So, I’m posting hoping to get some advice/education (maybe re-education) about how to move forward with my reef. Here is the quick nutshell version of where I am at: I have a 150 gallon display tank (about 160 gallons total water volume), that I rebooted about 18 months ago. Here are some of the details about my tank:
I have always dealt with high NO3 levels (over the course of several different reef tanks), and that is what I am looking to address. The strange thing is that I have never had issues with PO4, only the NO3, which seems to be the exact opposite of what is typical? Right now I have NO3 levels of about 16 (maybe closer to 32 using the Nitrate Pro Test kit), but my PO4 is 0 (using a Hanna Phosphorus meter that measures in ppb). This seems to be legit, as I really have no nuisance algae in the tank at all, and only have to clean the glass once a week at most. My NoPoX dose has been between 2-3 ml/day total because the PO4 is so low.
I have been dosing Red Sea NoPoX for the past year, and have decided that I really want to push ahead with the whole system (NoPoX, Reef Energy A&B, Reef Colors, etc). Because I always seem to have such an imbalance between NO3 and PO4 I’m a little confused about how to proceed? I understand enough about the Redfield ratio to know that I need some PO4 in the water to be able to lower my NO3, so am a bit stuck. I figure my options are as follows: do some massive water changes to manually lower the NO3, and then maybe add some PO4 to the water using some Brightwell Aquatics NeoPhos to try to bring things back into balance?
Honestly, I would really like to figure out where my imbalance keeps coming from? I have always tended to run systems with a super low PO4 and high NO3, and have been a bit baffled by this. Would love to get some thoughts on this.
So, in summary: zero PO4, with NO3 between 16-32 according to the Red Sea Nitrate Pro kit. How to get this back into balance, and how to move forward with a NoPoX dose?
Thanks in advance, and please let me know if I forgot anything.
- I have 140 pounds of really good, aquacultured live rock in the tank from Tampa Bay Saltwater (rock is farmed in the Gulf of Mexico). 2-3” sand bed also from Tampa Bay Saltwater, with various cucumbers, urchins, and stars to keep this clean.
- 30” venturi skimmer from Lifereef. Really a great skimmer, switched from a Bubble King and haven’t looked back.
- ATI T5 Sunpower lighting
- (3) Apex WAV in tank pumps, with a Tunze wavebox
- Fairly low bioload: only have three fish in the 150 gallon tank, and feed one 1” square of homemade food each night.
- My water changes have gotten a little lax, honestly. I have always done a 15% water change every week, but this dropped to 15% once or twice a month. I’m sure this is the reason for my higher than normal NO3 level, but would figure that dosing NoPoX and having a lot of good live rock would keep this lower on its own? Maybe not?
I have always dealt with high NO3 levels (over the course of several different reef tanks), and that is what I am looking to address. The strange thing is that I have never had issues with PO4, only the NO3, which seems to be the exact opposite of what is typical? Right now I have NO3 levels of about 16 (maybe closer to 32 using the Nitrate Pro Test kit), but my PO4 is 0 (using a Hanna Phosphorus meter that measures in ppb). This seems to be legit, as I really have no nuisance algae in the tank at all, and only have to clean the glass once a week at most. My NoPoX dose has been between 2-3 ml/day total because the PO4 is so low.
I have been dosing Red Sea NoPoX for the past year, and have decided that I really want to push ahead with the whole system (NoPoX, Reef Energy A&B, Reef Colors, etc). Because I always seem to have such an imbalance between NO3 and PO4 I’m a little confused about how to proceed? I understand enough about the Redfield ratio to know that I need some PO4 in the water to be able to lower my NO3, so am a bit stuck. I figure my options are as follows: do some massive water changes to manually lower the NO3, and then maybe add some PO4 to the water using some Brightwell Aquatics NeoPhos to try to bring things back into balance?
Honestly, I would really like to figure out where my imbalance keeps coming from? I have always tended to run systems with a super low PO4 and high NO3, and have been a bit baffled by this. Would love to get some thoughts on this.
So, in summary: zero PO4, with NO3 between 16-32 according to the Red Sea Nitrate Pro kit. How to get this back into balance, and how to move forward with a NoPoX dose?
Thanks in advance, and please let me know if I forgot anything.