Low Nitrate and Phosphate, No Water Changes?

[TheFishman9000]

Hey all,

Sorry for the lengthy post, please bear with me…

I’m coming out of the ugly stage in my 90 gallon reef. Been battling some assorted green algae (better than dinos) and I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. However, now that my CuC is getting the upper hand, my phosphate and nitrate have dropped pretty dramatically.

During the peak ugly phase, my nitrate was sitting at about 25-30ppm and my phosphate peaked at maybe 0.02ppm. Today, my nitrate tested at 2.5ppm and my phosphate is at 0.007 - 0.015ppm.

Current livestock is:

-Pair of juvenile - adult ocellaris clowns
-Royal gramma
-10 astrea snails
-2 large nassarius snails
-4 blue legged hermits
-Thriving 5280 pod colony
-Duncan frag
-Candy cane frag
-Two zoa frags
-Ice cream Favia frag
-Gsp frag
-Turbinaria frag

I feed Hikari Marine S pellets 1-2 times a day, with a target feeding of mysis for my corals every 2-3 days. I’ve also been feeding 20ml of oceanmagik once or twice a week for the pods.

All this said, I have been putting off doing a water change because of my low nitrate and phosphate for about a month. My calcium is 450, mg is 1200, and alk is stable at 7.6-7.7.

I would really rather not let these drop any lower, but I feel a water change is a better option for replenishment than beginning to dose at this point in the tank’s life. Would it make sense to begin feeding pellets and broadcast mysis once a day and keep the target feeding schedule of 2-3 times a day in order to increase phosphate and nitrate so I can do a decent 10% water change?

Summary:

Want to do water change to replenish nutrients, but can’t bc Nitrate and Phosphate very low. Can fix without dosing? How? Increase feedings?

 

[Subsea]

You already answered the question.

Increase feeding, then see how well you CUC handles detritus. Pictures help description.