High Nitrate & Phosphate but sps look great

[bonomo53]

So i recently upgraded my tank from a 57 to a 93 and after the upgrade had a big spike in phosphate. My sps started to stn but recovered nicely. My phosphates were .26 a week after the upgrade.
Now one month after the upgrade my phos is .12 tested with hanna and my nitrates are around 50 tested with salifert yet my sps look great have had amazing growth the past few weeks. This is really making my head spin since i know this shouldn't be happening. I have always kept my phos around .05 and nitrate around 5. I'm not really sure what to do since everything looks great. Any input would be greatly appreciated.





fox flame growth first picture was taken 2/22 second picture was taken today.

 

[twilliard]

Looking good!
I support no3 and po4 awareness

 

[Tom Blevins]

Yes they look great, your P.M. looks awesome, I have mine in very high light and it
seems to be dole & my tank is low nutrients though.

see your tip on the bottom of the frag sticking out right at you, that's how the top half of mine looks.

 

[Mr. Microscope]

Do you have a massive refugium?

 

[bonomo53]

Do you have a massive refugium?

Nope just a 20 gallon sump with a nyos 160 and ball of chaeto

 

[bonomo53]

Looking good!
I support no3 and po4 awareness

thank you

 

[Naiad]

If it's not broke don't fix it!

 

[bonomo53]

Yes they look great, your P.M. looks awesome, I have mine in very high light and it
seems to be dole & my tank is low nutrients though.

see your tip on the bottom of the frag sticking out right at you, that's how the top half of mine looks.

Thank you.. If your talking about the first pictures its actually the cc hellboy

 

[KingTriton]

My sps love nitrates and phosphates... So does my algae :mad:

 

[Tom Blevins]

Thank you.. If your talking about the first pictures its actually the cc hellboy

My Bad, looks good very close though.

 

[twilliard]

My sps love nitrates and phosphates... So does my algae :mad:

Sally Lightfoot crabs loves algae

 

[Todd31]

I'm curious on this topic as well. Why can some good looking SPS tanks have high phosphate when most people on forums tell you they need to be at .03 and below? Are certain phosphates better than others? Maybe i'm wasting $, effort, and starving corals by running GFO to keep phosphate down unnecessarily?

 

[twilliard]

I'm curious on this topic as well. Why can some good looking SPS tanks have high phosphate when most people on forums tell you they need to be at .03 and below? Are certain phosphates better than others? Maybe i'm wasting $, effort, and starving corals by running GFO to keep phosphate down unnecessarily?

This is more of a touchy subject.
IMO it's about balance and what is implemented for algae control.
A good read would be about what zooxanthellae utilizes for survival.

 

[Sabellafella]

Looks to be as your tank benefited from that lol. Personally i wouldnt go crazy over it, but do a bunch of 10-20 % waterchanges to get it down a little just for the sake of the inverts(if you have any) i keep my tank about 5-15 ppm nitrate and 0.03- 0.1 p04

 

[McMullen]

So i recently upgraded my tank from a 57 to a 93 and after the upgrade had a big spike in phosphate. My sps started to stn but recovered nicely. My phosphates were .26 a week after the upgrade.
Now one month after the upgrade my phos is .12 tested with hanna and my nitrates are around 50 tested with salifert yet my sps look great have had amazing growth the past few weeks. This is really making my head spin since i know this shouldn't be happening. I have always kept my phos around .05 and nitrate around 5. I'm not really sure what to do since everything looks great. Any input would be greatly appreciated.





fox flame growth first picture was taken 2/22 second picture was taken today.

If it ain't broke don't fix it!
Beautiful tank and coral!!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm curious on this topic as well. Why can some good looking SPS tanks have high phosphate when most people on forums tell you they need to be at .03 and below? Are certain phosphates better than others? Maybe i'm wasting $, effort, and starving corals by running GFO to keep phosphate down unnecessarily?

IMO, the absence of algae in such a tan k (the biggest problem from elevated nutrients) is either because of very robust herbivores, or something else is limiting iron, such as possibly iron (which may not be optimal for other reasons).

That topic is discussed here in the context of a very nice looking reef with super high nutrients. Last update I saw from a month ago has phosphate at 1.88 ppm and nitrate at 62 ppm, and it still looks great, but there was an RTN event in the past year.

https://www.reefs.com/forum/reefs-m...g-ix-test-kits-chasing-numbers-phosphate.html

from it:

"What we do know is the corals in this tank are healthy and growing, and experimenting to find out the details might have a detrimental effect on the system. For instance, if we start adding iron to the tank and the algae blooms, all the coral might get wiped out, and Rich is not sure he wants to take that risk."

 

[KingTriton]

I also think its harder to grow GHA when all of your rock's surface is covered in coral

 

[powers2001]

Fish food can be a source and can give you high phosphates.

 

[twilliard]

I maintain po4 with flake food and use diy frozen on non flake days

 

[titoreefs]

My corals love hi po4's
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