Low Nutrient Dosing Help

[jsbzcmcdaniel]

Guys -

I am struggling with extremely low nutrients in my tank. I have battled this over the past few months and can't seem to get them to raise. My SPS are pale and have little polyp extension. All my parameters are stable and are charted on a weekly basis. I tried turning off the skimmer, added livestock, extra feeding and nothing seems to work.

I ordered Brightwell Neotitro, and Brightwell Neophos to dose and raise the nutrients to an acceptable level. My tank is roughly 150g total volume between the display and sump.

This morning my readings are:
Temp: 78
Salinity - 1.026
Cal - 472 (Hanna Checker)
Alk - 7.9 (Hanna Checker)
Mag - 1350 - (Salifert)
Nitrates - Barely detectable - (Salifert)
Phosphorus - 1ppb - (Hanna Checker)

I just ordered a Red Sea nitrate test kit because I find it difficult to gauge the actual reading.

I seem to also have an issue with almost a rust / red colored dust that covers the glass pretty quickly. I have to clean the glass two - three times a day to keep it clean. The same algae will accumulate on the sand bed is not disturbed.

So my question is, how much should I start to dose? I plan on testing every 24hrs until I get in the optimal range and then monitor it and adjust dosing as needed. I have a coralbox doser new in the box I haven't setup yet and was planning on dosing 2 part but if needed I could also dose nitrates as well.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[PatW]

I dose phosphates and nitrates. I have a 300 gallon SPS dominant tank. I have chaeto in a refugium.

I buy analytical reagent grade chemicals on Amazon. I dose sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate.

For the nitrate stock solution I put .5 cup of nitrate crystals into 1 gallon of RODI.

For phosphate stock, I put 2 tbs of phosphate crystals into 1 gallon of RODI.

I text with Red Sea Pro Nitrate and Hanna ULR phosphate.

2 TBS of nitrate stock daily maintains 1 ppm nitrate. And it stays pretty constant.

2.5 TBS of phosphate stock maintains about .02 ppm phosphate. But this level over shoots right after dosing maybe to .04 and falls back to .02 24 hours after dosing.