High nutrients! Nitrates won’t go down

[Torres reef]

So I have a 167 peninsula for almost a year now. I’ve got high nitrates and phosphates that I’ve been battling (nitrates 50/phosphate now 4.4). I did add a bag of seachem matrix maybe a moth ago and my monti cap and a blue milli went bye bye. But I have other spa corals that are growing. I currently have a skimmer, huge chaeto ball, I change filter floss regularly. I have 21 fish, feed nori in the morning, flakes midday, frozen for dinner, not a whole lot each feeding (food is gone within 2-5 minutes). I dose acropower daily, three scoops of reef roofs and about 20-30 mls of phytoplankton daily. What do you recommend I do to bring nutrients down?

 

[Cell]

Cut down on the feeding for starters. Reef Roids are known to spike phosphate.

 

[Torres reef]

Cut down on the feeding for starters. Reef Roids are known to spike phosphate.

How many times a week do you recommend I feed roids? I did just buy barrier reef sps gro formula since I heard it doesn’t rise phosphate like roids.

 

[dvgyfresh]

+1 , you can cut back/stop on almost all of the coral foods. All your fish feeding is plenty enough for the corals so that will save you some there. Also I would use phosphate RX to get that phosphate down but go really slow with it. Nitrate at 50 isn’t the worst , and cutting down on the coral foods will help lower

 

[Screwgunner]

Bio pellets , algae turff scubber. Dose vodka , vinegar or sugar. Reactor with phosgaurd will bring phosphate down.

 

[Cwentz758]

You feed more food in a day than I feed in two weeks.

 

[Llyod276]

You are overdosing on the reef roids and POTENTIALLY the other filter feeder foods. Your tank does not need that much filterfeeder food. The fish food is ok as long as what you say is accurate about time for consumption. In my 75g I have a few corals nothing major and i does reef roids once every 3 days. It's mainly for my nonphotosynthetic gorgonian. Reduce the frequency and amount and try target feeding. For now increase your water changes and think about running gfo for the phosphates. Nitrates either get a sump or some kind of algea kn the tank. If you have tangs they eat most all of the algea that removes nitrates most efficiently/fastest. Watch your diatoms bloom. Also if you aren't already switch to RODI WATER.

 

[MaxTremors]

You could cut way back on the reef roofs and phyto, maybe feed it every 3-4 days or even once a week. I would also cut back to once a day feedings (nori and either frozen or flake, alternate each day), unless you have fish that require multiple daily feedings. Are you doing water changes? Have you thought about carbon dosing. Phosphates at 4.4 is crazy high, nitrates at 50 are high, but not crazy high. Have you tried running some GFO? I think the main issue is a large bio load and over feeding with inadequate nutrient export. If your refugium isn’t productive enough, I would consider carbon dosing (make sure to really study up on it before implementing), and then once the nitrates are in check, run some GFO to lower the phosphates. In the meantime, cut back on the feeding, change filter socks at a minimum of every 3 days, and up your water changes.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Cut back on the feedings for sure, and eliminate the reef roids all together and you will see the numbers decrease. I would also do a series of water changes to help export that stuff.
how often do you clean your sand? cause your tank might be storing it in the sand.

pellets and flakes will also add up in increasing nutrients in the tank. try sticking to frozen food for a bit and see where the numbers will go. if you're worried about the coral not eating... with 21 fish, trust me they be eating good!!


I honestly think you are dosing a whole lot into the tank.... I was using reef roids and everytime I would use it I would see my numbers spike in the next couple of days... now I just dose redsea AB+ and feed frozen food...

 

[JCM]

I disagree with feeding the fish less. I'd stop the coral food though and do a few water changes. See what that does to the numbers. Also try different test kits to make sure your numbers are accurate. Don't go too crazy making big changes, your tank looks healthy.

 

[ctopherl]

Stop the reef roids/coral food. I bet if you stopped dosing that completely for 1-2 weeks, and kept everything else the same, you wouldn't notice a decline in your corals*, but you would notice a big decline in nitrates/phosphates.

Good youtube watch here

* Use common sense here obviously, feed your NPS or whatever that definitely need food

 

[Torres reef]

thanks for the advice! So should I ditch the matrix?

 

[Torres reef]

You are overdosing on the reef roids and POTENTIALLY the other filter feeder foods. Your tank does not need that much filterfeeder food. The fish food is ok as long as what you say is accurate about time for consumption. In my 75g I have a few corals nothing major and i does reef roids once every 3 days. It's mainly for my nonphotosynthetic gorgonian. Reduce the frequency and amount and try target feeding. For now increase your water changes and think about running gfo for the phosphates. Nitrates either get a sump or some kind of algea kn the tank. If you have tangs they eat most all of the algea that removes nitrates most efficiently/fastest. Watch your diatoms bloom. Also if you aren't already switch to RODI WATER.

Should ditch the matrix and throw it away?

 

[Torres reef]

+1 , you can cut back/stop on almost all of the coral foods. All your fish feeding is plenty enough for the corals so that will save you some there. Also I would use phosphate RX to get that phosphate down but go really slow with it. Nitrate at 50 isn’t the worst , and cutting down on the coral foods will help lower

Should I keep the seachem matrix?

 

[Llyod276]

I'd say read the directions. You only really need one. For a huge wall to wall display go with the prescribed amount. If you dont ha e that and can see more rock than coral then 1/2 the dose at max not more than every other day. Try just one type of food. Remember most of your corals are photosynthetic. They make thier own food. The pizzazz is just that for those types, but filter feeder nonphotosynthetic need this stuff.

 

[Torres reef]

+

You could cut way back on the reef roofs and phyto, maybe feed it every 3-4 days or even once a week. I would also cut back to once a day feedings (nori and either frozen or flake, alternate each day), unless you have fish that require multiple daily feedings. Are you doing water changes? Have you thought about carbon dosing. Phosphates at 4.4 is crazy high, nitrates at 50 are high, but not crazy high. Have you tried running some GFO? I think the main issue is a large bio load and over feeding with inadequate nutrient export. If your refugium isn’t productive enough, I would consider carbon dosing (make sure to really study up on it before implementing), and then once the nitrates are in check, run some GFO to lower the phosphates. In the meantime, cut back on the feeding, change filter socks at a minimum of every 3 days, and up your water changes.

Wil the seachem matrix help export some nitrates?

 

[Llyod276]

Algea does it naturally, be careful with chems, too many and things die, ask me how I know. Do water changes it's the least harmful if done at 25% intervals. Right now I'd say biweekly to weekly. Same temp and salinity.

 

[JCM]

Wil the seachem matrix help export some nitrates?

I may be old school but I think you should stop looking for a quick fix. Cut back on the coral food, stay regular with your water changes, work on balancing your imports and exports.

 

[Torres reef]

Algea does it naturally, be careful with chems, too many and things die, ask me how I know. Do water changes it's the least harmful if done at 25% intervals. Right now I'd say biweekly to weekly. Same temp and salinity.

Are you talking about macro algae? I have a very hungry hippo tang, yellow tang and a rabbit fish that love seaweed. I already have a watermelon size chaeto ball in the sump.

 

[Llyod276]

Ok that's good. I hear pulsing xenia remove some too but spread quickly. The only quick fix is water changes, but remove too many nutrients at once and tank may crash. You have a large water volume, this should help stabilize any huge swings. Also what brand of salt are you mixing. Hopefully its reputable brand. Check your tank to see if anything, corals, fish, inverts anything organic is decaying. If found remove pronto.