don't run GFO.

I run standard GFO at half the recommended amount and this keeps my tanks at .03-.08 PO4 and the nitrates between 2.5 and 10ppm.

CoralWealth · Jul 14, 2019

KrisReef said:
ULR Phosporus 90ppb =0.276ppm Phosphate, ?

Yes which is way too high for a SPS dominant tank

CoralWealth · Jul 14, 2019

Big E said:
Your results are typically how my tanks run. My skimmer, live rock keep nitrates in check. My phosphates will continue to rise if I don't run GFO.

I run standard GFO at half the recommended amount and this keeps my tanks at .03-.08 PO4 and the nitrates between 2.5 and 10ppm.

Thanks for this. I have a bottle of phosphate RX so I am going to slowly use this to see how my corals respond and see what the phosphate level does. If this doesn’t help, then I will think about GFO. I just had bad experiences in the past.

Bpb · Jul 14, 2019

I’ll echo BigE on this. My tank behaves the same way. Normal vodka dosing, feeding quality food, regular water changes. Regularly maintained RODI, nitrate stays manageable and phosphate soars if left unchecked. It’ll get up as high as 0.4 if I don’t address it specifically for a few months. I have to dose phos rx pretty regularly to keep it manageable

CoralWealth · Jul 14, 2019

Bpb said:
I’ll echo BigE on this. My tank behaves the same way. Normal vodka dosing, feeding quality food, regular water changes. Regularly maintained RODI, nitrate stays manageable and phosphate soars if left unchecked. It’ll get up as high as 0.4 if I don’t address it specifically for a few months. I have to dose phos rx pretty regularly to keep it manageable

How many drops do you dose and what’s your water volume?

intricate_reefer · Jul 14, 2019

I had this problem as well. Tried to use a Phosphate Rx like product and while it worked, it was just too much effort. I’d end up dosing, it drops, then it just rises again next day. Had me testing and dosing almost daily. Recently I just added half the recommended amount of GFO and this seems to be working much better.

CoralWealth · Jul 14, 2019

VaporCountry said:
I had this problem as well. Tried to use a Phosphate Rx like product and while it worked, it was just too much effort. I’d end up dosing, it drops, then it just rises again next day. Had me testing and dosing almost daily. Recently I just added half the recommended amount of GFO and this seems to be working much better.

This is what I am going to watch closely, so we will see. I do not have a reactor or GFO so I would have to buy that, while I already have Phosphate RX

intricate_reefer · Jul 14, 2019

codydemmel4 said:
This is what I am going to watch closely, so we will see. I do not have a reactor or GFO so I would have to buy that, while I already have Phosphate RX

Yea give that a shot first and see how it works. Just be careful not to dose to much. Some people have had issues with it and tangs. You also don’t wanna bring it down too fast and shock your corals

Lasse · Jul 14, 2019

Do you have any problems at all with your tank and SPS? What I understand Phosphate RX contain lanthanum chloride - you will add something new to your tank.

Sincerely Lasse

CoralWealth · Jul 14, 2019

Lasse said:
Do you have any problems at all with your tank and SPS? What I understand Phosphate RX contain lanthanum chloride - you will add something new to your tank.

Sincerely Lasse

Only problems I am getting is the growth isnt as good as when my phosphates were lower and the corals arnt as good either, some have a brownish color to them due to the high phosphates.