High nitrates and low phosphate - help!!!

[newreefhobbyist]

My tank is 120 gallons including the sump, around 40 pounds of live rock. The tank is almost 2 years old.
Livestock:
2 clown fishes
3 bubbletip anemones
2 striped damsels
1 Brian coral
1 finger leather coral
1 pineapple coral
Fairy dust zoanthids
My latest parameters:
Salinity 1.024
Ph 8.4
Ammonia and nitrites 0 ppm
Calcium 405
Phosphate 0.03 ppm
Alkalinity 8.45
Magnesium 1280
Nitrates 80 ppm
I have got a lot of hair algae growing in my tank since the beginning. I started to grow cheato algae recently but it seems to be struggling. I have been using seachem denitrate in a bag buried in my sump chamber, but the nitrates are still high. My fishes are not showing any stress the corals seems to be stunned for a long time but no signs of any stress either. I feed marine s pellets for my fishes once a day but in very small quantity and every three weeks I feed coral reef ab plus for my corals. I’m changing water around 8 gallons on a weekly basis so as to not shock the system. I’ve been using aquaforest reef salt plus been using ro/di to mix the salt and the nitrates are almost nil. I have not lost any livestock or corals yet but the high nitrates are worrying for almost 2 years. Please help, thank you for your valuable inputs.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the values are accurate, I'd try to increase export (macroalgae, ATS, organic carbon dosing, etc.) and dose phosphate to keep it up. I'd use food grade or other high grade sodium phosphate from amazon. It's not expensive. Better way to go than Neophos due to cost and purity assurance.

 

[cricket3901]

Why is there no sand?

 

[newreefhobbyist]

If the values are accurate, I'd try to increase export (macroalgae, ATS, organic carbon dosing, etc.) and dose phosphate to keep it up. I'd use food grade or other high grade sodium phosphate from amazon. It's not expensive. Better way to go than Neophos due to cost and purity assurance.

Thank you for your inputs Randy, I tried NoPox for quite sometime then stopped, last time I tried vodka dosing and after a few days I started noticing white patches all over my tank then I stopped.

 

[newreefhobbyist]

Why is there no sand?

I thought that sand bed can increase nitrate build up hence I did not add any sand.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you for your inputs Randy, I tried NoPox for quite sometime then stopped, last time I tried vodka dosing and after a few days I started noticing white patches all over my tank then I stopped.

Maybe it dropped P too low.

 

[W31Olds]

New, I have a similar problem with my 1 year old 180-gallon system. I just measured Nitrates (18) and Phos (0) and have a lot of GHA but more fish. I plan on an algae scrubber to see if that will help. In your case maybe try switching to Frozen Food a couple of times a day as pellets are like fertilizer. You may feeding more that you think. You also could maybe use more live rock. I have probably 100-150 lbs and a 1 inch sandbed.

 

[Uncle99]

I thought that sand bed can increase nitrate build up hence I did not add any sand.

Sand as a ton of surface area for beneficial bacteria’s and algae’s to populate, which helps keep rock clean and sand white in addition to any nutritional value they have for fish and coral consumption.

But not a must have, but may be more challenging at first.

I run phosphate at .1ppm.

0.03ppm with testing error could also be zero, which favours development of the pest type stuff like Cyano and Dino…

 

[newreefhobbyist]

I thought that sand bed can increase nitrate build up hence I did not add any sand.

Sand as a ton of surface area for beneficial bacteria’s and algae’s to populate, which helps keep rock clean and sand white in addition to any nutritional value they have for fish and coral consumption.

But not a must have, but may be more challenging at first.

I run phosphate at .1ppm.

0.03ppm with testing error could also be zero, which favours development of the pest type stuff like Cyano and Dino…

Thank you, I use salifert kit, seems like between 0 or 0.03, I have not dosed phosphate before, I will definitely look to start dosing phosphate. Can I still add sand to my tank? If so how? I don’t want to shock the system, can I slowly add the sand with the water in it ? Thank you.

 

[newreefhobbyist]

New, I have a similar problem with my 1 year old 180-gallon system. I just measured Nitrates (18) and Phos (0) and have a lot of GHA but more fish. I plan on an algae scrubber to see if that will help. In your case maybe try switching to Frozen Food a couple of times a day as pellets are like fertilizer. You may feeding more that you think. You also could maybe use more live rock. I have probably 100-150 lbs and a 1 inch sandbed.

Thank you, I will try to switch to frozen food, I have got frozen artremia now, will start to feed that, fingers crossed my nitrates won’t go any higher.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

New, I have a similar problem with my 1 year old 180-gallon system. I just measured Nitrates (18) and Phos (0) and have a lot of GHA but more fish. I plan on an algae scrubber to see if that will help. In your case maybe try switching to Frozen Food a couple of times a day as pellets are like fertilizer. You may feeding more that you think. You also could maybe use more live rock. I have probably 100-150 lbs and a 1 inch sandbed.

