Struggling to gain stability with Nitrate and Phospate

epicfatigue

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Hey everyone,

Just wanted to see everyones thoughts on my system.

I have a 450L system. Has about 100kg of live rock with about 15-20mm sand bed and large refugium. Have a ribbon eel, clown fish, bristle tooth tang, blue tang, fox face, Mandarin and two wrasse.

The issue I am facing is I struggle to keep nitrate and phospate Up. And I am finding the more I dose it's only a matter of time before it starts dropping to zero and I have to increase the dose.

Dose anyone else face this problem ?
I am finding it's a balancing act between my fuge lighting schedule and always tuning my dose.

Currently I am dosing 2ppm phosphate and 2ppm nitrate a day and my levels are hovering around 0.03 phospate and 6ppm nitrate.

My fuge currently has 8 hours under a p2000 viaspectra 380w and I harvest around 20L of cheato a fortnight.

4580095e-3af0-4b2c-a33a-75c5dd67f27f.jpg
bd057ad3-10a9-42f8-a9b9-91940ba01a5b.jpg
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I’d reduce the lighting or volume/mass of the chaeto. It is sucking up what you dose.

Or dose more if you want the O2 and pH boost of the chaeto.
 

anthonygf

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Remove the fuge and run the skimmer waste into your filter compartment. Since I started doing this my numbers have climbed and stabilized at a good value. Has not bottomed out again for several months.
 

TheReefDiary

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A few things.

1) add more fish
2) heavier feedings
3) change filtration (get rid of the chaeto) and just run the Skimmer, you could also start by just reducing the amount of time the Skimmer is running.
4)get rid of GFO if you're running it.
5) I think dosing should be last resort to get those issues to rise since so many other things can be addressed/changed to increase Nitrate and Phosphate.
 

las

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You have 100 kg of live rock and a refugium on a 115 ish gallon tank. Do you realize the filtration power that you have there? You could probably go to the bathroom in your tank and It wouldn’t skip a beat. Honestly, I’d get more fish.
 

Tcook

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How old is this tank? I had to dose PO4 for the first 8 months.
 

las

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Although that full tank shot doesn’t really look like 100kg of live rock
 

wculver

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Hey everyone,

Just wanted to see everyones thoughts on my system.

I have a 450L system. Has about 100kg of live rock with about 15-20mm sand bed and large refugium. Have a ribbon eel, clown fish, bristle tooth tang, blue tang, fox face, Mandarin and two wrasse.

The issue I am facing is I struggle to keep nitrate and phospate Up. And I am finding the more I dose it's only a matter of time before it starts dropping to zero and I have to increase the dose.

Dose anyone else face this problem ?
I am finding it's a balancing act between my fuge lighting schedule and always tuning my dose.

Currently I am dosing 2ppm phosphate and 2ppm nitrate a day and my levels are hovering around 0.03 phospate and 6ppm nitrate.

My fuge currently has 8 hours under a p2000 viaspectra 380w and I harvest around 20L of cheato a fortnight.

4580095e-3af0-4b2c-a33a-75c5dd67f27f.jpg
bd057ad3-10a9-42f8-a9b9-91940ba01a5b.jpg
I run short on Nitrate myself though I also run a bio-pellet reactor which is aggressive with Nitrate reduction. Your numbers are actually good but of course you get tired of dosing, I do also. So here are some suggestions:
- Feed your coral Reef Roids. They will like them and it is sure to pick up your phosphate levels. Just make sure you keep testing those phosphates with Roids can run away with you.
- You can reduce the time on your chaeto which will slow down growth which is what you're looking for.
- You can also increase your stocking rate. I have 25 fish and still dose nitrates weekly hovering around 1.5 PPM which is a little low but sort of an equilibrium I've been able to maintain so I'll keep it. In my case, the roids has kept the phosphate up and I actually run GFO continually now to keep it at bay.
 

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