No3/po4

[jstabile316]

Should I start dosing nitrates and phosphate? So about 2-3 weeks ago I sold my hawkfish because he was all over my corals aggravating them and was a little aggressive towards my clown fish. Since then my phosphate has gone down to 0 from .08-.1 and my nitrates down from 5-10 ppm to 1-2 ppm and now over the last week I’ve noticed what seems to be Dinos and some of my corals torches,hammer, zoas and my bta aren’t completely open and some of the zoas are fully closed. I’ve been feeding like crazy flakes, pellets , frozen mysis and brine and still haven’t seen a rise in nutrients. Not sure what I should do.

 

[TexanCanuck]

Do you have a refugium with macroalgae? If so, try and reduce the photoperiod and/or intensity of lighting to your 'huge to reduce nutrient uptake.

I face the same problem with my Chaeto keeping nutrient levels too low and had success when I significantly reduced lighting.

 

[jstabile316]

I don’t have anything in the refugium except for some rock rubble I even turned off the skimmer to see if that would help but haven’t seen a rise in nutrients yet.

 

[Spare time]

I dosed neophos and that seemede to get my phosphates up and dinos away.

Brightwell also makes neonitro for nitrate.

 

[jstabile316]

Can I use k2hpo4 to make my own solution? And will dosing phosphate lower my nitrates as well?

 

[Spare time]

Can I use k2hpo4 to make my own solution? And will dosing phosphate lower my nitrates as well?

Dosing phosphates won't affect your nitrate
(at least in most circumstances)

@Randy Holmes-Farley would be more familiar with k2hpo4

 

[TexanCanuck]

I'm not smart enough to know anything about k2hpo4 ... but if you have macroalgae then YES - dosing phosphates CAN decrease your nitrates IF your macros were being growth-limited by the lack of phosphates

I see this all the time with my Chaeto ... once phosphates drop to zero the algae just can't process any more nitrates ... and once I add back phosphates (I use Brightwell's Neophos), the Chaeto starts to wake up again and consumes more nitrates.

 

[jstabile316]

I don’t have any macro algae in the tank, A few weeks ago before this started I had a little hair algae growing on some rocks but it’s almost completely gone now, guessing it’s dying off with the lack of nutrients. What could be causing the nutrients to be dropping to 0? I literally have no algae and not running any gfo or anything. I did have some phosguard in the fuge in a media bag but I removed it a week ago once I started seeing a 0 reading on phosphate. I’ve been feeding like crazy. It’s a 25 gallon tank with 2 clowns, six line wrasse, fire fish, scooter blenny, cleaner shrimp, emerald crab, 5 blue leg hermits and some snails so it’s not like I don’t have a decent bioload.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, one can use KH2PO4. In general, any adequately pure sodium or potassium phosphate is fine to dose.

Food grade products are my recommendation. Such as:

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[jstabile316]

How much should I start dosing, I went ahead last night and dosed .03 of phosphate and tested a hour later and still came up with a 0 reading using a Hanna ulr

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How much should I start dosing, I went ahead last night and dosed .03 of phosphate and tested a hour later and still came up with a 0 reading using a Hanna ulr

That's not unusual. Assuming you calculated the dose correctly, I'd dose 0.03 to 0.05 ppm per day until you get to your target level.

 

[jstabile316]

I used a planted tank calculator and it came up with this. I’ll try it out and see how it goes. Should I keep the skimmer off ?

 

[jstabile316]

My corals are getting worse every day not sure what’s going on. All my parameters seem to be on point except for phosphate which is still at 0 even after dosing. I’m just watching all my time and $ wasting away and I don’t know what to do.

 

[Spare time]

My corals are getting worse every day not sure what’s going on. All my parameters seem to be on point except for phosphate which is still at 0 even after dosing. I’m just watching all my time and $ wasting away and I don’t know what to do.

I would keep dosing or feed them heavily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, dose more or feed more.

Bare calcium carbonate surfaces can take up massive amounts of phosphate. Many ppm.

 

[jarviz]

Yes, dose more or feed more.

Bare calcium carbonate surfaces can take up massive amounts of phosphate. Many ppm.

what do you mean by "bare" carbonate surfaces>?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

what do you mean by "bare" carbonate surfaces>?

Calcium carbonate rocks or sand that are not covered by other things, such as coralline algae.