How should I raise my Nitrate and Phosphate from both DOUBLE ZERO

[youramigojake]

Hey everybody!

I’ve been battling the biggest Dino bloom I’ve ever seen these last 2 months. I did a massive scrubbing with a BRS reactor and a 5 micron sediment filter today so that’s why the rocks look clean lol.

Anyways both my nitrate and phosphate bottomed out and I have Never had this problem. I’ve been taking TOO GOOD of care on my tank and I’m paying the price lol. Been battling this issue for 2 months.

I’ve doubled my feeding and turned my skimmer off the last 1.5 weeks and my nutrients are still ZERO.

do you guys have any better ideas to raise the levels of BOTH phosphate and nitrate?

Thank you so much!

 

[Lps_lover12]

Same issue happened to me and is still happening, I use neophos and neonitro from brightwell. Their getting steady now and what I do is test every second day to make sure they don’t bottom out. It’s worked good for me so far

 

[X-37B]

Just get some no3 and po4 and dose it to maintian levels.
I have to dose po4 daily in my 80 to keep it at .05.
Trying to raise by feeding more results in algae growth.

 

[george9]

I also used neophos and neonitro. Super easy to dose and get your parameters where you want them. Since my battle with dinos, I test nutrients about every other day now to make sure I'm not trending towards 0 again.

I had to dose 2 bottles of neophos over about 2 months before I was able to hold a steady phosphate reading. Your rocks suck up and hold an insane amount of po4. It takes a while for them to become saturated with po4, and then you'll be able to hold a somewhat steady concentration in the water. Now, I feed a little bit of unrinsed frozen food daily and this keeps my PO4 + No3 right where I want it!

 

[youramigojake]

Just get some no3 and po4 and dose it to maintian levels.
I have to dose po4 daily in my 80 to keep it at .05.
Trying to raise by feeding more results in algae growth.

Okay awesome! I see you guys both do the same thing. How do you go about dosing both? Do you dose them at the same time or spaced out? Thanks!!

 

[SPR1968]

Just add some more fish and feed them, that’s the easiest method

 

[george9]

Okay awesome! I see you guys both do the same thing. How do you go about dosing both? Do you dose them at the same time or spaced out? Thanks!!

I dosed them at the same time at first and then only as needed after my daily test. I found nitrate a lot easier to stabilize because unless you have a fuge, it needs to be manually removed with water changes. It won't be absorbed by rock. Phosphate concentrations can bounce around a bit when you first start dosing due to the rocks absorbing and leeching it back into the water, but eventually your tank will reach equilibrium!

How old is your tank?

 

[X-37B]

You can dose both at the same time.
You will need to monitor levels daily until they stablize.
I would start at 1/2 recommended dose to start and go from thier.
Pretty simple as long as you monitor it.
Wait a couple hours after dosing to take a reading.

 

[mjw011689]

I also used neophos and neonitro. Super easy to dose and get your parameters where you want them. Since my battle with dinos, I test nutrients about every other day now to make sure I'm not trending towards 0 again.

I had to dose 2 bottles of neophos over about 2 months before I was able to hold a steady phosphate reading. Your rocks suck up and hold an insane amount of po4. It takes a while for them to become saturated with po4, and then you'll be able to hold a somewhat steady concentration in the water. Now, I feed a little bit of unrinsed frozen food daily and this keeps my PO4 + No3 right where I want it!

I know this is a late reply, but I’m fighting the exact same thing. Zero phosphates, and nitrates at 2 at the most. I have neophos and neonitro, but I’ve only started with the phos so far. However, i dose the recommended amount and nothing changes. Same day, next day, nothin. Is this because the rock and sand are just suckin it up too fast? Will there ever be a point where it can’t take in anymore phosphates and THEM I’ll see the number start to come up? It seems that’s what you found with yours over the 2 months right? Does it ever get to a point where the rock will leach it back out and I’ll have the opposite problem? Or will I most likely always need to dose? I’m fine with that if that’s what it takes.

also, is going by the recommended amount on the bottle not enough? If I’m not getting any reading still, should I dose more, or just keep dosing that amount till it shows up?

 

[george9]

I know this is a late reply, but I’m fighting the exact same thing. Zero phosphates, and nitrates at 2 at the most. I have neophos and neonitro, but I’ve only started with the phos so far. However, i dose the recommended amount and nothing changes. Same day, next day, nothin. Is this because the rock and sand are just suckin it up too fast? Will there ever be a point where it can’t take in anymore phosphates and THEM I’ll see the number start to come up? It seems that’s what you found with yours over the 2 months right? Does it ever get to a point where the rock will leach it back out and I’ll have the opposite problem? Or will I most likely always need to dose? I’m fine with that if that’s what it takes.

also, is going by the recommended amount on the bottle not enough? If I’m not getting any reading still, should I dose more, or just keep dosing that amount till it shows up?

