Nitrate 64 ppm and phos at 0.2 and won’t move ?

[Heisenberg 78]

hi all I’m having a bit of trauma with the tank, it’s been set up 2 years and I’ve not yet been able to keep certain coral more than a few weeks.. montipora plate.. and most lps

I’ve recently had an ICP and it come back at 88 % few things popped up regarding calcium being high and iodine being low.

But in the main, the rest seemed ok.. nitrate I knew was high at circa 50ppm and phos was 0.18 last time I checked.

Problem is I can’t get it to move, I have gone through 2 tubs of Arcadia bio pearls and they've never seemed to do anything to lower any of them.
My skimmer rarely skims anything out which is also of concern..

Can someone advise what to do in this situation? Thanks

 

[Pmj]

Dose phos and use a macroalgae in my opinion. Go slowly.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

What phos?

And I have a small refugium if that helps..

 

[RobZilla04]

Dial in skimmer first. Get the manuf suggested water height, then adjust so it actually skimms. You can try dosing NoPox or a home version (Vodka, vinegar, RODI). That'll help primarily with nitrates but you gotta get the skimmer dialed in first. GFO can quickly drop phosphates but I don't think yours are all that high. Shoot for .1 maybe.

Water changes are the simplest way to reduce but you gotta find out where they are coming from first. Most common culprit is feeding too much.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

The skimmer is at the highest level I can get it; odd occasions I come home and find it going ballistic and anything it’s collected it spews back in to the sump..
I’ve just took the bio pearls out and commenced dosing manually but I’m going to have to monitor np3 and po4 more regularly

Anyone know what raises po4 to I can decrease nitrate -thanks

 

[Pmj]

There are a few like brightwell neophos or seachem flourish. In my experience, for whatever reason, my PO4 bottoms out and NO3 starts to rise. Multiple times, I've dosed PO4 and nitrates fall to barely readable and PO4 is as well.

 

[SPR1968]

The easiest way to reduce nitrates, and also phosphate is to increase your water change routine, and it can be as simple as that.

20% water changes = 20% drop in nutrient levels, roughly. I say 20% as any more and you may upset the water parameters and affect stability

The alternatives (and there are many) include carbon dosing, for example Red Sea Nopox, to primarily reduce nitrates, GFO for example rhowaphos for phosphate reduction. If you use GFO just start slowly as you don’t want to drop it to quickly or you may upset the corals. A good target is 0.03ppm for phosphate

You can also add things to increase your biological filtration such as Marine Pure, Seachem Matrix etc., but you have got to encourage anaerobic denitrification to decrease nitrate levels

There are many ways of doing things, but basically if your not keen on regular water changes, then you need adequate methods in place to remove nutrients/waste from your system.

I would check your skimmer out and settings as with those nutrient levels it should be skimming

A picture may be useful here of the system and maybe skimmer, and also a full list of your test parameters

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What is the 88% mentioned in the first post?

 

[anit77]

Sounds like the OP got an ATI test done. They score your test on a scale of 0-100%. Depending on the results and how far individual element results come back they report a score. His came back at 88%. Which is pretty useless imo and it certainly doesn't help you in any way to diagnose any issues.

Maybe the OP could post a pdf of the full test.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

What is the 88% mentioned in the first post?

Please find the link to my most recent ICP test

https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/timeline/5444