lesismore
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2024
- Messages
- 254
- Reaction score
- 227
- Location
- mesa
- What state or country do you live in
- Arizona
Hi Randy,
My 4.5 month old system with about 325-330 total gallons is moving along nicely.
I had fairly low levels of both nitrate and phosphate, but as time went by the numbers have risen a bit. I had also been dosing some phyto daily for about 2 months. About 8-9 days ago my nitrate was 5.1 and my phosphate was .19. Two days ago they rose to 7.4 and .25 respectively. I had not dosed phyto during this 8-9 day period.
I will start dosing phyto next week when my order arrives and will see if my nitrate/phos go down a bit as a result. My question is how many ounces or ml’s of phyto do you suggest I add daily and do you even encourage reefers to dose phyto in general? The source of my phyto suggested 100-115 ml’s per day to start.
On a similar note, what are the ideal nitrate and phosphate levels I should strive to maintain? It seems like higher levels are more acceptable than perhaps in the past.
It’s a mixed reef, albeit I don’t have much coral of any substance in there yet outside of a number of frags. I do have a lot of fish and all are doing well.
Lastly, whether it’s now or at some point in the future, what’s the best method to lower nitrates or phosphates? I do have a refugium with chaeto that’s doing ok. In the future, I had considered using tropic Marin elimi np, followed by bacto balance or possibly adding a very small amount of gfo when needed to my carbon reactor and skimming wetter to see if phosphate came down.
I enjoy learning from you and really appreciate your help and guidance on all of this.
Thank you for your help.
Les
My 4.5 month old system with about 325-330 total gallons is moving along nicely.
I had fairly low levels of both nitrate and phosphate, but as time went by the numbers have risen a bit. I had also been dosing some phyto daily for about 2 months. About 8-9 days ago my nitrate was 5.1 and my phosphate was .19. Two days ago they rose to 7.4 and .25 respectively. I had not dosed phyto during this 8-9 day period.
I will start dosing phyto next week when my order arrives and will see if my nitrate/phos go down a bit as a result. My question is how many ounces or ml’s of phyto do you suggest I add daily and do you even encourage reefers to dose phyto in general? The source of my phyto suggested 100-115 ml’s per day to start.
On a similar note, what are the ideal nitrate and phosphate levels I should strive to maintain? It seems like higher levels are more acceptable than perhaps in the past.
It’s a mixed reef, albeit I don’t have much coral of any substance in there yet outside of a number of frags. I do have a lot of fish and all are doing well.
Lastly, whether it’s now or at some point in the future, what’s the best method to lower nitrates or phosphates? I do have a refugium with chaeto that’s doing ok. In the future, I had considered using tropic Marin elimi np, followed by bacto balance or possibly adding a very small amount of gfo when needed to my carbon reactor and skimming wetter to see if phosphate came down.
I enjoy learning from you and really appreciate your help and guidance on all of this.
Thank you for your help.
Les
