Phosphates and Nitrates

[txj4ep0]

I have a 2 month old Red Sea max cube 20 gal that is fully cycled with some snails, 2 hermit crabs, a small black clownfish and a fire shrimp. My ammonia is 0 and my nitrites are 0, unfortunately so is my nitrates and phos. How do I safely elevate those 2 a little to get it off rock bottom?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Are there corals in the tank? What test kits are you using? Personally I would not be trying to increase nutrients in a brand new tank.

 

[dloberry]

I have a 2 month old Red Sea max cube 20 gal that is fully cycled with some snails, 2 hermit crabs, a small black clownfish and a fire shrimp. My ammonia is 0 and my nitrites are 0, unfortunately so is my nitrates and phos. How do I safely elevate those 2 a little to get it off rock bottom?

Did you a small dose of ammonium

 

[Fish Fan]

First, I'd double check your testing methods and make sure that your tests are accurate. Then, I'd first try feeding some more fish food and see if that helps.

 

[txj4ep0]

I did to check it while I was cycling it a few weeks ago. I dosed what came out to 1 ppm ammonia and it cleared it over the course of 24-36 hours.

 

[txj4ep0]

I have a 2 month old Red Sea max cube 20 gal that is fully cycled with some snails, 2 hermit crabs, a small black clownfish and a fire shrimp. My ammonia is 0 and my nitrites are 0, unfortunately so is my nitrates and phos. How do I safely elevate those 2 a little to get it off rock bottom?

Did you a small dose of ammonium

I did to check it while I was cycling it a few weeks ago. I dosed what came out to 1 ppm ammonia and it cleared it over the course of 24-36 hours.

 

[txj4ep0]

Are there corals in the tank? What test kits are you using? Personally I would not be trying to increase nutrients in a brand new tank.

I haven’t added any corals yet.

I use API normally but had my LFS check it too because I didn’t trust the api readings.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I haven’t added any corals yet.

I use API normally but had my LFS check it too because I didn’t trust the api readings.

API is a good as a guide for nitrate, but not accurate enough to make the decision to start dosing. Salifert makes a good accurate test.

The API phosphate kit just gives a range so your phosphate is somewhere between zero and .25. The next measurement is .25 to .5. My phosphate is at .03, which is not possible for the API tester to test. So this test doesn't work for our hobby, it doesn;t test low enough.

 

[allof fish]

Brightwell nitrate and phos products are good, or feed a ton. I’m a believer in having higher nutrients when starting a tank, not super high but nitrate 10-15 and phosphate over .05. IME you’ll get uglies not matter what but want to avoid really bad ones. In my new tank I’m trying to push numbers up as nitrate and phos were 7.4 and .03 couple days ago. Dealing with a little cyano which everyone will but want to avoid Dino’s at all cost. Only algae is film algae atm. Do daily maintenance, add very big cuc and raise nutrients you should be able to avoid really bad stuff whether you have a bunch of coral or now

 

[BryanM]

How often do you feed?

 

[dloberry]

I did to check it while I was cycling it a few weeks ago. I dosed what came out to 1 ppm ammonia and it cleared it over the course of 24-36 hours.

I would try dosing again or you can add neonitro, but your cycle may have crashed. Adding ammonium will help determine if that is the case. If ammonia is zero after 24 hours and still no nitrates then add some nitrate through a food source or neo nitro

 

[txj4ep0]

How often do you feed?

Small amount 2x a day. Roughly 4 mysis shrimp and a pellet or 2 a day.

 

[Fish Fan]

There's something important to distinguish here: there's dosing ammonia to test a fish-less cycle, and there's dosing ammonia to raise nitrate

Don't dose ammonia higher than 0.50 ppm to "test" the bio filter - that could be dangerous to your fish, and is unnecessary. Your cycle didn't stall or break down, that's not possible.

On the other hand, some people use ammonia to raise nitrate, but they are adding enough to raise the ammonia no more than 0.25 ppm at most at a time.

For now, I would stop testing ammonia at all; you're cycled. Purchase a nitrate and phosphate test kit from Salifert and confirm both test readings. If they are truly low, I would feed the fish more, or at that time consider dosing phosphate and with nitrate or ammonia. But I wouldn't get into this just yet, see where the tank goes

 

[txj4ep0]

There's something important to distinguish here: there's dosing ammonia to test a fish-less cycle, and there's dosing ammonia to raise nitrate

Don't dose ammonia higher than 0.50 ppm to "test" the bio filter - that could be dangerous to your fish, and is unnecessary. Your cycle didn't stall or break down, that's not possible.

On the other hand, some people use ammonia to raise nitrate, but they are adding enough to raise the ammonia no more than 0.25 ppm at most at a time.

For now, I would stop testing ammonia at all; you're cycled. Purchase a nitrate and phosphate test kit from Salifert and confirm both test readings. If they are truly low, I would feed the fish more, or at that time consider dosing phosphate and with nitrate or ammonia. But I wouldn't get into this just yet, see where the tank goes

Will do!