Should I reduce my nitrates and phosphates?

mta_morrow · Jun 13, 2018

For about 2 months now, my phosphates have been at .08-1 ppm, and my nitrates have been 14-16 ppm.

I feed pellets via auto feeder once per day (1 screw turn on an Eheim) and a homemade food in the evening (live oysters and mussels and frozen mysis)

My nitrates and phosphates have remained stable since firing up my Skimz macro algae reactor.

To me, it means the macro is keeping up with, but not reducing those nutrients.

Tank is currently softies and LPS and will most likely remain so.

I do not have any algae or dino issues. Tank is 4 months wet.

I do have rowaphos and NoPox.

I was thinking about using my IM desktop reactor (was on my prior IM30L) and just running rowaphos in it to bring phosphates down to around .05. I use the Hanna phosphorus checker.

And dose 2ml daily of NoPox to get nitrates down to around 8-10.

I’m really not into chasing an exact number, and I don’t even know if those numbers are ok for a softie tank.

Do I even need to do anything?

Should I do something before things get out of control?

Sound advice appreciated!

Scurvy · Jun 13, 2018

If it’s holding stable where you’re at I wouldn’t do a thing. Softies and LPS appreciate the nutrients and if there’s no other issues to speak of then don’t try to fix what ain’t broke

If anything maybe run the lights on the algae reactor for another hour or two to see if there’s any further reduction of Phosphate.

mta_morrow · Jun 13, 2018

Scurvy said:
If it’s holding stable where you’re at I wouldn’t do a thing. Softies and LPS appreciate the nutrients and if there’s no other issues to speak of then don’t try to fix what ain’t broke If anything maybe run the lights on the algae reactor for another hour or two to see if there’s any further reduction of Phosphate.

Thanks Scurvy. That’s my gut feeling as well.
I test every Sunday afternoon and plan on monitoring.

I have the macro reactor running 12 hrs this week. It had been at 10. Hope to see a bit of a reduction.

Any other opinions out there? Would love to hear them.!