What is the best way to increase Phosphate and Nitrate?

[bif24701]

The recommendations for using the stump remover and it being OK from a purity standpoint are purely based on user reports (quite a few now), rather than any data on impurities in it, which I have never seen published.

Assuming no depletion of potassium or changes due to water changes while using it, it will add 63% as much potassium as nitrate.

So 2 ppm nitrate per day will add 1.3 ppm of potassium. I wouldn't want to add that much for too long without monitoring potassium, and is why I recommend sodium nitrate.

2ppm Daily is a lot of NO3, does anyone use that much?

 

[rcpalmer1]

Ok, to get back to where I started the tread. My tank looked great but the water was a little cloudy. Well I increased my feeding and reduced my filtering. I had a fish disappear. I got up to 0.1 phosphate and 10 nitrate. in just a few days phosphate dropped back to 0 and nitrates to 5. At the same time every surface of the tank was been overwhelmed with cyano and hair algae. I never was able to get the nutrients up to very high and only had a spike to 0.1 for a few days yet now my tank has been over ran for 3 weeks with algae. Am I missing something?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok, to get back to where I started the tread. My tank looked great but the water was a little cloudy. Well I increased my feeding and reduced my filtering. I had a fish disappear. I got up to 0.1 phosphate and 10 nitrate. in just a few days phosphate dropped back to 0 and nitrates to 5. At the same time every surface of the tank was been overwhelmed with cyano and hair algae. I never was able to get the nutrients up to very high and only had a spike to 0.1 for a few days yet now my tank has been over ran for 3 weeks with algae. Am I missing something?

That's the potential drawback to higher nutrients. There's no perfect or at least easily attained resolution to trying to limit algae with low nutrients while allowing corals to thrive.

 

[rcpalmer1]

That's the potential drawback to higher nutrients. There's no perfect or at least easily attained resolution to trying to limit algae with low nutrients while allowing corals to thrive.

Is a tempory spike from 0 to 0.1 back to 0 PO4 and 0 to 10 back to 2 NO3 over 5 days enough to cover the tank for 3 weeks with so much algae that it is killing my zoas or do you think I should be looking for another cause? You can see the picture from my first post on this tread to now.

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[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is a tempory spike from 0 to 0.1 back to 0 PO4 and 0 to 10 back to 2 NO3 over 5 days enough to cover the tank for 3 weeks with so much algae that it is killing my zoas or do you think I should be looking for another cause? You can see the picture from my first post on this tread to now.

Nutrients do not "cause" algae, they just permit it to grow. They MUST be available in sufficient quantity, and if it is growing, you can be sure there was an adequate source of N and P (and other trace elements, light, space, lack of predation, etc.).

This distinction has important implications because, for example, if there is "enough" N and P so that these levels are not limiting to the growth of the algae, having more doesn't necessarily make it grow any faster. 0.03 ppm phosphate may allow just as fast of algae growth as 3 ppm phosphate, for example.

That value (0.03 ppm phosphate) is known to be true of suspended algae (phytoplankton) in the ocean. More does not allow faster growth while lower levels limit it. I'm not sure of the exact levels needed for green hair algae, etc. in any given reef aquarium.