Nitrates and phosphates drop

[allof fish]

My nutrients have been dropping pretty considerably recently. Are they just being absorbed that much or what else could it be. I sometimes have to dose nitrates to keep them up. On Thursday nitrates were 8.7 and I dosed a cap of neonitrate which usually bumps them up by 2 so we’ll assume over 10 at that point. Phosphates were .14 because I feed reef roids as they were around .02 few days before a little low. Just tested now and nitrates 1.9 and phosphate.05. Can they/ should they be dropping that much within 3 days? Tank is 6 months old I started with dry rock I know can affect phosphates for awhile, tank is moderately stocked with mixed reef. Is that drop normal/ should I keep dosing nitrates when they get too low? Thanks all

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

If you have a stocked tank of corals/algae/macro, then yes, very common. I have to consistently dose both NO3 and PO4 to keep my nutrients off zero. Happy and growing corals will consume nutrients very quickly.

 

[allof fish]

I know they consume them every day but for them to drop that much that seems a bit off does it now? I didn’t think they would that fast in 3 days

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Mine drop that fast no doubt. I'm dosing 50mL a day of an ammonium/urea mixture just to keep my nitrates stable at 6ppm. 7mL a day of NeoPhos Pro to keep my PO4 stable at 0.03ppm. ~105g total water volume.

 

[Dan_P]

My nutrients have been dropping pretty considerably recently. Are they just being absorbed that much or what else could it be. I sometimes have to dose nitrates to keep them up. On Thursday nitrates were 8.7 and I dosed a cap of neonitrate which usually bumps them up by 2 so we’ll assume over 10 at that point. Phosphates were .14 because I feed reef roids as they were around .02 few days before a little low. Just tested now and nitrates 1.9 and phosphate.05. Can they/ should they be dropping that much within 3 days? Tank is 6 months old I started with dry rock I know can affect phosphates for awhile, tank is moderately stocked with mixed reef. Is that drop normal/ should I keep dosing nitrates when they get too low? Thanks all

If you are using the high range nitrate Hanna Checker and assuming a good batch of reagents, there is some swing in the measurement. When you seem to be getting a strange number, double check it with a retest.