0 nitrate for almost 2 months

Grumblez

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Hello my refugium inadvertently turned into a algae scrubber totally overrun with GHA so I ripped ive manually removed 90+% off it had the fuge light off for 2+ weeks and did 2 doses off reef flux. The flucanzole was maybe an overreaction as while there was a small amount of GHA in my main tank it wasn't super out of control but I decided to wipe it all out with hopes when I re add macro algae it will definitely outcompete.

My nitrate trended from being steady at 10-15 after my tanks cycle to 0. (Tank is 8 months old). I assumed wiping out the GHA would return my nitrate to measurable amounts. It hasn't.

I have an auto-feeder that feeds 20-30 small TDO pellets once per day. My wife feeds the refrigerated brine shrimp in the evening while I'm gone during the week, during the weekend I feed about maybe a 1cm frozen block of reef frenzy.

Tank is a reefer 250 with 2 clowns, 3 cardinals, 2 small gobies, 1 royal Gramma and 1 tang. 2 shrimps and maybe 20 snails. Not a bunch of corals yet, and while unrelated if you see the dying hammer and bird's-nest in the pictures my pump was accidentally off for 3 days and the tank hit room temperature (62 degrees). Fortunately my other corals seem to have survived not much worse for wear.

I don't think I over-feed or underfeed so no sure what gives. Almost no algae I can find anywhere in the tank and still 0 nitrates on both Hannah and Red Sea.

Screenshot_20220123-001043.png Screenshot_20220123-001027.png PXL_20220123_050326647.jpg
 

AJsReef

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If you don’t have any algae consuming nitrates then increasing feeding seems like the sensible thing to do here if you’re wanting to raise them. You could also remove the socks if you desire.
 

BostonReefer300

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That's a pretty young tank so it probably hasn't hit its sweet spot yet. Do you have a skimmer on your system? I couldn't tell from the pic. In any case, I agree that you could feed a little more if you're worried about your NO3 level, but just make sure you track PO4 too. With that small amount of coral, I wouldn't start messing with nutrient additives at this point
 

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