Help with nutrient imbalance

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BriansBrain

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That is certainly a reasonable hypothesis.
With that, do you think it would be wise to continue adding phosphate (NeoPhos) to the water column despite having some stubborn spots of algae? Or, not add phosphate and continue adding bacteria to combat algae for surface area in this porous rock? Or both? Coralline is finally taking a good foothold on the rock.

My theory - add po4 in raw chemical form to add to the water water column, instead of dumping more food that gets trapped and decomposes in the pukani.

As of last night no3 10-12 Red Sea PO4 0.01hanna phosphate ulr - fifth day in a row dosing neophos. Started dosing PO4 five days ago at 0.01 then dropped to 0 now 0.01. Hanna resolution of +\- 0.01. My phosphate in this tank since start up (January 2020) has never been above 0.02 despite having or not having any algae.

10 years ago when I set up my first reef tank, I would have never thought about these ULN issues that plague me now with dry only lol. Lesson learned

I do have a Triton ICP
 
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BriansBrain

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So if I understand correctly, you want to boost nutrients (Phosphate & Nitrate) to increase your coral growth?

I'll assume lighting (par) and flow are appropriate for the specific corals and you are spot feeding and broadcast feeding appropriately.

What is your water change and dosing regiment? Have you done an ICP test to see if you have any parameters way off? These may contribute more to you coral growth then the Phosphate and Nitrate.

One reason you may not see an increase in Phosphate is that your rock and substrate can act like a sponge...hence why they can leach back in the future.
To answer your questions. I have 2 MP40 running reef crest and nutrient transport at 60-70%. More flow will cause my brain corals to commence lift off from the substrate.

I run 4 XR15 ab+ At 65% ranges from ~130-180 PAR on the sand and 200-300 on the rock. I’d like to raise those numbers on the rock but I’m worried with the low PO4, the already pale ish acros will bleach out.

I used to do 10% water changes weekly but now do 5-10% biweekly because there are hardly any nutrients. Mostly do a WC because I blow of the rock, tooth brush areas, and gravel vac.

I have a concoction of frozen I feed the fish with some reef chili, reefroids, reef blizzard added for a “broadcast”. I also target feed 1-2x/week and add a dose of aminos.

I have an ICP test that I am sending out this week
 

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As mentioned by a few others previous if you have algae you have PO4. Your tests are rendered invalid because your algae (be it in your tank, scrubber, etc) is outcompeting your tests ability to capture it adequately. Testing PO4 when you have visible algae is not necessary. I'd feed less.
 

Kfactor

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I have the same issue and I do t have much algae in my tank I have dosed no3 and po4 for over 6to8 months and I still read zero on po4. And my no3 is always under 2 most times under 1 . I blow my rocks off daily to cheap evething clean also clean sump once a month . My tank is coming up on 2 years old now my corals don’t really do to good I think I might run a icp test
 
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As mentioned by a few others previous if you have algae you have PO4. Your tests are rendered invalid because your algae (be it in your tank, scrubber, etc) is outcompeting your tests ability to capture it adequately. Testing PO4 when you have visible algae is not necessary. I'd feed less.
So what you’re saying is if you had algae growing on a scrubber screen or growing macro algaes in a refugium/reactor testing nutrients is useless.

Completely honest, when I feed less for a while(1x/day frozen) or feed regular (2-3x/day frozen or pellets) my nutrient levels have always been low low and I have always had the same issue with algaes. I’m fine with a couple small patches of algae but my low nutrients are a problem

I do run a scrubber but I hardly ever clean it (like once a month or less often ) because it barely grows anything. Also my tank is not plagued with algae, it’s only in a couple small spots that have been stubborn since the beginning. That’s why I am attributing the algae growth to leaching and not in the water column
 
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I have the same issue and I do t have much algae in my tank I have dosed no3 and po4 for over 6to8 months and I still read zero on po4. And my no3 is always under 2 most times under 1 . I blow my rocks off daily to cheap evething clean also clean sump once a month . My tank is coming up on 2 years old now my corals don’t really do to good I think I might run a icp test
When I get my icp results back I’ll be sure to post them on this thread
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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With that, do you think it would be wise to continue adding phosphate (NeoPhos) to the water column despite having some stubborn spots of algae? Or, not add phosphate and continue adding bacteria to combat algae for surface area in this porous rock? Or both? Coralline is finally taking a good foothold on the rock.

My theory - add po4 in raw chemical form to add to the water water column, instead of dumping more food that gets trapped and decomposes in the pukani.

As of last night no3 10-12 Red Sea PO4 0.01hanna phosphate ulr - fifth day in a row dosing neophos. Started dosing PO4 five days ago at 0.01 then dropped to 0 now 0.01. Hanna resolution of +\- 0.01. My phosphate in this tank since start up (January 2020) has never been above 0.02 despite having or not having any algae.

10 years ago when I set up my first reef tank, I would have never thought about these ULN issues that plague me now with dry only lol. Lesson learned

I do have a Triton ICP

I'm not sure that the Pukani is trapping organic particulates as opposed to holding inorganic phosphate on the calcium carbonate surfaces, but I don't see any big reason to try some phosphate dosing. I'd also be doing manual removal of the algae.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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So what you’re saying is if you had algae growing on a scrubber screen or growing macro algaes in a refugium/reactor testing nutrients is useless.

I do run a scrubber but I hardly ever clean it (like once a month or less often ) because it barely grows anything. Also my tank is not plagued with algae, it’s only in a couple small spots that have been stubborn since the beginning. That’s why I am attributing the algae growth to leaching and not in the water column

No, not useless. It gives an indication that some phosphate is present in the water, which your tests also so.

The tests are perfectly valid, its just a matter of how you interpret the values and what you do with the answer .
 

howaboutme

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So what you’re saying is if you had algae growing on a scrubber screen or growing macro algaes in a refugium/reactor testing nutrients is useless.

Completely honest, when I feed less for a while(1x/day frozen) or feed regular (2-3x/day frozen or pellets) my nutrient levels have always been low low and I have always had the same issue with algaes. I’m fine with a couple small patches of algae but my low nutrients are a problem

I do run a scrubber but I hardly ever clean it (like once a month or less often ) because it barely grows anything. Also my tank is not plagued with algae, it’s only in a couple small spots that have been stubborn since the beginning. That’s why I am attributing the algae growth to leaching and not in the water column
No, I would not say useless. I agree w/ RHF that it's based on how you interpret it. I attribute what I see happening in the tank as context to testing. What does the # tell you ultimately? If it's 0 and you are able to grow algae. How beneficial was that test to you since algae grows on PO4? That's my point.
 

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