Help e with nutrient control in a very mature system

[ReefGeezer]

Hi all,

I have a 90 gallon that is full of corals and fish. Everything is healthy and growing well. However, I've recently seen a trend of rising nitrate and phosphate levels. Currently, nitrate is about 20 ppm and phosphate is about 0.22 ppm. That's a big change from just a few months ago when I was adding ammonia and occasionally adding phosphate to keep levels up.

I travel for a living. I recently added an automatic feeder to feed some Anthias and Chromis, and to feed a Foxface so he doesn't graze on my corals. I also feed heavily also with frozen food to ensure my Copperband gets enough food. I don't want to change the feeding process.

My questions to my fellow reefers with mature tanks are is as follows:

1. Should I worry about nitrite and phosphate levels in my tank?
2. Considering my travel requirements, what method of control would you implement?

I have a good skimmer and equipment needed for a Cheato fuge, carbon dosing, or continuous water changes... among others. I'm an equipment hoarder!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[get-salty]

that is a lot of feedings.
do you have a roller mat? that would help with the excess nutrients.

 

[BryanM]

Hi all,

I have a 90 gallon that is full of corals and fish. Everything is healthy and growing well. However, I've recently seen a trend of rising nitrate and phosphate levels. Currently, nitrate is about 20 ppm and phosphate is about 0.22 ppm. That's a big change from just a few months ago when I was adding ammonia and occasionally adding phosphate to keep levels up.

I travel for a living. I recently added an automatic feeder to feed some Anthias and Chromis, and to feed a Foxface so he doesn't graze on my corals. I also feed heavily also with frozen food to ensure my Copperband gets enough food. I don't want to change the feeding process.

My questions to my fellow reefers with mature tanks are is as follows:

1. Should I worry about nitrite and phosphate levels in my tank?
2. Considering my travel requirements, what method of control would you implement?

I have a good skimmer and equipment needed for a Cheato fuge, carbon dosing, or continuous water changes... among others. I'm an equipment hoarder!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Worry? Yes, but I and many others subscribe to wider acceptable ranges than were previously accepted as okay.

5-50 Nitrates, and .1-.3 phosphates are all perfectly acceptable in my world.

I've not been successful yet, but I am trying to manage these with an oversized algae turf scrubber. It was quite efficient at removing nitrates, to the point I probably need to dose something for that, but my phosphate is still far too high (.8). But I also turned the lights off for the scrubber when my nitrates got under 1.... So I'm still learning where this method will take me, but I am of the belief that should I have to dose nitrate and phosphate at some point, that's far easier to do that trying to keep lowering them :)

I've heard of other people using an oversized skimmer to try and do the same thing. I hate skimmer maintenance which is why I'm on the path I am on currently.

 

[exnisstech]

Personally I would keep an eye on it but but wouldn't get too excited at those level. This 2+ yo tank runs NO3 20-40 and PO4 0.4- 0.9+

 

[vlangel]

My previous 9 year old tank ran for years and years with NO3 being 30 and PO4 being .5. It was always clean without excess algae issues. I took it down to upgrade from 56 gallons to 75 gallons. So if your coral look good I would not overly worry about your nutrients although it is always good to keep an eye on them. This is a pic of the 56g just before I took it down.

 

[Paul B]

1. Should I worry about nitrite and phosphate levels in my tank?
2. Considering my travel requirements, what method of control would you implement?

My reef is very old and for many years my nitrates were about 60. I don't test for phosphate.

My nitrates now are very low. I use a DIY algae scrubber and built one of these to stir up the gravel and blow out the rock. Works very well.


I use it every few months and remove an enormous amount of detritus and seaweed.