No nitrates, dropping alk and cal, don’t want to dose yet - help!

[lba4590]

I’m so confused and maybe I just need to quit testing so much but nothing is making any sense to me!

Ok so I have a 120g tank + 55g sump. This is my first reef tank and has been up for 5-6mo. I only had measurable nitrates in the first couple of months, now consistently 0. I do have chaeto and a protein skimmer but nothing else.

Parameters currently:
Salinity 1.025
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0.11
Temp 79
Alk 7.6 (has been very steady at 8.3 for months)
Cal 380ish?
Mag 1350
PH 8.0

I have 10 fish, a bunch of snails, and some LPS and softies. Feed frozen/flakes twice per day pretty heavily and feed my corals every 3 days with a mix of things.

Corals are doing fine but now my alk and calcium are dropping.

Here’s the part I don’t really want to admit lol.. I have only done one water change since this tank has been running. ONE. Because my nitrates are always 0. I don’t understand why!

So with this in mind, should I just do one anyway? How much to avoid shocking my system? And if not, is there any way to naturally bring up alk and cal? I’m not ready to start dosing with the small number of corals I have. They do seem to be doing well but growing slowly. I also wanted to avoid dosing nitrates but I’m not sure if that will help. Thoughts? Ideas? Help? Lol I have no idea what to do!

 

[Saltyreef]

The water changes will now be needed for replacement of macros (alk cal mag) and less for nutrient control.
If you dont want to start dosing then youll need to get on a water change schedule to keep your alk cal and mag stable.
The more coral you get and the longer you have them for, the more elements they consume which need to be replenished somehow by you either through dosing, water changes, kalk or a calcium reactor.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Daddy-o]

Do you have coraline growing on your surfaces?

 

[lba4590]

Do you have coraline growing on your surfaces?

On my rocks yes it started growing rapidly and then I had an algae issue (chrysophytes) that sort of covered it and I haven’t really seen much growth since. The algae issue is slowly resolving though.

 

[Daddy-o]

The coraline will suck up alk/calcium

 

[TX_Punisher]

Water changes replenish trace elements. If you’re not dosing trace or running a calcium reactor the only other way to replenish those are to perform a water change.

now, you could dose small amounts of kalk throughout the day or week in a controlled manner to realign dkh. Or you Could just dose any number of two-part recipes found online.

i have to dose sodium nitrate. Zero value would crash my acros. My system sucks up no3. If I had to guess I’d say the very porous pukani is quite effective in my tank at over 100bs for my 170g of Water volume.

good luck

 

[lba4590]

Water changes replenish trace elements. If you’re not dosing trace or running a calcium reactor the only other way to replenish those are to perform a water change.

now, you could dose small amounts of kalk throughout the day or week in a controlled manner to realign dkh. Or you Could just dose any number of two-part recipes found online.

i have to dose sodium nitrate. Zero value would crash my acros. My system sucks up no3. If I had to guess I’d say the very porous pukani is quite effective in my tank at over 100bs for my 170g of Water volume.

good luck

Thank you! I also have about 90lbs of pukani too, and a ton of media in my sump.. just surprising my immature tank is sucking up so much of the nitrates. I just bought some tropic Marin all for reef and am going to start dosing by hand. My calcium and alk are also bouncing all over the place, as it turns out, making everything more confusing. I tested mid day today and my alk was back up to 8.2 and my cal was 420 (tested both twice because I didn’t believe it..) and I haven’t done anything.

 

[lion king]

Nitrates have no correlation with ca and alk. Your nitrates seem to be managed by your chaeto, which is a good thing, so you've done a good job there. Your ca and alk are being used by the corals and need to be replaced. A healthy reef tank also need the other minor elements that we usually don't test for or manually replace. Because of this even though your nitrates are minimal you will need to replace these elements. I recommend at least monthly water changes and dosing the major elements; ca, alk, and maybe even mg. Lps corals will decline quickly in extended low alk situations. Once you get a good amount of coral stock even the weekly changes that many recommend will not be enough. Test, get a baseline, then start dosing.