To panic or not to panic with nitrate and phosphate levels?

[bizzybeas]

Hello! Thank you in advance for any help.

My tank has been up and running for 6 months. I have fish and corals which are mostly LPS, zoas and a few mushrooms. My nitrates and phosphates have been creeping up over time. I have been using sailfert test kits which show 20-25 Nitrates and Phosphates of around .5. I think I am over feeding my fish because I love them! Interesting as all of my corals including a torch, several hammers all look healthy. I am running a skimmer, filter socks that I change 2x a week, a fuge with red ogo in it. I have been performing a biweekly water change of 20%. Besides cutting down on feeding am I missing something? ( Not currently running and chemicals.)

 

[Reef.]

Your nitrates are not bad, your PO4 just needs reducing, you could use Rowa etc

Remember your tank is young, as it gets older the corals and the biological bacteria, and the fudge will start to really reduce the PO4 and nitrates, so I wouldn’t say you are over feeding so much just that until you get a mature tank you will have to take other steps to do those jobs the fuge and corals will be doing.

Only need to panic if corals/fish are unhappy or you have a tank full of algae.

 

[bizzybeas]

Thank you. Everyone looks fine. My refugium has only had algae in it for a month or so... I probably need to be more patient. No algae in the DT!

 

[Reef.]

Thank you. Everyone looks fine. My refugium has only had algae in it for a month or so... I probably need to be more patient. No algae in the DT!

looks amazing, very clean, I wouldn’t do much in a hurry with your tank looking that good, just keep an eye on your PO4 as it’s getting on the high side but people run tanks with PO4 higher than yours but generally a younger tank is better on the lower end, your nitrates are probably only an issue if you want to go sps, I wouldn’t let them go much higher either tho.

 

[bizzybeas]

looks amazing, very clean, I wouldn’t do much in a hurry with your tank looking that good, just keep an eye on your PO4 as it’s getting on the high side but people run tanks with PO4 higher than yours but generally a younger tank is better on the lower end, your nitrates are probably only an issue if you want to go sps, I wouldn’t let them go much higher either tho.

No SPS. I plan on just the above corals with maybe a brain and a lobophylia. Thank you for the advice. I keep a close eye on it.