You will reach a point eventually when it becomes stable but yes it’s most likely rock that is sucking up the PO4 from the water column - especially if it is a new tank. It took me months of dosing and I even have to dose every now and then to keep it above .02.
NO3 at 2 is perfect, and I’ve found NO3 to remain a lot more stable than PO4 which can spike after a feeding, and slowly decrease the 24hrs after a feeding. NO3 in my tank generally only rises (very small amounts) until the next water change. PO4 in my tank could be .08 right after a reef roids feeding and then .05 the next day. It bugs the crap out of me although my corals look good so small changes like this don’t really matter as long as it doesn’t keep trending towards 0.

You can up the dose a little bit if you’re not registering much of an increase but make sure you’re testing each day (I tested 2x a day sometimes when tuning my PO4 but I am crazy lol) so you don’t accidentally add too much, eventually you will get there!

I rely on frozen foods to provide a bit of PO4 so I don’t have to dose or measure daily. Recently my fridge broke so the tank went with dry foods for 2 weeks which led to my PO4 bottoming out again (UGH) and I had to begin dosing again, and am still dosing a bit as needed every few days since then (it’s been about 2 weeks since they were 0). So yes, unfortunately if you remove too much from the water column (like say you do increased water changes or start adding less to the water column) you can break that balance.

Just sharing what I’ve learned thus far and my experiences, but I am far from an expert on the chemistry!

 

[mjw011689]

You will reach a point eventually when it becomes stable but yes it’s most likely rock that is sucking up the PO4 from the water column - especially if it is a new tank. It took me months of dosing and I even have to dose every now and then to keep it above .02.
NO3 at 2 is perfect, and I’ve found NO3 to remain a lot more stable than PO4 which can spike after a feeding, and slowly decrease the 24hrs after a feeding. NO3 in my tank generally only rises (very small amounts) until the next water change. PO4 in my tank could be .08 right after a reef roids feeding and then .05 the next day. It bugs the crap out of me although my corals look good so small changes like this don’t really matter as long as it doesn’t keep trending towards 0.

You can up the dose a little bit if you’re not registering much of an increase but make sure you’re testing each day (I tested 2x a day sometimes when tuning my PO4 but I am crazy lol) so you don’t accidentally add too much, eventually you will get there!

I rely on frozen foods to provide a bit of PO4 so I don’t have to dose or measure daily. Recently my fridge broke so the tank went with dry foods for 2 weeks which led to my PO4 bottoming out again (UGH) and I had to begin dosing again, and am still dosing a bit as needed every few days since then (it’s been about 2 weeks since they were 0). So yes, unfortunately if you remove too much from the water column (like say you do increased water changes or start adding less to the water column) you can break that balance.

Just sharing what I’ve learned thus far and my experiences, but I am far from an expert on the chemistry!

Great info, much appreciated! Yeah so far dosing hasn’t changed the number at all, and i wasn’t sure if it would deplete it that fast (like next day). I’ll probably start some heavier dosing.

 

[george9]

Great info, much appreciated! Yeah so far dosing hasn’t changed the number at all, and i wasn’t sure if it would deplete it that fast (like next day). I’ll probably start some heavier dosing.

You can try multiple doses during the day, I dosed in the morning and night (can’t remember the dose) but I do remember it was significantly higher than the “recommended” dose on the bottle

 

[mjw011689]

That sounds reasonable. I suppose if it’s binding it that fast you would need to.

 

[george9]

That sounds reasonable. I suppose if it’s binding it that fast you would need to.

Exactly, it was depleting so fast in my tank that in the morning I’d dose up to .05 and by 8PM it would be .01PPM again.

I even add PO4 to .05 PPM in my water change water unless my PO4 is running too high in the tank (which has never been the case lol)

 

[Drewerd7]

I'm following along, as my tank has also bottomed out PO4..
No surprise, as I keep Macroalgae on display, it has sucked the nutrients out!

I had no trouble getting the NO3 back to desirable levels, but everyday I dose NeoPhos and it is at undetectable levels 24hrs later.

Promising thing is that my NPS gorgonians have looked much happier as soon as I began dosing the NeoPhos. Also had a lot of "pearling" on my Macroalgae after I began daily dosing the NeoPhos.

Great to see my tank recovering from the nutrient deprivation, but with these Macroalgae, I will be going through A LOT of NeoPhos! Lol.

 

[mjw011689]

For those that need long term heavy dosing of phos, is there something stronger/more cost effective than neophos? Especially like dreward says he’s got a ton of macros, i imagine the amount that would need to be dosed is significantly more.

 

[vlangel]

Just add some more fish and feed them, that’s the easiest method

The easiest and most fun!

 

[Diastro]

For those that need long term heavy dosing of phos, is there something stronger/more cost effective than neophos? Especially like dreward says he’s got a ton of macros, i imagine the amount that would need to be dosed is significantly more.

I'm not sure how reef safe this is, but I use dry fertilizer mix for my macro algae tank. Nilcoc G is the brand. It makes a ton for about 30 bucks plus shipping.