Suggestions at Raising my Nutrient levels?

[Andrew Schubert]

I have a 120 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump that is split between the skimmer, refugium, and return pump sections. The tank is about 5 months old, and with this setup I have never seen any detectable levels of nitrate or phosphate.

I've just recently discovered that you do want some nitrate and phosphate in your tank for your corals so I've been experimenting with getting these levels up. Last night I dosed my tank with Brightweel Aquatics Neonitro (100ml) and Neophos (50ml). That raised my nitrate to 1 and Phosphate to 0.04.

However, I'm looking for better ways to get these up as dosing these products can become very costly in the long run.

Here are my options as I see them.

1) Reduce the amount of time the light is on in my refugium. Problem with this is my PH is already between 7.8 and 8. This may cause it to go even lower???

2) Stop running my protein skimmer 24/7. I've already opened it up all the way so it doesn't run as wet. But I'm afraid if there might be a negative effect of the oxygen in the water if its not running 24/7? Should this be a legit concern? If so, would adding air stones in its place when the skimmer is off make up the difference?

Or any other suggestions that people may have at raising the nutrient levels. I've been over feeding my tank for the last 2 weeks trying to get the levels up and I feel the tank is fairly stocked already. I feel by adding any more to increase the bioload would be putting the tank close to 'overstocked'.

2x Jumbo Clownfish
2x Tangs
2x Wrasse
2x Dammels
1x Firefish
1x Flame Angel
1x Rabbit Fish
1x Copperband Butterfly
1x Anthias
1x Basslet

 

[Flippers4pups]

I like you aquascape!

Whats in your refugium? Chaetomorpha?

There's other ways of dosing nitrate.

• Spectracide stump remover (potassium nitrate) has it pros and cons. Purity is questionable. Made into solution. I've personally used this with no I'll effects. Others have reported issues.
• Sodium nitrate. Lab grade made into solution.
• Running your skimmer at night and off during the day.
• Reduce water changes to biweekly or once a month. During this time dosing elements to make up for not doing water changes.

Ive dosed seachems flourish phosphorus to raise P04. Takes very little to raise.

Dosing nitrate to desired levels first, then phosphate, as nitrate will drive down phosphate at first.

All of this is dependent of what corals your keeping and how they look.

I use API for N03 and a Hannah checker for P04.

 

[Oshengems]

Nice tank! Well I was in the same boat as you, I added a total of 21 fishes in a 75g mostly were Nano size fishes but felt that was not good in the long run but did see a small boost I used to get a lil but of color on the test kits, but so I sold a few, kept 16 still undetectable and at most ~5ppm on salifer test kit, I then went through the more feeding route x3-4 but was getting more algae on my glass and rocks and was annoyed to constantly feed(my fish loved it they were fighting less) still non detectable especially after lowering my biomass, I kept my skimmer on 12h removed the cheateo and nothing, I kept my eye on sale forums for a used dosing pump cheap and went to through the dosing route, Sodium Nitrate is cheap to the amount needed to boost you No3 to a desire number under 20ppm my goal was 10ppm but something else to keep in mind once you start dosing your it will buffer your tank( don’t quote me on that still understanding the mechanics) but after time your tank will hold some of the No3 and Po4 on the sand rocks etc so even less dosing will be needed. I currently stopped but resuming next week I’m treating my tanknfor aefw at the moment.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Remove the collection from your skimmer.

Reduce illumination period for chaeto, gradually, down (a minimum of 9 hours)

 

[CoralNerd]

but after time your tank will hold some of the No3 and Po4 on the sand rocks etc so even less dosing will be needed. I currently stopped but resuming next week.

I had that happen. Was at zero n03 dosed for months got to around 20 to 25 and that's where the tank stayed at even without dosing. I have a new tank and I'm dosing Potassium Nitrate I'll have to keep an eye on the n03.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Remove the collection from your skimmer.

Reduce illumination period for chaeto, gradually, down (a minimum of 9 hours)

Edit: Remove the collection CUP from your skimmer.

 

[JDtimk]

I am sure you already know this, but it's worth stating anyway.
I would go slow with ramping up your nutrients and pay close attention to the effect of any changes. In a relatively newly established tank things seem to reach a tipping point if you move too quickly to increase nutrients, which can lead to phosphate saturated sand and rock, algae explosion, browning out of corals, etc.

