Balancing Nitrate and Phosphate

[Terrapod]

Hey everyone.

I have a 65g hard coral reef, with roller filter, good skimmer and lots of rock.

I have been struggling with cyano on the rocks since changing from realreef rock to TMC ecorock.


I have been attempting to balance my nitrate and phosphate, by dosing nitrate to get up to around 5-7. The phosphate is at about 0.03, but cyano remains.

Does anyone have any tips of ideal levels for both to balance and remove cyano due to imbalance?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R! Your levels dont actually seem too far off. 5ppm nitrate or less and .02ppm phosphate is what I've always followed.
Well see what others think

 

[Billldg]

I would use chemiclean to get rid of the cyano, then I would address the N03 and P04 issues. You will then be able to get a reading of N03 and P04 and see what needs to be done from there.

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[NS Mike D]

nitrate at 1-2ppm is also ok. nitrates creep up over time as a tank mature, I don't know why but that's seems to be the consensus. So rethink you need to dose.

No one knows for sure what causes cyano to precipitate, and while it's usually too high or too low nutrients, if your numbers are accurate and NO3 isn't far off, it may not be nutrient related.

 

[Mhart032]

+1 on curing the cyano first.

 

[Fred2482]

Welcome! +1 for chemiclean

 

[ajhudson15]

I keep mine at 10 nitrates and 0.04 phosphates and no cyano.

 

[NS Mike D]

another point, if indeed you need to get your NO3 and PO4 up. I suggest cutting back on filtering before dosing. A lot folks have their skimmer on timers just for this reason.

it's crazy pay to add back into your

 

[windemerejack]

Hi and welcome from the UK. Very friendly and knowledgeable folk on here, you will love it.
Stay safe

 

[SaltyCupcake]

Welcome to R2R!! Looks like you're already getting some great advice.

 

[Miller535]

Truthfully I do not think there is an ideal level of NO3 or PO4. More so I think there is a wide range of ok. With that said, I think silicates and other nutrients play into cyano, diatoms, and dinos more then we realize.

Edit: where are my manners. Welcome.

 

[NS Mike D]

Edit, I just reread the OP says it's just on the rocks. Detritus might be clogged up in the rocks, or maybe leaching,

Ignore the sand bed part of my post for now, but I will leave it up in case the sand be is in need of a cleaning.


One more thing. It looks from the picture that the sand bed may need a good cleaning. If it has detritus locked up, the cyano can be feeding on that and not showing up in your testing.

You can even do a full sand bed rinse, remove the sand bed. rinse it clean and put back - bacteria stay on sand . @brandon429 has threads on this.

 

[Dr. Phil]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[fuelman]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Terrapod]

I would use chemiclean to get rid of the cyano, then I would address the N03 and P04 issues. You will then be able to get a reading of N03 and P04 and see what needs to be done from there.

Welcome to R2R!!!

I have chemiclean in the cupboard, but I'd like to remove it if possible using nutrient control? Or maybe the chemiclean will reset the cyano bacteria levels? I used chemiclean once before and a whole load of strange stuff happened after, like palawensis stripping and fish deaths...

 

[AcroNem]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Terrapod]

I would use chemiclean to get rid of the cyano, then I would address the N03 and P04 issues. You will then be able to get a reading of N03 and P04 and see what needs to be done from there.

Welcome to R2R!!!

Just dosed 600mg of chemiclean, which is a touch under my water volume, as it's 65g!

Will report back, thanks all for the replies. Have great growth and colour, just a shame that the cyano is there.

Also, the rock has been identified to release silicates and phosphate into the water. It's a pretty new product here in the UK, and I couldn't resist ultra light branches for a rockscape!

 

[Ippyroy]

Welcome to R2R!