HELP PLS... Nitrates & Phosphates

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

Hi All,

Potentially a silly question as I'm new in the hobby...

I'm just finishing a fishless cycle now but my nitrates and phosphates r still a bit high. Does that prevent me from adding some CUC and fish? Or does the nitrates & phosphates only affect corals?

Thanks in advance.

 

[sabor]

What is your nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

What is your nitrate and phosphate levels?

Last week 22nd July, I tested and got the following:
- nitrates 50ppm
- nitrites 0.15ppm
- phosphates 0.01ppm
These were all done at LFS

I bought the test kits and did a 50% water change on 24th July.

I tested today at home and got the following:
- nitrates 50ppm
- phosphates 0.5ppm

I can understand that the nitrates stayed the same as there was still nitrites that had to be converted, but the phosphates is really puzzling me to have increased by 50 times. It could be the brand of test kit or my poor skills doing it first time. I did test phosphates twice and doubled the test sample for better accuracy.

 

[Jeto2004]

Any algae growing? Want to share a pic of your tank? How did you cycle your tank?

 

[Futuretotm]

After my cycle my
nitrates were 50
phosphates at .4
Added cuc and more

again it’s my first time as well
I started awc every other day

Dosed vibrant and added chaeto to target N
Dosed Lanthanum to target P (seaklear 1cc = reduction by 0.1ppm in 140gallon tank, dosed into 5 micro sock) did this multiple times over multiple days to bring my P to 0.05

there are multitudes of ways to deal with the issue, choose something, research the heck out of it and then proceed And experiment.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

Any algae growing? Want to share a pic of your tank? How did you cycle your tank?

No algae, had some film gunk growing which I cleaned when i did the water change.

Fishless cycle with 30 day dosing viles. I asked a few times about how long to leave the prawn in the water and got advised to put it in whole with head and shell, which I did and let the cycle run for an extra week as at 22nd July. Now its 2 weeks over the 30 day cycle.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

After my cycle my
nitrates were 50
phosphates at .4
Added cuc and more

again it’s my first time as well
I started awc every other day

Dosed vibrant and added chaeto to target N
Dosed Lanthanum to target P (seaklear 1cc = reduction by 0.1ppm in 140gallon tank, dosed into 5 micro sock) did this multiple times over multiple days to bring my P to 0.05

there are multitudes of ways to deal with the issue, choose something, research the heck out of it and then proceed And experiment.

Thanks for sharing that. Ideally I wanted to add CUC now and wait another month or so before adding a pair of clowns to start with. The intent is to let the tank mature for as long as possible before adding to it and continue adding slowly over time.

 

[Jeto2004]

And your lights are on a regular schedule?
Is your shrimp still in the tank?

If your lights are on and you only have some green film algae on the glass I would say your phosphates are not at the level you are measuring.

may I ask what brand of testkit you use for phosphate?

Also just to make sure - are you worrying that your cycle is not complete or just worried about the nutrient levels?

If the first test for NH4 to make sure it’s zero. If zero add NH4 to tank for a final concentration of 4ppm. Wait 24hrs and test for NH4. If tank is cycled you should have 0 NH4 and NO2 put measure NO3

If nutrient level is the concern you can bring them done by additional water changes of time.

what is your source water?

 

[Funston07]

You could definitely add fish with those nitrate and phosphate levels. I wouldnt add a CUC first only because theres really not enough nutrients to support them IMO. People do add them first but if you add 10-15 snails and they starve from lack of algae and detritus to consume you are gonna have one major algae bloom in a new tank and then your parameters will really be out of whack. I used Red Sea No304-x algae management to reduce my nitrate and phosphate levels when the tank was new

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

You could definitely add fish with those nitrate and phosphate levels. I wouldnt add a CUC first only because theres really not enough nutrients to support them IMO. People do add them first but if you add 10-15 snails and they starve from lack of algae and detritus to consume you are gonna have one major algae bloom in a new tank and then your parameters will really be out of whack. I used Red Sea No304-x algae management to reduce my nitrate and phosphate levels when the tank was new

Thabks for the heads up, my plan is to put 4-5 cuc in now to start with, and feed nori and a couple of pellets once or twice a week. Definitely has to be managed closely.

