beating undetectable nutrients

JKDMan · Jan 21, 2021

What would be your recommendation for NO3 / PO4 levels for a softie dominate mixed reef with no SPS. also if I'm having trouble maintaining detectable no3/po4 in my tank what would you recommend for maintaining those levels. I had this problem a couple of months ago. At the time I just ran my skimmer about 50 % of the time and stopped using filter socks. But... I overshot and ended up with no3/po4 levels too high. had some algae outbreaks. now I'm back to bottoming out. Im trying for stability but so far not so good

theMeat · Jan 21, 2021

How big of a tank, rock, sand, refuge?
With new tank and varying livestock can have swings, but aside from that should be manageable with how much you feed, verse- skim, size of refuge, algae scrub, carbon dose, etc

JKDMan · Jan 22, 2021

theMeat said:
How big of a tank, rock, sand, refuge?
With new tank and varying livestock can have swings, but aside from that should be manageable with how much you feed, verse- skim, size of refuge, algae scrub, carbon dose, etc

OK so basically just tuning it.. its a 75gal 30lbs live rock and sand and been running for one year. no fuge.Just socks and a very effective skimmer, and a low bio load.

Dan_P · Jan 22, 2021

JKDMan said:
What would be your recommendation for NO3 / PO4 levels for a softie dominate mixed reef with no SPS. also if I'm having trouble maintaining detectable no3/po4 in my tank what would you recommend for maintaining those levels. I had this problem a couple of months ago. At the time I just ran my skimmer about 50 % of the time and stopped using filter socks. But... I overshot and ended up with no3/po4 levels too high. had some algae outbreaks. now I'm back to bottoming out. Im trying for stability but so far not so good

The straightforward approach is test and dose, adding NO3 and PO4 as needed.

The other way to import NO3 and PO4 is my dosing organic matter, like fish food, letting bacteria digest it and generating NO3 and PO4. There is a lag time between adding food and seeing a NO3 and PO4 increase. Also, you are at the mercy of the food’s relative amounts of PO4 and NO3. If you only want to add PO4 and no NO3, adding food is not a useful option.

lelandmarine · Jan 22, 2021

Agree with Dan P. i dosed for the first time recently to bring up undetectable levels. I made a diy stock solution for nitrate and phosphate. was scared the first time i added chemicals to the tank but it worked very well. Good luck! Picture of a post from RandyH-F