PO4/NO3 undetectable after dosing fluconazole

[HiBRiD109]

I am looking for answers/opinions on what may be going on in my tank so I can try to determine what to do. I've never been able to get Phosphate readings and always got low nitrates (<5). I slacked off water changes and my tank became overwhelmed with GHA. I tried multiple water changes and pulling as much GHA every other day but it would be back just thick in 2 days. I thought my reading were off due to the algae consuming the nutrients. But I decided to try fluconazole as it did great against bryopsis in my 13.5. Well I'm on day 16 of fluconazole and the gha is almost gone. But I decided to test and see where I'm sitting after over 2 weeks of no water change and all the gha die off. And I don't have any PO4/NO3 readings. Anybody have any idea what could be going on? I figured it would be through the roof. I tested twice to make sure. I don't have any thing besides filter floss in my back chambers. Coral seem to be fine except my zoas have been mostly closed but I figured it was due to the gha irritating it but the gha is mostly gone and they are still not open.

Background: I ran a 13.5 mixed tank for 1 year then upgraded to a 24g. The 24g has been running for a year now.
Its a mixed reef with acros, montis, euphyllias, zoas, leathers, an acan, Duncan, gonio, flower nem, and different species of mushrooms. I have 2 clowns and a cleaner shrimp with a handful of snails. I only run carbon. I am currently running BRS 2 part. I am now using IO. I feed my clowns/cleaner once a daily frozen.

Parameters are:
Salinity: 1.026
Cal: 420
Alk: 9.2
Mag: 1350
PO4: <0.03
NO3: <2 possibly 0
All using Salifert test kits.

The only thing I can think of is I've been using bad NO3 and PO4 test kits. I don't think I have enough corals to consume even close to that much. Pic is what it looks like currently.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I personally would feed more. The risks of low nutrients are much worse than the risks of elevated nutrients.

 

[HiBRiD109]

I personally would feed more. The risks of low nutrients are much worse than the risks of elevated nutrients.

Ok, I'll start to use reef chili and Fuel again. I just didn't want to have more algae issues once I add the carbon back in and start doing water changes to get the fluconazole out. I'm thinking the zoas might be unhappy do to low iodine. I probably went 6 months without a water change. I was using Tropic Marin All-for-reef daily to keep element up. I just changed out to BRS 2 part and started doing weekly water changes (20%). Maybe my Iodine needs a little bump. Hopefully dosing Fuel twice a week to get that up. I'll put an order in for an iodine test kit, though I wont probably see it till after the New Year.

 

[Gator_Reefer]

@HiBRiD109 How is your tank doing now? Were you able to bump up nitrate and phosphate without algae issues?

 

[HiBRiD109]

@HiBRiD109 How is your tank doing now? Were you able to bump up nitrate and phosphate without algae issues?

@Gator_Reefer, the tank is doing well. All my corals have really colored up. All my Zoas are fully opened and started to spread. My SPS are growing.

I was worried about my hammers as almost all the heads shriveled up but it looks like almost all the heads have split and are fluffing back up.

There are signs of turf and hair algae growing on the back side so I'm gonna try to do some manual removal and peroxide targeting to see if I can keep it contained. Otherwise I may just do another run of fluconazole to try to kill off all the algae for good.

I am worried about my GSP island, the GSP is going into overload mode and spreading fast. Its even started to plate in all directions including straight up.