Ugh-nitrates and phosphates

Ugh

Nitrates 50

Phosphates high

What the heck did i do

Lfs gave me red sea no3-po4 x to battle this

Advised on minimum dosing-hope this helps

Poor corals and fish

Not sure what spikes this

 

Before adding anything you need to find out the cause and make sure the testing source is accurate. It's easy for a fish store to tell you your nitrates and phosphates are high just to sell you sometthing. Not saying they did. Nitrates and phosphates mean your nutrient export isn't keeping up with your current bioload. I'd first make sure your test source is accurate and double test the results and figure out where the excess nitrate and phosphate is coming from. Do a water change for the time being instead of dumping stuff in the tank. That product is a carbon source and without a good skimmer it can cause more problems.

 

Got a reef octupus skimmer

Did not go to a random fish store-this is my fish store guy that ive gone to for the past 7 years, have only dealt with him, built a friendship/relationship-not there trying to hose me-

Have had them not sell me fish or product in past cause he didnt recomend or thought it was not necessary

 

+1 to what DSC said it would help to target the source of the nutrients. do you have a sump with macro algae? how old is your system? did you add any new live rocks that might have been saturated with P04? how often and what do you feed?

I personally use Nopox together with reef foundation B in my 450L. system and i believe it helps keep my parameters in check (followed dosing instruction on bottle and gradually reduced to the 10ml I dose today daily). with this being said i have a 120L refugium/sump with massive amounts of cheato and a deep deep sand bed that probably contributes to the filtration system.

 

Agreed w/ DSC/others

Find the source. Are these your tests are theirs? Try and verify if possible.

For long term control- I recommend an Algae Turf Scrubber!!- and no, I don't sell them.

 

I have an "overstocked" reef and I over feed as well so a typical sump with a skimmer wouldn't export nutrients good enough. I run an oversized skimmer, bio pellets of good quality in a reef octopus reactor and good GFO to handle the bioload. Without them I'd have nitrate and phosphate that would be really high. If you go the carbon route remember that it takes time to start working.

 

There's really no mystery here. Nitrates and phosphates are caused by the animals. I've said it once I'll say it a hundred times. Fish are dirty animals. Keep too many you have nutrient issues unless you take steps to prevent the buildup. If you plan on stocking alot of fish p!an on doing alot of maintenance.

 

Brutal crowd

Tank 120g with blue tang, scopas tang, flame hawk, clown, pink spot goby

Mixed reef soft and LPS

Ai sol white lights

1/2inch sand bed


No recent additions to tank

Tank 7 year old but moved tank yr and a half ago

Sump has protein skimmer, gfo, bulk carbon with refugium in sump

Feed dried pellets and occasionally mysis and veggie cube

Testing kits are either Red Sea or salifert

 

well that doesnt sound to bad..... DSC is absolutely right, carbon will take several weeks before you start noticing any difference. took me about two months I believe before i was able to put a dent in my values. once it starts dropping though it should be a smooth way down.

 

What's your actual phosphate reading muggle? If your running gfo and your phosphates are still high then I'm wondering if you need to change it out. I'm a huge fan of bio pellets ss long as you use a quality brand. I went through 5 different types before finding one that I liked. I like to keep my nitrates at 5ppm and phosphate at .004 Not trying to be harsh, just trying to help get those numbers down. What's your maintenance schedule like? For now I would do 30-40% water changes once a week to get the nitrates down then figure out if carbon dosing or biopellets are something you want to do. Remember to go slow because stripping nutrients too fast can cause issues. I run half the dose recommended for gfo and im picky on brands for that also.