I’m so confused with my tank. I’m a newbie, trying to do all the research I can, reading some sources saying I need to dose nitrate but I can’t understand why I can’t get it up naturally.
My nitrates are 0-1ppm (Red Sea) every time I check. Highest it’s been is 2ppm. Phosphates are currently 0.14ppm (Hanna). Used cycled dry pukani, and during cycling my phosphates were as high as 2.0ppm so I expected some phosphate issues, but I’ve gotten it down significantly.
Recently, I’ve had an algae issue with what I believe are a type of crysophytes. I’ve been through all the ugly phases of diatoms, cyano, green powdery stuff, and most of those have disappeared, also have some coralline growing.
I have 10 fish, added 5 recently with no affect on nitrates. 120g tank with 55g sump. Some soft corals and CUC. I recently turned my protein skimmer off and only have chaeto and some bio media in the sump. No reactors or anything else. I also have been overfeeding, I feed flakes 2x/day and LRS reef frenzy 1x/day. Twice a week I dose Red Sea AB+. My fish are fat and my corals seem happy.
Any ideas on why my nitrate stays so low? Coming from the freshwater world I figured this was a great thing, seeing the algae issues I’m having maybe not so much lol.
My nitrates are 0-1ppm (Red Sea) every time I check. Highest it’s been is 2ppm. Phosphates are currently 0.14ppm (Hanna). Used cycled dry pukani, and during cycling my phosphates were as high as 2.0ppm so I expected some phosphate issues, but I’ve gotten it down significantly.
Recently, I’ve had an algae issue with what I believe are a type of crysophytes. I’ve been through all the ugly phases of diatoms, cyano, green powdery stuff, and most of those have disappeared, also have some coralline growing.
I have 10 fish, added 5 recently with no affect on nitrates. 120g tank with 55g sump. Some soft corals and CUC. I recently turned my protein skimmer off and only have chaeto and some bio media in the sump. No reactors or anything else. I also have been overfeeding, I feed flakes 2x/day and LRS reef frenzy 1x/day. Twice a week I dose Red Sea AB+. My fish are fat and my corals seem happy.
Any ideas on why my nitrate stays so low? Coming from the freshwater world I figured this was a great thing, seeing the algae issues I’m having maybe not so much lol.