Need help badly with phosphate and nitrate

[jadedog]

Good evening! Ive been testing daily with hannah checkers on my 8 month old reef tank. I have cyano ive been fighting for a couple months and im just wondering how I go from maintaining 0.04 phoshate and 6ppm nitrate for days then 24hours later im reading 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate. Is this possible? Is it the cyano eating nutrients I just do not understand and im getting frustrated. I dose daily to keep from bottoming out but these swings just confuse me so much.

 

[00W]

Good evening! Ive been testing daily with hannah checkers on my 8 month old reef tank. I have cyano ive been fighting for a couple months and im just wondering how I go from maintaining 0.04 phoshate and 6ppm nitrate for days then 24hours later im reading 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate. Is this possible? Is it the cyano eating nutrients I just do not understand and im getting frustrated. I dose daily to keep from bottoming out but these swings just confuse me so much.

This hobby can be quite frustrating at times that's for sure.
Sometimes chasing numbers can make you go nuts.
Pictures would be good.
What is your livestock?
Amount?
How/when/how much do you feed, etc would help me help you.
Maybe I can ease some of your pain.

 

[jadedog]

This hobby can be quite frustrating at times that's for sure.
Sometimes chasing numbers can make you go nuts.
Pictures would be good.
What is your livestock?
Amount?
How/when/how much do you feed, etc would help me help you.
Maybe I can ease some of your pain.

Thanks for the reply! I am going a little nuts i know i cant afford to bottom out with cyano present and its still happening even with daily testing!! Anyway I have 1 fairy wrasse 1 firefish 2 clowns and a bangai cardinal. I feed about 1ish cubes of brine or mysis shrimp with flakes and pallets occasionally too. It just bugs me because im trying to do the best for my corals and I know this isnt ideal.

 

[00W]

Thanks for the reply! I am going a little nuts i know i cant afford to bottom out with cyano present and its still happening even with daily testing!! Anyway I have 1 fairy wrasse 1 firefish 2 clowns and a bangai cardinal. I feed about 1ish cubes of brine or mysis shrimp with flakes and pallets occasionally too. It just bugs me because im trying to do the best for my corals and I know this isnt ideal.

No worries.
We'll calmly walk through a few things.
How are you filtering this tank?

 

[jadedog]

No worries.
We'll calmly walk through a few things.
How are you filtering this tank?

Sump with filter socks and skimmer

 

[jadedog]

Sump with filter socks and skimmer

Not sure if this is related but I did switch my socks last night. I probably had them in for about 5 days before I swapped them. Might have contributed to the crash?

 

[00W]

Sump with filter socks and skimmer

Okay well first thing I'm going to tell you is this tank is just too clean.
Might sound wierd but you have to think about your tank as the ocean.
It shouldn't be a sterile environment.
Also realize that cyano is a bacteria, it's also photosynthetic.
We all want that perfect, lovely clean tank but I prefer a bit of dirty in mine.
I'm going to tell you to remove the sock and shut the skimmer down for a week.
Feed a bit more and stop testing every day.

 

[00W]

Not sure if this is related but I did switch my socks last night. I probably had them in for about 5 days before I swapped them. Might have contributed to the crash?

No crash.
Not the right terminology, but easily could have taken everything to zero.
Corals will use phos/trates as well, although these are pretty small.
What size tank.

 

[Aquadude1]

Sump with filter socks and skimmer

Okay well first thing I'm going to tell you is this tank is just too clean.
Might sound wierd but you have to think about your tank as the ocean.
It shouldn't be a sterile environment.
Also realize that cyano is a bacteria, it's also photosynthetic.
We all want that perfect, lovely clean tank but I prefer a bit of dirty in mine.
I'm going to tell you to remove the sock and shut the skimmer down for a week.
Feed a bit more and stop testing every day.

I 100 percent agree with this approach!
I might leave the skimmer bubbling but not pulling any skimmate into the cup just to keep aeration

 

[jadedog]

Okay well first thing I'm going to tell you is this tank is just too clean.
Might sound wierd but you have to think about your tank as the ocean.
It shouldn't be a sterile environment.
Also realize that cyano is a bacteria, it's also photosynthetic.
We all want that perfect, lovely clean tank but I prefer a bit of dirty in mine.
I'm going to tell you to remove the sock and shut the skimmer down for a week.
Feed a bit more and stop testing every day.

Ok I will follow this advice thanks alot! I will say I did clean all the glass today and pretty it up. As for the cyano I have been dosing micro bacter clean daily to help fight it. This is my first tank is it normal to have to dose nitrate and phos or is it like you said its just running to clean? Ill give this a shot hopefully it makes it a bit more stable thanks again.

 

[jadedog]

Socks are out skimmer is off!

 

[00W]

Ok I will follow this advice thanks alot! I will say I did clean all the glass today and pretty it up. As for the cyano I have been dosing micro bacter clean daily to help fight it. This is my first tank is it normal to have to dose nitrate and phos or is it like you said its just running to clean? Ill give this a shot hopefully it makes it a bit more stable thanks again.

Just don't stress about it so much.
Sometimes you gotta just let the tank do it's thing without all the intervention.
It's okay to remove cyano by hand.
It can get ugly.

 

[00W]

Socks are out skimmer is off!

Like mentioned above and I totally agree, running the skimmer without the top is fine too.
I used to run mine wet and let the scum go back in the sump if I needed more nutrients.
That is a rarity for me though I have no problem with nutrients.

 

[00W]

Socks are out skimmer is off!

Now put the test kits in the cupboard for a week and enjoy Christmas
And the tank.
Happy holidays.
Joel
Keep in touch.

 

[jadedog]

Now put the test kits in the cupboard for a week and enjoy Christmas
And the tank.
Happy holidays.
Joel
Keep in touch.

Thanks alot man!! I was losing my mind and I would never have thought to turn the skimmer off and take the socks out lol. Happy holidays!!