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- Nov 16, 2017
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I’ve searched recent threads and can’t find one that gets to the heart of my question.
my specific situation: I have a 150 gallon Red Sea Reefer. I’m running an AI Prime fuge and a Red Sea skimmer. All my parameters are in the sweet spots, with alk around 8.5, ph 8.3, salinity 1.024, temp 79, calc 440, mg 1300.
my phosphates hover around .01-.05, using the ultra low Hanna checker. My nitrates are around 15, which is much higher than it seems like it should be.
I’ve read numerous times that nitrates and phosphates should have a ratio of roughly 16 to 1. I understand that is a loose rule, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but I does beg the obvious question...
Do filtration techniques all filter phosphate and nitrate evenly? My assumption is no, and if they don’t, what are the differences? For example, if skimmers pull out phosphate quicker than nitrate, I could reduce my use of the skimmer to get them more in balance.
@Randy Holmes-Farley , could you share your knowledge on how different filtration techniques effect phosphate vs nitrate?
my specific situation: I have a 150 gallon Red Sea Reefer. I’m running an AI Prime fuge and a Red Sea skimmer. All my parameters are in the sweet spots, with alk around 8.5, ph 8.3, salinity 1.024, temp 79, calc 440, mg 1300.
my phosphates hover around .01-.05, using the ultra low Hanna checker. My nitrates are around 15, which is much higher than it seems like it should be.
I’ve read numerous times that nitrates and phosphates should have a ratio of roughly 16 to 1. I understand that is a loose rule, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but I does beg the obvious question...
Do filtration techniques all filter phosphate and nitrate evenly? My assumption is no, and if they don’t, what are the differences? For example, if skimmers pull out phosphate quicker than nitrate, I could reduce my use of the skimmer to get them more in balance.
@Randy Holmes-Farley , could you share your knowledge on how different filtration techniques effect phosphate vs nitrate?