Why wont my Nutrients rise?

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I assume there is a finite amount of Phosphate that can bind to the rock and sand? So eventually my rocks and sand will be saturated and more will remain the water column?

Finite for a given concentration in the water. If rock equilibrates forever at 0.1 ppm and you try to boost it to 0.2 ppm, more will bind.

The reverse is also true, which is why reducing phosphate is harder than it would seem.

 

[TheDuude]

Finite for a given concentration in the water. If rock equilibrates forever at 0.1 ppm and you try to boost it to 0.2 ppm, more will bind.

The reverse is also true, which is why reducing phosphate is harder than it would seem.

So the absorption by the rocks must happen much quicker than I am thinking it does. Like a sponge...

 

[TheDuude]

So I switched over to the Green Leaf Aquarium products yesterday. Starting to get around 1PPM on my Nitrate test still 0 on phosphate. Slowly upping my dose.

Good news is that Cyano is now growing over the dinos in the back corner of my tank.

 

[TheDuude]

Tank is showing much improvement. I have been blowing off the rocks much less in the last 3 or 4 days and the sand has only isolated patches of Dinos now. I have hit my target levels of N&P and am now adjusting the dose to keep them stable. I am also getting hair algae growth on the back wall and small patches of what looks like purple and green coraline. GLA ferts were nice since I could make a much more potent mix of Kno3 and Po4 and way cheaper.

I also put some samples from the sanbed under micro and I am seeing many more pods,nematodes, diatoms, algae, and some cyano where as before I found almost all Dino

So it seems once again that patience was all I needed.

 

[GainesvilleReef]

Mike Paletta said it best. "Nothing good ever happens fast in a reef tank."