Cant keep nutrients up

[Bustyraker]

I have a 50 cube and im having some issues keeping my no3 and po4 up. Ive never had this problem with other tanks. I have a few frags nothing very large. I have 5 small fish and i feed a chunk of LRS that i defrost and distrubute half in the morning and half in the afternoon. I spotfeed with reef roids and brightwell coral inertia twice a week. Should I try turning my skimmer off part time? I dont really see alot being collected and typically let it go 2 weeks between cleaning the cup. I just tested my No3 and Po4 2 days ago and got 5ppm and .04 ppm. Today I tested in the afternoon and got less than 2ppm and .01ppm. I dont have a refugium and no algae issues currently. I guess the corals are just absorbing it? Ive had a fully packed 120 gallon filled with large colonies and never had this issue. In fact i couldnt keep nutrients down in that tank.

 

[obanarama]

I've got similar issues in my 75 gallon, so I'll be watching replies and am considering dosing ammonium https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-chart.1123913/

 

[Bustyraker]

I've got similar issues in my 75 gallon, so I'll be watching replies and am considering dosing ammonium https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-chart.1123913/

Ive been dosing brightwell Neo Nitro which does work. But I feel like the nitrate shouldnt be dropping this rapidly on its own. If i dont dose nitrate daily it will drop along with phosphate.

 

[painter1982]

I have same issue in my 60g sps tank. I have 13 chromis, 2 clowns, 2 mated pair blennies, several shrimp, crabs and snails. Also a temporary home for a baby biota yellow tang. I dose neonitro and neophos daily and also in my top off water. I started adding TM plus np and see more growth and color in my corals.

 

[jackson6745]

Run the skimmer reverse photoperiod to start. I have to do this on all my newer systems otherwise I gets 0’s.

 

[rishma]

I prefer to run a skimmer 24/7.

My current tank has always tended down in nutrients without me managing it. It’s an easier problem to solve than trending up.

I like dosing to tweak nutrients. I prefer the control. There are good threads on DIY phospate and nitrate/ammonia solutions in this forum. Cheap, pure, and straight forward.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would not reduce skimming and it doesn’t usually have a big nutrient effect anyway.

I’d feed more or just keep dosing. I dose food grade ammonium bicarbonate. Food grade sodium nitrate is also a good choice.