Low nitrates, high phosphates

CoralWealth · Jul 17, 2020

So my corals are doing good but I am not liking that my nitrates keep dropping no matter how much I feed and phosphates are rising. There is no algae besides some brown cyano on the sand but still, there has to be a better way of raising nitrates besides the natural feeding way (have been trying for 3 months now)

Alk is 8
Phosphate is 0.3, yes that is correct (hanna)
Nitrate is under 2 ( Red Sea Pro)

What do you guys suggest?

Spare time · Jul 17, 2020

I like neonitro and neophos for dosing nitrate and phosphate in a reef tank. The instructions are pretty clear and it worked well for me when I bottomed out both nitrate and phosphate (I couldn't feed enough to keep up wiht my tank's demand for the two). If you have a skimmer or refugium, you can cut those back.

CoralWealth · Jul 17, 2020

Spare time said:
I like neonitro and neophos for dosing nitrate and phosphate in a reef tank. The instructions are pretty clear and it worked well for me when I bottomed out both nitrate and phosphate (I couldn't feed enough to keep up wiht my tank's demand for the two). If you have a skimmer or refugium, you can cut those back.

Wouldnt cutting back the skimmer mess with phosphates too?

I think I just need to raise my nitrates and that will actually helped reduce my phosphates.

Spare time · Jul 17, 2020

Demmelition4 said:
Wouldnt cutting back the skimmer mess with phosphates too?

I think I just need to raise my nitrates and that will actually helped reduce my phosphates.

I was thinking after you adjust them so you don't have to keep dosing nitrate and phosphate

xxkenny90xx · Jul 17, 2020

Demmelition4 said:
So my corals are doing good

What do you guys suggest?

I suggest you do nothing. If your corals are doing good then what is the problem?

CoralWealth · Jul 18, 2020

xxkenny90xx said:
I suggest you do nothing. If your corals are doing good then what is the problem?

They are doing good but more pale then I like, I do not like the pastel look like a lot of people.

Fishingandreefing · Jul 18, 2020

Demmelition4 said:
Wouldnt cutting back the skimmer mess with phosphates too?

I think I just need to raise my nitrates and that will actually helped reduce my phosphates.

I have read other member mentioned this as phosphate will drop once nitrates rise. I am having the similar issue. My phosphate is at around .29 and nitrate is almost undetectable. I ordered neonitro but hasn’t receive it yet. I did cut off my skimmer since two weeks ago and bumped up feeding but still same issue.