Please help phosphate 0 nitrate 10+ carbon dosing

[whowar19]

Ok been fighting this problem a while and wanting to give up . I have 0 phosphate and nitrate 8-15 . I am currently carbon dosing with 7mil of vodka first thing in the morning . When I test for pho and see it’s at 0 I add neophos to bring it up to .005 but this is creating a very unstable reef . Corals do not look happy reef has been running for about 1-1/2 years PLEASE help !
Alk 8.8-9.2
Cal 440-460
Mag 1330-1360
Nitrate 8-15
Pho .005 -0 mostly 0
Ph 8.1-8.4
All testing is performed at same time of the day with apex trident and verified with hanna checkers as well

 

[blaxsun]

Carbon dosing will remove nitrates and phosphates, so...

 

[CoralB]

First stop dosing vodka .

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Why is dosing creating a very unstable reef? It seems to me you are just not dosing enough phosphate. Dose 5x as much, or 10x as much to get it to be nonzero 24 h later.

 

[whowar19]

So the reason it’s unstable is because I am testing every other day and trying to bring up phosphate to keep it stable . At this point I have no idea what I am doing … I was told to dose vodka because it only brings down nitrate and feed more to bring up phosphate but now I am so confused just need clear Direction on what to do .

 

[Garf]

Ok been fighting this problem a while and wanting to give up . I have 0 phosphate and nitrate 8-15 . I am currently carbon dosing with 7mil of vodka first thing in the morning . When I test for pho and see it’s at 0 I add neophos to bring it up to .005 but this is creating a very unstable reef . Corals do not look happy reef has been running for about 1-1/2 years PLEASE help !
Alk 8.8-9.2
Cal 440-460
Mag 1330-1360
Nitrate 8-15
Pho .005 -0 mostly 0
Ph 8.1-8.4
All testing is performed at same time of the day with apex trident and verified with hanna checkers as well

A pic of the tank would be good. Do you have lots of algae growing?

Edit - Welcome

 

[mindme]

So the reason it’s unstable is because I am testing every other day and trying to bring up phosphate to keep it stable . At this point I have no idea what I am doing … I was told to dose vodka because it only brings down nitrate and feed more to bring up phosphate but now I am so confused just need clear Direction on what to do .

You need way more phosphate. Carbon dosing will remove nitrates much more than phosphates, but it'll still remove some phosphates. It may remove more nitrates if you were dosing more phosphates because it needs to consume both, and if the phosphate isn't there, it can't.

You want .03 phosphates minimum. You can either dose more phosphates, or stop the carbon dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So the reason it’s unstable is because I am testing every other day and trying to bring up phosphate to keep it stable . At this point I have no idea what I am doing … I was told to dose vodka because it only brings down nitrate and feed more to bring up phosphate but now I am so confused just need clear Direction on what to do .

pick a dose, say 0.02 ppm per day, and dose it every day for a week and see where you are.

 

[whowar19]

So dose the neo phos every day ? Should I keep dosing the vodka as well ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So dose the neo phos every day ? Should I keep dosing the vodka as well ?

The nitrate seems fine so I see no reason to change the vodka.

make sure you dosing the right amount of product to add 0.02 ppm or more every day or else you are not likely to bring it up. Then if it comes up you can adjust dosing.