I’d be careful adding a scrubber with phosphate already undetectable. Might be a recipe to phosphate deficiency.

 

[backbayreef]

Nitrate at 80ppm is no big deal from my perspective - I've dealt with worse. lol I had 230ppm+ (and yes, even zoas would melt) before. Options:
1. Carbon dosing: similar to your experience, I've done this for ~6 weeks with vodka, vinegar, (diy) nopox but gave up. It took too long or didn't make a difference
2. Perform a massive WC -- in your case, do a 50% WC should drop nitrate to 50ppm and then continue doing 20-30% to get things under control. If you don't have finicky corals, you can do a 80% WC.
3. Sulfur denitrator: I've successfully dropped nitrates from 230ppm to 40ppm before on a 90gal tank and now working on the big tank (120ppm down to 45ppm). It took me 4-5 weeks but the beauty is - you can control nitrate by simply changing the flow rate! This will slightly deplete alk so keep an eye on it.

I'm aware that there are other options but I've found the sulfur denitrator to be the best option, for my tanks and my laziness. If you just want instant gratification, just do a big water change? ;)

 

[newreefhobbyist]

Nitrate at 80ppm is no big deal from my perspective - I've dealt with worse. lol I had 230ppm+ (and yes, even zoas would melt) before. Options:
1. Carbon dosing: similar to your experience, I've done this for ~6 weeks with vodka, vinegar, (diy) nopox but gave up. It took too long or didn't make a difference
2. Perform a massive WC -- in your case, do a 50% WC should drop nitrate to 50ppm and then continue doing 20-30% to get things under control. If you don't have finicky corals, you can do a 80% WC.
3. Sulfur denitrator: I've successfully dropped nitrates from 230ppm to 40ppm before on a 90gal tank and now working on the big tank (120ppm down to 45ppm). It took me 4-5 weeks but the beauty is - you can control nitrate by simply changing the flow rate! This will slightly deplete alk so keep an eye on it.

I'm aware that there are other options but I've found the sulfur denitrator to be the best option, for my tanks and my laziness. If you just want instant gratification, just do a big water change? ;)

Thank you, wouldn’t 50 percent water change shock the system? I’ve got two lps three bubble tip zoa and a finger leather. Two clownfishes and two damsels.

 

[backbayreef]

Thank you, wouldn’t 50 percent water change shock the system? I’ve got two lps three bubble tip zoa and a finger leather. Two clownfishes and two damsels.

As long as you closely match salinity, alk, and temp — no issues. I’ve done an 80% WC before with LPS & SPS without any issues.

 

[World Citizen]

If you want to post some more pic's? Also from the system behind the green hoses.
I think these green hoses are relatively new to the tank? They are free of microlife?

 

[W31Olds]

Randy and Newreef, any suggestions? I know the GHA is part of a new Tank, but I would like to reduce it as I'm cleaning every 2 weeks or so. I'm thinking of getting a couple more Tuxedo urchins as the one I have really mows it down but can't cover all my rockwork and my Tangs or Lawnmower Blenny won't eat it and snails are too slow. The Pitho crabs eat it but mostly on the sandbed.

 

[newreefhobbyist]

Thank you, wouldn’t 50 percent water change shock the system? I’ve got two lps three bubble tip zoa and a finger leather. Two clownfishes and two damsels.

As long as you closely match salinity, alk, and temp — no issues. I’ve done an 80% WC before with LPS & SPS without any issues.

Thank you, hoping to do that soon, I use aquaforest reef salt plus now, earlier was using seawater but found small starfish - not sure what it is.

 

[newreefhobbyist]

If you want to post some more pic's? Also from the system behind the green hoses.
I think these green hoses are relatively new to the tank? They are free of microlife?

That’s the output of my chiller, it’s been there for a long time but I do clean it frequently

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy and Newreef, any suggestions? I know the GHA is part of a new Tank, but I would like to reduce it as I'm cleaning every 2 weeks or so. I'm thinking of getting a couple more Tuxedo urchins as the one I have really mows it down but can't cover all my rockwork and my Tangs or Lawnmower Blenny won't eat it and snails are too slow. The Pitho crabs eat it but mostly on the sandbed.

Yes, a bigger clean up crew is much better than trying to defeat algae by nutrient reduction.

 

[newreefhobbyist]

Randy and Newreef, any suggestions? I know the GHA is part of a new Tank, but I would like to reduce it as I'm cleaning every 2 weeks or so. I'm thinking of getting a couple more Tuxedo urchins as the one I have really mows it down but can't cover all my rockwork and my Tangs or Lawnmower Blenny won't eat it and snails are too slow. The Pitho crabs eat it but mostly on the sandbed.

W31 Im also struggling with GHA for two years now, I try to manually clean it as much as I can, I have had some snails but they seems to die off, never owned urchins, sorry hope this helps.