Water test results

[canisterreef]

New to marine. Tank bene running for 3 month. Happy fish, happy CUC and shrimp and recently added some mixed soft coral which all seem fine, open and very bright colours. Been testing with Hanna kits weekly. Noticed magnesium has risen slightly since adding coral. Here are my readings:
Salinity 1.025
Nitrate 0.08ppm
Phosphate 0.015ppm
Alk 9dkh
Calcium 430
Magnesium 1500

Is this all ok? I have been doing 10% weekly water changes and started to dose zlements inone at 1ml every other day via dosing machine.

I’ve had a bit of diatom algae but nothing like some of photos I have seen from other peoples tanks.

Also imported lots of live rock with coralline already on and notice when lights go to the purple moon setting that a lot of my rock has a faint purple / pink glow so wondered if coralline is actually occurring across more of the rocks?

I know my nitrate is low for soft coral so hoping my feeding and fish waste will raise it a bit over coming weeks

Is there anything else I should be doing to keep tank stable and corals healthy?

Thanks

 

[Doctorgori]

- Salinity 1.025 …… perfect …I thought Hanna did it in ppm, but I dunno..

- Nitrate 0.08ppm ….does Hannas Checker even measure that low? Hmmm …I’ll go check, just never had a tank that low…maybe some of the “Wall to wall” sps stick heads that dose Nitrate can chime in….

- Phosphate 0.015ppm …. Same as above, I got the Ultra Low checker and didn’t realize it went to .001 …I’ll go back and look but eitherway thats a lil low I prefer .1 - .05 …but see what others say

- Alk 9dkh. …. I’d say ideal…I try to operate between 8 - 9, but can’t really offer a reason beyond anecdotal suspicions… just suspect ranges above 11 give me issues or at least provide a good scapegoat LOL

- Calcium 430. …. TBH I don’t trust the Hanna Calcium tester, can’t endorse it!!! , I’d be more inclined to trust Salifert or Red Sea ..but see what others suggest, my guess is it won’t include Hanna,,,

Magnesium 1500 ….Dead on, but in my travels I didn’t get the Hanna because of bad reviews, could be OK but I use Salifert here

Added: You will get a varied input but I’ve tried a zillion things to avoid water changes and I’m still looking. I can’t mathematically endorse the 1% daily thing but 10-20% once every week or 2 always made more sense to me….
Stability is the key but I can’t endorse fretting too much over temperature or pH (which will swing daily anyway w/o measures to counteract)..besides anything between 70F-80F works as does pH above 7.8 ish (any lower is bad) …I wouldn't jack around with my lighting too much and you might find just dosing kalkwasser to be the simplest/cheapest solution for a long while….

GOOD LUCK!! (a zillion edits fighting bad light and spell checker LOL)

 

[hunterallen40]

Nitrate 0.08ppm
Phosphate 0.015ppm

I would absolutely raise these. Letting them deplete in a new system is a great way to invite dinos to take over.

Other than that, those parameters look absolutely fine to me. Magnesium is on the high side, but not to the point I personally would do anything about it.

I keep my nitrates ~ 20 ppm and my phosphates around 0.1 ppm. Works for me and many others.

There are a lot of people who would definitely say that's too high, but to each their own.

 

[canisterreef]

Thanks really helpful. I have the ultra low Hanna nitrate checker so it does go down to that number. I does above 5ppm but you have to use dilution.
Salinity was tested with refractometre.
Will re test with my salifert kits. I struggle with the colours hence the Hanna

 

[canisterreef]

I would absolutely raise these. Letting them deplete in a new system is a great way to invite dinos to take over.

Other than that, those parameters look absolutely fine to me. Magnesium is on the high side, but not to the point I personally would do anything about it.

I keep my nitrates ~ 20 ppm and my phosphates around 0.1 ppm. Works for me and many others.

There are a lot of people who would definitely say that's too high, but to each their own.

Any tips on raising nitrate and keeping phosphate other than feeding fish and good old time?

 

[Doctorgori]

Any tips on raising nitrate and keeping phosphate other than feeding fish and good old time?

I’d just feed the tank….The nitrate and phosphate dosing thing is a real (or perceived) problem for those whose coral growth is sucking in nutrients faster than they can feed OR when someone wants to let the world know (on the sly) their “wall to wall” SPS stick tank has arrived

 

[lmfbs]

Any tips on raising nitrate and keeping phosphate other than feeding fish and good old time?

You can dose it, but honestly, just feed a bit more

 

[Rmckoy]

Everything looks good except for nitrates and phosphates .

Again I’m not 100% sure if the kits actually test that low and perhaps could be testing error ?

I’d confirm those readings and raise them if that’s actually what they are
Ideally I aim for 5-10 ppm nitrates ( even though my system is always less than 5
And phosphates I aim for 0.05-.0.1 ppm

With higher alkalinity levels I would aim for a little higher nutrient levels but let’s see what others suggest .

 

[canisterreef]

I’d just feed the tank….The nitrate and phosphate dosing thing is a real (or perceived) problem for those whose coral growth is sucking in nutrients faster than they can feed OR when someone wants to let the world know (on the sly) their “wall to wall” SPS stick tank has arrived

Haha, maybe one day that will be me. For now as long as these softies thrive I will be chuffed. Thanks again much appreciated

 

[hunterallen40]

Haha, maybe one day that will be me. For now as long as these softies thrive I will be chuffed. Thanks again much appreciated

I've had to dose nitrates and phosphates for every new system I start with dry rock.

In my experience, it's far easier to control than just dumping more food in. If dumping more food in works, great! But I've not had much luck with that.

Sodium phosphate dibasic and sodium nitrate are the salts you would want to use. Neonitrate and neephosphate are also available, but they are not strong enough in my experience.

As stated above, though, I would 100% getting the nutrients from food, then falling back on dosing nutrients if you can't get them up with food alone.