Then the fix usually requires big changes, such as, lots of water changes or removing the sand or the rock or judiciously running GFO until you exhaust the nutrients leaching back into the water column.

Running the skimmer at night only is a good start, maybe take out your filter sock if you have one. If you are able to run an outside airline via a pump to the skimmer inlet, that will help displace some of the excess co2 in your tank and will raise your pH by between .1 to .3 or so depending on your co2 levels in your tank and how effective your air pump and skimmer are at facilitating gas exchange.

Since nutrient levels in your tank aren't currently an emergency, I would up your feeding a bit and reduce nutrient export a bit and then give it a couple of months and see what your corals look like. I wouldn't necessarily chase a number on a test kit, but using them as reference is fine.
If the changes you made are making your corals happy after a few months then keep it going, if you aren't quite there with reaching your goals for your coral, up the feeding a little and let things play out and stabilize over a few more months.

I know it sounds painfully slow, but the advantage is that you will find an equilibrium that is sustainable for your tank rather than using quick additives that boost nutrients quickly and are then susceptible to rapid peaks and valleys while trying to maintain a target nutrient number.

 

[Andrew Schubert]

I am sure you already know this, but it's worth stating anyway.
I would go slow with ramping up your nutrients and pay close attention to the effect of any changes. In a relatively newly established tank things seem to reach a tipping point if you move too quickly to increase nutrients, which can lead to phosphate saturated sand and rock, algae explosion, browning out of corals, etc.

Then the fix usually requires big changes, such as, lots of water changes or removing the sand or the rock or judiciously running GFO until you exhaust the nutrients leaching back into the water column.

Running the skimmer at night only is a good start, maybe take out your filter sock if you have one. If you are able to run an outside airline via a pump to the skimmer inlet, that will help displace some of the excess co2 in your tank and will raise your pH by between .1 to .3 or so depending on your co2 levels in your tank and how effective your air pump and skimmer are at facilitating gas exchange.

Since nutrient levels in your tank aren't currently an emergency, I would up your feeding a bit and reduce nutrient export a bit and then give it a couple of months and see what your corals look like. I wouldn't necessarily chase a number on a test kit, but using them as reference is fine.
If the changes you made are making your corals happy after a few months then keep it going, if you aren't quite there with reaching your goals for your coral, up the feeding a little and let things play out and stabilize over a few more months.

I know it sounds painfully slow, but the advantage is that you will find an equilibrium that is sustainable for your tank rather than using quick additives that boost nutrients quickly and are then susceptible to rapid peaks and valleys while trying to maintain a target nutrient number.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, my goal is consistent nitrate at 3-5ppm, and .02 phosphate. So nothing too crazy. Problem. Is they've both been at 0. I have no option to run fresh air. I actually bought some co2 scrubber I'm gonna add to my skimmer and see how that works with my PH. More importantly how expensive it's gonna be to keep running it. Should be here tomorrow!

 

[Super Fly]

I struggled to increase nutrient as well with 0 levels of NO3 & PO4. After increased feeding from 1x/day to 2x/day, and 1x/week of nori & calan-eeze, together with removing GFO reactor the nutrient levels finally increased in several weeks. Initially I think I had turned off my skimmer for few days. Your PH should be fine even if skimmer is turned off and I wouldn't focus too much on chasing the PH #.

 

[Andrew Schubert]

I struggled to increase nutrient as well with 0 levels of NO3 & PO4. After increased feeding from 1x/day to 2x/day, and 1x/week of nori & calan-eeze, together with removing GFO reactor the nutrient levels finally increased in several weeks. Initially I think I had turned off my skimmer for few days. Your PH should be fine even if skimmer is turned off and I wouldn't focus too much on chasing the PH #.

Wow...feeding once a day. I already feed 3x a day. + dose Reef Chili daily as well. That's what I went with trying to dose some back in, as I can't imagine feeding anymore than I aleady am. Cross my fingers my Nitrate has been at 4 most of the week. Still no detectable amounts of PO4. Hannah Ultra Low Phosphorus unit is coming today. So maybe there is some PO4 there that I just haven't been able to measure in my tank at this point. We will see.