- Joined
- Dec 21, 2017
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 8
I have a bit of a strange issue with the nitrate/phosphate levels in my tank. Currently my phosphate is sitting at 0.08 and nitrate 0.05 as shown by a recent ICP: http://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/a92b5e469a254c9a4349
Firstly I have higher phosphate than nitrate. From what I can tell this is almost never the case in other tanks. Yet despite the low nitrate level my chaeto is growing very fast and I harvest from my reactor every couple of weeks. Can the chaeto growth be causing lower than expected readings? I have a fairly bad dino outbreak going on in the DT which has irritated quite a few SPS frags to death. Oddly some LPS are struggling while others are thriving. I've heard that dinos are often caused by one of phosphate or nitrate bottoming out so I suppose the nitrate could be the issue here. There is a small amount of nuisance algae in the DT as well; some bubble algae and a little GHA here and there.
The main reason I'm concerned about these readings is obviously the dinos. If they're caused by low nitrates, or if nitrate that low is enough to cause corals problems then I need to find a way to increase that.
Tank info:
250l sumped
8 fish - 2 clowns, 4 wrasse, 1 cardinal and 1 goby
Relatively small amount of LR - ~15kg/33lb
Small amount of siporax
Nutrient export is just a skimmer and algae reactor
Small water changes approximately every 4-6 weeks
Dosing phyto daily along with pods each week to combat dinos
Firstly I have higher phosphate than nitrate. From what I can tell this is almost never the case in other tanks. Yet despite the low nitrate level my chaeto is growing very fast and I harvest from my reactor every couple of weeks. Can the chaeto growth be causing lower than expected readings? I have a fairly bad dino outbreak going on in the DT which has irritated quite a few SPS frags to death. Oddly some LPS are struggling while others are thriving. I've heard that dinos are often caused by one of phosphate or nitrate bottoming out so I suppose the nitrate could be the issue here. There is a small amount of nuisance algae in the DT as well; some bubble algae and a little GHA here and there.
The main reason I'm concerned about these readings is obviously the dinos. If they're caused by low nitrates, or if nitrate that low is enough to cause corals problems then I need to find a way to increase that.
Tank info:
250l sumped
8 fish - 2 clowns, 4 wrasse, 1 cardinal and 1 goby
Relatively small amount of LR - ~15kg/33lb
Small amount of siporax
Nutrient export is just a skimmer and algae reactor
Small water changes approximately every 4-6 weeks
Dosing phyto daily along with pods each week to combat dinos