Are These Normal Nitrate And Phosphate Consumption Perimeters?

[idionne207]

Tank info
My tank is about 1 and half years old, 50 gallon display with a 20 gallon sump. With the rocks, there is about 65 gallons of water. There are mixed reef corals (lps, sps, and softies) and it is well stocked with fish. They eat 1 cube each day (half spirulina brine shrimp and half mysis.) In sump there is a protein skimmer, but no refugium. I keep alkalinity between 9-10, calcium between 420 and 405, and magnesium at 1520. Two 100 w lights run at medium-low intensity for about 8 hours majority in blue wavelength.

Phosphate and Nitrate
My goal is to have the phosphate at 0.1 and nitrate at 10 ppm, however over the past month I can’t find a good rhythm. In the past two week I’ve really tried to get it down. I’ll include my most recent tests but I’m hoping to get another set of eyes on it. The values feel correct but my gut tells me it’s too much. Currently my auto doser only has nitrate at 2 ml every other day, and I can swap my magnesium out and dose phosphate with that pump.

Does my final input ( 8 mL neonitro, and 3 mL neophos daily) and daily consumption seem off (around 1 ppm nitrate a day, and 0.013 phosphate a day?)

I have a busy work schedule and don’t want to mess things up so I’m using any helpful people here to safeguard my tank from my mistakes. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[rishma]

I suggest targeting a range instead of a number. Test error and other natural variations make a single number for each nutrient impractical.

For example, I currently target 0.1-0.2ppm phosphate and 5-10ppm nitrate. These ranges are practical and I’m able to stay steadily in them with daily dosing. Once things are settled I actually tend to be in a tighter range.

In addition to my feeding, at steady state my tank consumes about 0.05ppm phosphate per day around 1ppm nitrate. Just for reference.