I have a mature SPS reef (300G) and my nitrates have hit 25ish. Even with very light feeding (LRS reef frozen) once daily I can't seem to get them down.
Before carbon dosing I had to dos po4 as I was showing 0-1ppb (0.003) on my hanna ULR checker. My fish load isn't huge for the size tank I have but they are getting big (3 yellow tang, 1 sailfin, 1 hippo, 1 powder blue and 2 wrasse).
My corals are getting pale which is odd as I have kept my po4 via daily dosing at a consistent (11ppb) 0.03 and my nitrates are stuck at 25. I have used 3 nitrate test kits and also tested my kits against the water from purchased frags. I am using a ton of light so that may be the reason for light colors...
I started out with 35ml of nopox and switched to vinegar after three days. My daily dose of vinegar is 80ml and it has not put a dent on my nitrates. My skimming has become a pain because it's either super dark and thick and overnight goes wet and overflows (preventing export). Recently I have been just checking my skimmer cup every 3 hours and basically taking out 8 cups of light colored skim daily.
At what point should I see nitrate reduction? I just want to get down to 5-10 but it's not budging!
Before carbon dosing I had to dos po4 as I was showing 0-1ppb (0.003) on my hanna ULR checker. My fish load isn't huge for the size tank I have but they are getting big (3 yellow tang, 1 sailfin, 1 hippo, 1 powder blue and 2 wrasse).
My corals are getting pale which is odd as I have kept my po4 via daily dosing at a consistent (11ppb) 0.03 and my nitrates are stuck at 25. I have used 3 nitrate test kits and also tested my kits against the water from purchased frags. I am using a ton of light so that may be the reason for light colors...
I started out with 35ml of nopox and switched to vinegar after three days. My daily dose of vinegar is 80ml and it has not put a dent on my nitrates. My skimming has become a pain because it's either super dark and thick and overnight goes wet and overflows (preventing export). Recently I have been just checking my skimmer cup every 3 hours and basically taking out 8 cups of light colored skim daily.
At what point should I see nitrate reduction? I just want to get down to 5-10 but it's not budging!