Phosphate higher than nitrate

[JONAFIN]

Hello. I've had a fowlr tank running for bout 6 years. I've recently gotten a little more involved in the hobby and wanted to try my hand at a reef tank. I purchased some hanna testers and was wondering if I need to address the results of the tests. My nitrates are almost bottomed out at .2 ppm while my phosphates are higher at .36 ppm. Alkalinity is at 11. My question is do I need to change these figures in order to have a successful reef tank. I was considering dosing nitrate to try raise it and lower phosphates.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

There is no one answer to your question. Corals use nitrate and phosphate (N/P) as food, but too much of either can cause problems. Algae also uses N/P for food and often too much will produce more unwanted algae in your tank.

The (VERY) general desired ratio of N : P is 100:1 (and this has nothing to do with Redfield), and having these nutrients fall too low can invite dinoflagellates.

So, what does your tank look like now with regard to algae?

Also, you might think about having your water tested by another brand, just to confirm.

 

[Swiss Frag Reefer]

Yes I would work on it to get it corrected. I also fose NeoNitrate. To get phosphate down I do use Phosphat-e. Both are from Brightwell aquatics but there are also quite a lot of other brand tgat are achieve more or less the same.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

*I don't use the Hanna checkers, but I believe there have been a lot of problems reported with the ones for nitrate ...

 

[JONAFIN]

There is no one answer to your question. Corals use nitrate and phosphate (N/P) as food, but too much of either can cause problems. Algae also uses N/P for food and often too much will produce more unwanted algae in your tank.

The (VERY) general desired ratio of N : P is 100:1 (and this has nothing to do with Redfield), and having these nutrients fall too low can invite dinoflagellates.

So, what does your tank look like now with regard to algae?

Also, you might think about having your water tested by another brand, just to confirm

There is no one answer to your question. Corals use nitrate and phosphate (N/P) as food, but too much of either can cause problems. Algae also uses N/P for food and often too much will produce more unwanted algae in your tank.

The (VERY) general desired ratio of N : P is 100:1 (and this has nothing to do with Redfield), and having these nutrients fall too low can invite dinoflagellates.

So, what does your tank look like now with regard to algae?

Also, you might think about having your water tested by another brand, just to confirm.

I've been struggling with algae. It seems to come and go but as of late has been pretty consistent. Do you find the n/p naturally gravitate towards the 100:1 ratio or is it common in the hobby to steer the numbers in that direction? Having been running for 6 years I was hoping the numbers would reflect some ideal balance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’d dose nitrate whether it helped you reduce phosphate or not.

 

[JONAFIN]

I’d dose nitrate whether it helped you reduce phosphate or not.

I'll take your advice. Thank you.