nitrate&phos ..where do i go from here?

lucyretz

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Hello everyone!

I’ve run out of knowledge, so i’m turning to my favourite forum for the best advice.

We have a redsea 250 full of euphyllia. i’m not getting the “fullness” or polyp extension i know i can get, despite the “big 3” being stable thanks to our apex and trident.

Iodine was undetectable , but the biggest issue i can find was nutrients.
here’s a full list of parameters and test kits used:

Alkalinity: 8.4 (trident, Salifert)
Magnesium: 1480 (trident, Salifert)
Calcium: 566 (Trident, Salifert)
Salinity: 1.026 (Apex, Calibrated hanna checker)
Phosphate: 0.13 (hanna checker)
Nitrate: almost undetectable (salifert)

We are picking up a nitrate hanna checker tonight to get an actual number.

my question is, how do i get my nutrients balanced? we have a refugium running opposite light schedule and we dose redsea Ab+ daily.

thank you for any help!

28A8FCFE-76E0-49B9-94B2-D686E876E72A.jpeg
 

arking_mark

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I guess the question is what are you feeding the tank? I don't see any fish and most coral food is higher in PO4. So your tank may be NO3 limited.
 
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lucyretz

lucyretz

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I guess the question is what are you feeding the tank? I don't see any fish and most coral food is higher in PO4. So your tank may be NO3 limited.
We have a gem tang, 2 cardinals, male and female anthias, 3 clowns (one in sump), and a neon dottyback. We do Ab+ daily and reef roids 2/3 times weekly. fish are fed daily. Just retested phos and it dropped to 0.05 after water change. i think i’m going to need to use an additive
 

Lavey29

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We have a gem tang, 2 cardinals, male and female anthias, 3 clowns (one in sump), and a neon dottyback. We do Ab+ daily and reef roids 2/3 times weekly. fish are fed daily. Just retested phos and it dropped to 0.05 after water change. i think i’m going to need to use an additive
Corals look pretty good to me. .05 phosphate is fine. Water changes lower nitrates not phosphate so maybe extend your water change schedule a bit. You want 10ppm nitrates for LPS. Feed more or dose some neonitro. You could also cut back the fuge time.
 

arking_mark

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We have a gem tang, 2 cardinals, male and female anthias, 3 clowns (one in sump), and a neon dottyback. We do Ab+ daily and reef roids 2/3 times weekly. fish are fed daily. Just retested phos and it dropped to 0.05 after water change. i think i’m going to need to use an additive
Increase frozen/wet feedings to increase NO3.
 

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