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- Jan 2, 2018
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I've been dosing disodium phosphate and sodium nitrate to my 150 gal mixed reef tank with 8 small fish. I run a calcium reactor to keep CA and Alk up.
I have a reef octopus protien skimmer and no GFO or phosphate reducer. I do not have any macro algea in the refuge; I only have some live rock in there.
I've been dosing every other day for the past 6 months. I thought that after a couple months, I would not need to dose any more, but this is not the case.
Prior to dosing, I tried heavy feeding and reduced skimming but that didn't help any because the readings were still zero and zero.
The reason I wanted to raise these 2 parameters was to color up my SPS. The sps had horrible dull coloration. After dosig the colors have much improved over time.
One downside to adding nitrates and phosphates is brown algea on the sand and rock. I've employed CUC to help with that, but I wish I didn't need it.
So my question is: am I stuck dosing Nitrate and Phosphate forever???
pH:8.2
Phosphate .02 to .06 when dosing every other day; otherwise it's 0.
Nitrate: .2 to 2.5 when dosing every other day. otherwise it's also 0
Alkalinity: 8.0
Cal: 465
Mg: 1250
Thanks.
I have a reef octopus protien skimmer and no GFO or phosphate reducer. I do not have any macro algea in the refuge; I only have some live rock in there.
I've been dosing every other day for the past 6 months. I thought that after a couple months, I would not need to dose any more, but this is not the case.
Prior to dosing, I tried heavy feeding and reduced skimming but that didn't help any because the readings were still zero and zero.
The reason I wanted to raise these 2 parameters was to color up my SPS. The sps had horrible dull coloration. After dosig the colors have much improved over time.
One downside to adding nitrates and phosphates is brown algea on the sand and rock. I've employed CUC to help with that, but I wish I didn't need it.
So my question is: am I stuck dosing Nitrate and Phosphate forever???
pH:8.2
Phosphate .02 to .06 when dosing every other day; otherwise it's 0.
Nitrate: .2 to 2.5 when dosing every other day. otherwise it's also 0
Alkalinity: 8.0
Cal: 465
Mg: 1250
Thanks.