Ok. I have had a tank for some years now. This newest tank has been up for about 1.5 yrs. I travel(ed) a lot for work and have always kept my tank as low maintenance as possible. Only LPS with clowns and watchman goby type fish. I read often but just still quite haven't been able to figure out this ongoing discrepancy on my tank and I'm finally posting to hopefully get some clarity.
I am really good about 10% water changes every week. My tank has finally been algae free for several months now. I have a turbo and 3 trochus that are doing an amazing and consistent job. The only thing that I have is what I think is diatoms - I forgot to change my RODI filters. Since changing my filters, the diatoms have been receding and the snails chow down on them, holding them back.
Here's my question.... when I had an algae issue, my nitrates were ~25ppm, phosphates ~0.5-1ppm per the color chart and instructions. When I don't have an algae problem, similar numbers. I measure right after water changes, numbers go down to 10ppm and .2ppm very temporarily, but never go down to the 2ppm and 0.1ppm ranges that I keep reading about. I am using Salifert. This phenomenon has happened with both of my tanks that were in different homes. I measure my RODI (not even sure if I can use the test on that but I did anyway) and it's undetectable levels.
Throughout the years, I've gotten the bug here and there to try to resolve the problem by buying chemicals, etc. The numbers go down (temporarily) but corals suffer greatly - of course this isn't surprising since I have no idea what the source is. I'm over trying to bring the numbers down because everything looks good. HOWEVER, I would love to know if i'm reading my numbers wrong and I can't follow instructions or if it's my salt (Red sea blue and black), or if we just don't know.
Second question - which really inspired this post - Will/can nitrates and phosphates stay this high and sustain no algae growth?
Thanks in advance for the help and insights!
I am really good about 10% water changes every week. My tank has finally been algae free for several months now. I have a turbo and 3 trochus that are doing an amazing and consistent job. The only thing that I have is what I think is diatoms - I forgot to change my RODI filters. Since changing my filters, the diatoms have been receding and the snails chow down on them, holding them back.
Here's my question.... when I had an algae issue, my nitrates were ~25ppm, phosphates ~0.5-1ppm per the color chart and instructions. When I don't have an algae problem, similar numbers. I measure right after water changes, numbers go down to 10ppm and .2ppm very temporarily, but never go down to the 2ppm and 0.1ppm ranges that I keep reading about. I am using Salifert. This phenomenon has happened with both of my tanks that were in different homes. I measure my RODI (not even sure if I can use the test on that but I did anyway) and it's undetectable levels.
Throughout the years, I've gotten the bug here and there to try to resolve the problem by buying chemicals, etc. The numbers go down (temporarily) but corals suffer greatly - of course this isn't surprising since I have no idea what the source is. I'm over trying to bring the numbers down because everything looks good. HOWEVER, I would love to know if i'm reading my numbers wrong and I can't follow instructions or if it's my salt (Red sea blue and black), or if we just don't know.
Second question - which really inspired this post - Will/can nitrates and phosphates stay this high and sustain no algae growth?
Thanks in advance for the help and insights!