Question about nutrients

jimmypencil

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Hey everyone. Have a new tank and I’m trying to really get my nutrients dialed in but I’m having some confusing results. Last week my nitrates tested at 12 and my phosphate was .07. I had dosed neophos to get it to that level the previous week. Nitrate has stayed consistent for past couple weeks and at first phosphate was bottomed out so that’s why I dosed.

so those results were 4 days ago. Today I tested everything and phosphate is .04 and nitrate is still 12.

at what rate should I expect phosphate to drop? I have 10 small fish in my 50 gallon and I feed about a cube of spirulina or cube of mysis a day. Sometimes mix in pellets or flakes a couple days a week. I have a tunze 9004 skimmer running 24/7 and just a intank media basket with filter floss and chemi pure blue. I haven’t done a water change in the past 2 weeks once I started monitoring nutrient levels.

I guess in summary what I’m asking is do phosphates get absorbed by corals/animals in the tank and what are some things I can do to keep it consistent?

I know the chemi pure blue apparently removes phosphates but I think I saw Randy say it was an insignificant amount.
Any and all tips about phosphate are appreciated :)
 

Jekyl

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Hey everyone. Have a new tank and I’m trying to really get my nutrients dialed in but I’m having some confusing results. Last week my nitrates tested at 12 and my phosphate was .07. I had dosed neophos to get it to that level the previous week. Nitrate has stayed consistent for past couple weeks and at first phosphate was bottomed out so that’s why I dosed.

so those results were 4 days ago. Today I tested everything and phosphate is .04 and nitrate is still 12.

at what rate should I expect phosphate to drop? I have 10 small fish in my 50 gallon and I feed about a cube of spirulina or cube of mysis a day. Sometimes mix in pellets or flakes a couple days a week. I have a tunze 9004 skimmer running 24/7 and just a intank media basket with filter floss and chemi pure blue. I haven’t done a water change in the past 2 weeks once I started monitoring nutrient levels.

I guess in summary what I’m asking is do phosphates get absorbed by corals/animals in the tank and what are some things I can do to keep it consistent?

I know the chemi pure blue apparently removes phosphates but I think I saw Randy say it was an insignificant amount.
Any and all tips about phosphate are appreciated :)
I've used chemipure elite to bring down phosphate. However your reading isn't something I'd be trying to correct. Is everything in the tank happy? Don't get trapped chasing numbers because you read some "ideal parameters" post somewhere.

My nutrients are higher than that. I change water maybe 4 or 5 times a year.

Everything in my tank is thriving and growing. Let your tank tell you if something needs to be fixed
 
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jimmypencil

jimmypencil

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I've used chemipure elite to bring down phosphate. However your reading isn't something I'd be trying to correct. Is everything in the tank happy? Don't get trapped chasing numbers because you read some "ideal parameters" post somewhere.

My nutrients are higher than that. I change water maybe 4 or 5 times a year.

Everything in my tank is thriving and growing. Let your tank tell you if something needs to be fixed
That’s a good point. Everything does look happy but I just want to get an idea of the system I’ll have for nutrients. I shouldn’t chase numbers at this stage and I’ll just keep an eye on it. If it drops below .03 I’ll dose.
 

tbrown

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Hey everyone. Have a new tank and I’m trying to really get my nutrients dialed in but I’m having some confusing results. Last week my nitrates tested at 12 and my phosphate was .07. I had dosed neophos to get it to that level the previous week. Nitrate has stayed consistent for past couple weeks and at first phosphate was bottomed out so that’s why I dosed.

so those results were 4 days ago. Today I tested everything and phosphate is .04 and nitrate is still 12.

at what rate should I expect phosphate to drop? I have 10 small fish in my 50 gallon and I feed about a cube of spirulina or cube of mysis a day. Sometimes mix in pellets or flakes a couple days a week. I have a tunze 9004 skimmer running 24/7 and just a intank media basket with filter floss and chemi pure blue. I haven’t done a water change in the past 2 weeks once I started monitoring nutrient levels.

I guess in summary what I’m asking is do phosphates get absorbed by corals/animals in the tank and what are some things I can do to keep it consistent?

I know the chemi pure blue apparently removes phosphates but I think I saw Randy say it was an insignificant amount.
Any and all tips about phosphate are appreciated :)
In my 125 I have to dose 5ml of Phosphates daily to keep a level of .05. it's a mixed reef, no huge colonies, LOTS of fish, feed 4 times daily and feed corals a couple times a week. As the corals grow, they'll uptake more nitrates and phosphates.

I also run a skimmer for 8 hours daily skimming pretty dry if that helps.
 

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