 

[Funston07]

Thabks for the heads up, my plan is to put 4-5 cuc in now to start with, and feed nori and a couple of pellets once or twice a week. Definitely has to be managed closely.

Just keep an eye on them and you should be okay. If they do die you wanna remove them asap. I did put a cleaner shrimp in first and he is still going strong, molts every other week and eats good when I feed my goby and clowns.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

And your lights are on a regular schedule?
Is your shrimp still in the tank?

If your lights are on and you only have some green film algae on the glass I would say your phosphates are not at the level you are measuring.

may I ask what brand of testkit you use for phosphate?

Also just to make sure - are you worrying that your cycle is not complete or just worried about the nutrient levels?

If the first test for NH4 to make sure it’s zero. If zero add NH4 to tank for a final concentration of 4ppm. Wait 24hrs and test for NH4. If tank is cycled you should have 0 NH4 and NO2 put measure NO3

If nutrient level is the concern you can bring them done by additional water changes of time.

what is your source water?

Lights are only on when I need to view the tank, like when I too pictures earlier. I hope my photography was good enough for u guys to see.

I left the prawn in for about 5-6 days during week 4 of cycling. No more ammonia source since.

The gunk was very light in colour like a off white/yellow colour. I'm guessing that's due to a new tank with dry rock and not touching it for 5 weeks.

Using Salifert test kits. My concern is, after a 50% WC r the nitrates so high due to consuming the remainder of the nitrites? Which is a logical possibily. But I cant explain the phosphate rise. If the hobby often cycles with fish and cuc, then despite the high levels hat I need to bring down, then a small CUC would be ok... I guess?

Using RODI water, tds is <1. I'll have to do more WC to keep reducing NO3 and PO4. I've been raising salinity since 22nd July through WC as I was running salinity at 20ppt. So definitely need to be at 34ppt to add CUC in.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

Just keep an eye on them and you should be okay. If they do die you wanna remove them asap. I did put a cleaner shrimp in first and he is still going strong, molts every other week and eats good when I feed my goby and clowns.

I wish and would love to, a cleaner shrimp is AU$180 here, no blue or red legged hermets, but we get 24k gold aussie torches... even yasha goby's from indo we dont get here

 

[Funston07]

I wish and would love to, a cleaner shrimp is AU$180 here, no blue or red legged hermets, but we get 24k gold aussie torches... even yasha goby's from indo we dont get here

Good lord, I thought the $35 for the cleaner shrimp I bought was high. I would love a gold aussie torch but thats out of reach at the moment. Those are really high priced here in the states. Had to settle for a neon green aussie for the time being, those are dirt cheap here at least where I got mine it was.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Last week 22nd July, I tested and got the following:
- nitrates 50ppm
- nitrites 0.15ppm
- phosphates 0.01ppm
These were all done at LFS

I bought the test kits and did a 50% water change on 24th July.

I tested today at home and got the following:
- nitrates 50ppm
- phosphates 0.5ppm

I can understand that the nitrates stayed the same as there was still nitrites that had to be converted, but the phosphates is really puzzling me to have increased by 50 times. It could be the brand of test kit or my poor skills doing it first time. I did test phosphates twice and doubled the test sample for better accuracy.

The nitrate value is not that high. The nitrite is interfering. 1 ppm nitrite can read as 100 ppm nitrate. I wouldn't bother measuring nitrate yet.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

Thank you everyone. I did a 25% WC start of the weekend, and that reduced the levels proportionately when tested the following day. Which is a good result. CUC went in yesterday after a slow acclimation. Interestingly, I tested the water that the CUC came in and their levels were a lot higher than mine. So I guess it gives me a bit of confidence in what I'm doing. Thanks again all for your help, very helpful and much appreciated