Daily nitrate and phosphate swing?

[TLO45]

I have been testing daily to try and dial in my nutrients. Curious what others have for nitrates and phosphates in a 24 hour period and what people feel are acceptable?

 

[StatelineReefer]

Depending on what I have to feed and how much...
0.06-0.09 Phosphate
10.8 - 15.1 nitrate

About a week ago I 100% zeroed my N/P with carbon dosing, so still bringing the bacterial chaos into control with skimming and UV. Likely these numbers will change once the bacterial biomass is removed, but they're a good start.

 

[Garf]

How do you guys tell the difference between actual swings and testing reproducibility issues?

 

[ReefHunter006]

How do you guys tell the difference between actual swings and testing reproducibility issues?

You don’t, but there are swings. Best case is to assume anything within the testing error of the device is a similar number and if the trend falls outside of that then you make decisions based on the trend.

I had a thread a while ago that documented the pretty wild swings that PO4 goes through within 24 hours.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't think there is ANY data available on what are acceptable and unacceptable swings on a daily basis.

It's not evident to me that even a wide swing in any concern if it happens every day.