is your Phosphate reading zero @William DeCoursey ?
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Well I started dosing 10mls of the Neophos last night. I bought a Hannah phosphate checker just to be sure. It read 0
My torch looks better but these diatoms still growing on the sand bed. The good news the algae on the glass isn’t nearly as bad before.
Still hesitant to go higher than 10mls (Dosing and waiting 24hrs checking and dosing again)
Which Hannah phosphate checker did you get @Fotocha ?
My sand bed looks similar to yours and I also have a green slime algae but it's mostly in my sump. My tank looked a lot like yours earlier but I wasnt sure what was causing it. I didnt think a super low, or zero, reading of P04 was the cause so I didn't treat it. Sounds like we may have the same issue but only time and dosing P04 will tell. Keep us posted on your progress if you can. I'll do the same. Thanks for sharing!Here’s what I’m trying to fix, bleached tips
My sand bed isn’t horrible atm
@DirtMcGurt no hair algae, however I did pull the top rock out and it’s mad green. I was having more issues with green film algae. The good news I have coraline starting to grow on the back wall. Hopefully everything settles.
The issue with chasing numbers is a valid point. At this point I just want it to read something. I’d be ok with any number.
I cant blame you for not wanting to spend $200 on a fuge light lol. I had the same situation with my fuge. From my experience, you need some measurable nutrients in your tank. That being said... everyone's tank if different. Some ppl claim that zero nitrates and phosphates makes their system happy. When I had zero nitrates I caused a dinoflagellates outbreak. I'll get hair algae, diatoms, and cyano. How does your tank look? Any coral?Following this as it hits my situation as well. Have a new 180 gal with a beefy skimmer & refugium. My NO3 & PO4 have also been zero since tank stabilized (ammonia, NO2 zero).
Cheeto in refug not growing, guessing since NO3=0. No GFO or carbon running. Seem to have at least moderate bioload.
Dont prince mysis prior to feeding feed 1-2 cubes of mysis and/or brine shrimp daily.
Other parameters; dkh=9, Ca 400, pH 8.0. Don't recall name of refug light. Don't want to spend $200.on a light (14x17 in refug).
Sorry if this should have been a new thread, but seemed to be on same issues. Thanks for any advice.
A quick update on my tank. My P04 is up to 0.06 ppm. One of my duncan colonies seems to be responding well, or it's a coincidence. I'll know for sure this afternoon and thru the weekend. I've been dosing for 5 days straight now. N03 is still up around 10ppm but I'm planning a large (30%) water change Saturday. I'll clean any bits of algae off my rocks too. That made a difference last time. When my N03 was undetectable and P04 was about 0.08 ppm. Hopefully it helps even tho my N03 to P04 balance is off in the other direction.
Interesting... when I dosed nitrates the same happened to me. I bought a 500 ml bottle and only used about 50 mils lol. Once N03 got up, it stuck. We've definitely had the same experiences so far @Fotocha . I also keep a reef log. I use Aquarium Note. It's ok for a free app. Seems to be fairly easy to use when I remember to use it lol. I gotta start logging every single test. Not just most of them. What reef keeping log are you using?Well if this was anything like Nitrogen dosing, when you get it going... slam on the breaks, because for some reason it kept going higher after I got it up. I had to stop for like a week and then re-dose. Like it breaks some unseen barrier. Now I haven't dosed it in over a month. It's maintaining.
Hopefully I hit something too with Phos dosing. I'm def going to stop once I hit 0.3ppm. My nitrates are holding at 2ppm. For the most part its now constant. 2-5ppm. I'd recommend keeping a reef log if you aren't already. Here is mine on Nitrates. (I'd show you my phosphate too, but its a straight line at "0" lol)
Update I've increased Phosphorus dosing to 20ml's!!! Crossing fingers
Interesting... when I dosed nitrates the same happened to me. I bought a 500 ml bottle and only used about 50 mils lol. Once N03 got up, it stuck. We've definitely had the same experiences so far @Fotocha . I also keep a reef log. I use Aquarium Note. It's ok for a free app. Seems to be fairly easy to use when I remember to use it lol. I gotta start logging every single test. Not just most of them. What reef keeping log are you using?