Nitrate and phosphate both 0.00!

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 20, 2017

hey guys so I have been losing a little bit of color. Not a whole lot. Just I know my sps could be looking slightly brighter. So I decided to finally test my low range phosphate and nitrate. Well they both came up with 0 and 0.00.

I'm using the Hanna checker for phosphate and the Red Sea pro for nitrate.

Is 0 even possible! Could I still get small algae growth at 0.00 phosphate!? I don't have excess algae at all. But I do get slight red algae here and there. And an occasional hair algae in a place my cleaners can't get. Half of the rock in my tank is 3 months old and the other half I had in an old system with coraline all over it. I Acid washed all my rock before starting this tank and I used all new live sand.

My question is Is 0 and 0.00 even possible!!?!?

Gonna start running my skimmer less and changing my filter sock every 3 days instead of every other day now. And I'm turning off my phosphate reactor starting now!

Brew12 · Feb 20, 2017

Yes, it is possible and isn't even terribly uncommon especially if you are running GFO.

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 20, 2017

Was running phosban. Just stopped. Colors start to fade in that low nutrient of an environment right

Brew12 · Feb 21, 2017

Socalreefer4816 said:
Was running phosban. Just stopped. Colors start to fade in that low nutrient of an environment right

Yup, and if it is low enough, LPS's will start to die back.

When it comes to running products like GFO and Phosban it is important to ramp up and down usage slowly. Corals like stability. I'm not sure about your specific situation or why you started using Phosban initially, but you may want to consider putting half of what you took out back in. Then make slow adjustments to how much you are using.

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 21, 2017

I was using a very small amount just because. I ran it in my old tank and needed it.... I thought... I've only been running it for 3 weeks now

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 21, 2017

The next question is. What should I strive to keep my nitrate and phosphate at

Brew12 · Feb 21, 2017

Socalreefer4816 said:
The next question is. What should I strive to keep my nitrate and phosphate at

I like to keep my NO3 between 5ppm and 10ppm but I don't worry if it hits 20ppm. I like my PO4 between 0.04ppm and 0.1ppm. Of course, there are many successful ways to run a reef tank. You will see beautiful reefs with NO3 at 100+ppm.
It is also important to understand how algae will impact your test results. If you run Cheato or an algae scrubber you will have nutrients available in your water for a short period of time before it is used by the algae so you can get away with lower numbers.

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 22, 2017

Ya not running a scrubbed or macro at the moment. Wow nitrates that high!? I've never really concerned myself too much with these levels as long as my algae growth wasn't too bad. Now that I'm striving for better coloration I'm starting to care lol.

Do you find you have the best growth and color at those parameters?

Brew12 · Feb 22, 2017

Socalreefer4816 said:
Ya not running a scrubbed or macro at the moment. Wow nitrates that high!? I've never really concerned myself too much with these levels as long as my algae growth wasn't too bad. Now that I'm striving for better coloration I'm starting to care lol.

Do you find you have the best growth and color at those parameters?

I'm far from a coral expert. I can tell you I stopped losing my LPS's once I got my phosphates up high enough. Maybe @Diesel can help with the numbers he uses for the best results.

Diesel · Feb 22, 2017

Hey there and thanks @Brew12 for adding more to my schedule today

No3 and Po4................... not really a long time ago the vendors couldn't bring in enough of the GFO and super turbo signature nutrients reducing bottles in to strip your tank.
Hobbyist are ore careful now day, they really cycle a tank before the put livestock in there

.
Doing their home work on lights and pumps and skimmers.
Yes all that has a stack in how your nutrients will behave in the tank.
Lights makes your corals happy and for that a larger nutrients consumption, pumps to move all that crazy detritus around, and pumps now days are smarter than your iPhone.
Skimmers................. ugh, can we just stick with the tried and true venturi's that do a better job than all these snowcone and rocket science designs.

Coming finally to your lack of nutrients, IMO just keep what you have on equipment as I'm not asking or recommending to put more $$$$$ in this already.
Work what you have.
Turn skimmer off at times and right now is good for a day or three to slowly gain back your nutrients.
No reactors running or crazy bottles that will tell you that you never see a spot of algae again.
Test No3 everyday as you should your ALK as well.
Twice a week on the Po4 till you have that solid at about 0.05.
When No3 needs help to get it at a save level of around 2ppm and from there you can accelerate you can dose potassium or iodine nitrate, maybe my good friend @twilliard can point you on short term in the direction if he can come out from behind his books to become a scientist

If not when I get back at the house I will post up the threads that can tell you how to mix the life saving for your corals No3 mix.
Can you tell me what for reactors you use and skimmer?
What do you feed your fish and how often?
Total livestock in your tank, include inverts?
How you like your French toast?
What kind of salt do you use?
How often a Water Change?

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 22, 2017

Thank you so much for your help! Some awesome info.

I'm on my second day of having my skimmer off now. Tested everything again yesterday and both still 0.00!!

Been feeding every day now frozen mysis. One cube. And I feed me coral food and coral vitalizer. (The blue bottle stuff. Zeovit). I also add the me polyp extender.

My tank is 55 gallons with a 20 gallon sump.

Inhabitants:
Yellow eye kole tang
2 clowns
Melanarus wrasse
Yasha goby and candy cane pistol
Green spotted mandarin
One cleaner shrimp. And a few snails and hermits

I like breakfast burritos over French toast

I use fritz rpm salt as of lately. Mix it myself in my new BRS ro unit. I only do a 5 gallon water change every week. Keep my alk at 8.4 and my Ca at 430

I bought my skimmer used I believe it's the reef octopus 150. I think it's too big for my tank. I'm thinking I should start using it for only 8 hours every other day maybe? We'll see once my nitrates get to 2 like u said. Then I'll experiment with that. Maybe I'll put it on a timer.

I was using a phosban reactor for a month. But stopped. I had the media laying around a reactor. So I figured. Hey why not.

The reason I started to assume my levels were so low is I couldn't keep chaeto alive in my fuge.

Thanks for the help guys

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 23, 2017

My nitrates are still 0.00!! And I haven't changed my filter sock or turned on my skimmer since Monday

Brew12 · Feb 23, 2017

Socalreefer4816 said:
My nitrates are still 0.00!! And I haven't changed my filter sock or turned on my skimmer since Monday

There are a lot of equilibriums that exist within an aquarium so it isn't exactly unexpected. Once you start seeing detectible nitrates you will need to run your skimmer more to keep them constant. You may want to add stump remover to raise nitrates, especially if you are starting to see Cyanobacteria.

Diesel · Feb 23, 2017

Brew12 said:
There are a lot of equilibriums that exist within an aquarium so it isn't exactly unexpected. Once you start seeing detectible nitrates you will need to run your skimmer more to keep them constant. You may want to add stump remover to raise nitrates, especially if you are starting to see Cyanobacteria.

I see you got this my friend

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 25, 2017

Lol thanks for tag teaming this guys lol!

Socalreefer4816 · Feb 25, 2017

Is this good guys. How do I figure out a good formula to dose

Brew12 · Feb 25, 2017

Socalreefer4816 said:
Is this good guys. How do I figure out a good formula to dose

Yup, this is what I used.

This is what I went off of.

1 tablespoon stump remover to 1 cup RODI (I mixed up a few cups at a time)

1ml of this solution will raise 2og of water around 1ppm.

Just remember that there are many interesting chemical equilibriums in an aquarium. You will find you need to add more than this to start getting a reading but it should hold true once you get to around 5ppm.