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How can I get my nitrates up from zero? They were at 5 now 0
My po4 right now is reading 0 but can’t be because I have a bit of gha growing
Agreed, hobby test kits often for P04 don’t measure low enough. Nuisance algae typically can take off if P04 is higher than N03.
Most of the time having N03 at 5-10 and P04 at trace 0.02 will correct, in time, nuisance algae issues.
I wouldn't worry about nitrates being 0. I would not want 0 Phosphate and Nitrate however. I like to run 0 Nitrates and 0.030 Phosphate for the corals.
Does having zero nitrate make your alk go up? Now my alk is going up and I’m not dosing alk
If you are dosing 2 part on a doser and your nitrates bottom out, your growth may slow and your alk will go up as it is not being consumed at the rate it was when nitrates were available. This situation often leads to alk spikes and can cause problems for SPS who dislike alk spikes and especially dislike them in times of nutrient limitation.
Update: I just noticed where you said you were not dosing alk. There can be another cause, when nitrate is consumed, alkalinity is returned to the water column. In equal fashion, during nitrification, alkalinity is consumed, and the consumption and return of alkalinity is equal. So if your nitrate recently dropped by a significant amount, then your alkalinity could increase. So if you are dosing nitrates directly, you are actually dosing alkalinity as well (or will be when the nitrate is used).
Dennis
At the moment I’m not dosing anything. Last thing I did was a wc and alk was at 8.6 now there going up and it’s at 9.0 and nitrates are still at zero
Hmm, OK so what is the Alk of your new water? Also how much of a change did you do? Because if nitrates are zero, and you are not dosing, then the only explanation is that the new saltwater had a much higher alkalinity then the tank, and you changed enough water to have an impact on the tank alkalinity.
Dennis
The alk level of the Red Sea blue bucket should be around 8.0 when mixed properly. So this would lower the alk of your tank assuming your tank had a higher alk. As well doing a 5 G water change is not going to cause your alk to move much at all. So like Fishfinder offered, this is most likely test error.Not sure but I use Red Sea blue bucket. After the water change my alk was 8.6 and that was checked the next day after I did it. Then a few days later it jumped to 9. I only do 5g wc in a 54g every two weeks
Yes, that is pretty much the only conclusion we are left with.I would assume test error for the alk change