Where are my nitrates and phosphates?

[Dmsick]

My tank is 4 months old. It's a 100 gallon DT with about 25 gallons in the sump. I was working my way through a hair algae outbreak a few weeks ago and decided to run GFO to help. I ran the GFO about a week and my hair algae started to disappear with the help of my CUC and Foxface. I checked my parameters and nitrate and phosphate were both undetectable. I've read that some nitrates and phosphates are needed for my corals so I took my GFO off line. It's been about 2 weeks since then and still 0 detectable phosphate and nitrate (Hanna phos checker and Salifert Nitrate).
I figured I need to get them back up a little with a goal of around 5 for Nitrates and .03 or so for phosphates. I started to feed increased amounts at the same time and have done so for about 2 weeks now and no change.
My fish are certainly happy as are my LPS Corals. I have 3 SPS frags, 2 acros and a monti that seem to be OK ( color is ok anyway) although I don't see polyps on the acros.
Are my corals taking up the nutrients? Should I be concerned? Do I need to start dosing phosphates and nitrates?

 

[dwest]

My tank is 4 months old. It's a 100 gallon DT with about 25 gallons in the sump. I was working my way through a hair algae outbreak a few weeks ago and decided to run GFO to help. I ran the GFO about a week and my hair algae started to disappear with the help of my CUC and Foxface. I checked my parameters and nitrate and phosphate were both undetectable. I've read that some nitrates and phosphates are needed for my corals so I took my GFO off line. It's been about 2 weeks since then and still 0 detectable phosphate and nitrate (Hanna phos checker and Salifert Nitrate).
I figured I need to get them back up a little with a goal of around 5 for Nitrates and .03 or so for phosphates. I started to feed increased amounts at the same time and have done so for about 2 weeks now and no change.
My fish are certainly happy as are my LPS Corals. I have 3 SPS frags, 2 acros and a monti that seem to be OK ( color is ok anyway) although I don't see polyps on the acros.
Are my corals taking up the nutrients? Should I be concerned? Do I need to start dosing phosphates and nitrates?

I think it depends. If you started with dry rock and sand, I might be a little concerned about dinos. If you used live rock, I wouldn’t worry. I would do what you are doing, but if I were to get zero phosphates using ulr Hanna checker for a couple more weeks, I would personally dose some.

 

[Dmsick]

Thanks for the reply.
I did start with dry rock and caribsea " live sand". I think I have dinos. I've got brown dust on the sand as well as some mixed algae on the rocks. My foxface is eating it some I'm not sure if it's dinos or something else. I bought some Brightwell neophos and neonitrate thinking I would start dosing. I calculated the correct dose to get phosphates to .03 and split it up through the day yesterday and still registered 0 today. Nitrates came up to between 2-5. I read something that suggested the phosphates could be taken up by the rock. This confuses me because I thought the rocks were leeching the phosphates to start with.
Here's a pic of whats on the sand.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

I have run GFO since setup and also used mature live rock that was already breaking down nitrate. As a result other than during the first couple of weeks I have had undetectable levels of Phosphates and Nitrate. I've already read that you need low levels for coral growth, however everything is doing well. Montis are growing, Duncans, Torches and Frogspawn are splitting, zoas are spreading, etc, so...

I'm of the school of thought that testing is important and working within the general knowledge of the community is usually good...but I also am not going to change a healthy tank based purely on something like this.

 

[Fishfinder]

That may be hair algae on the sand. Especially if the foxface is nipping it

If you are feeding daily 1-2 times. I would not be dosing anything. If your LPS are happy then they are getting enough food. Dosing NO3 and PO4 in a tank that new could cause worse problems. Let your tank find its balance

 

[Dmsick]

I have run GFO since setup and also used mature live rock that was already breaking down nitrate. As a result other than during the first couple of weeks I have had undetectable levels of Phosphates and Nitrate. I've already read that you need low levels for coral growth, however everything is doing well. Montis are growing, Duncans, Torches and Frogspawn are splitting, zoas are spreading, etc, so...

I'm of the school of thought that testing is important and working within the general knowledge of the community is usually good...but I also am not going to change a healthy tank based purely on something like this.

Thanks. I agree if it aint broke don't fix it. My LPS and soft corals seem to be thriving as far as I can tell. I'm not sure about the SPS but they don't seem to be doing bad just not seeing their polyps extend. I lost a zoa frag and wondered if it was because it was nutrient deprived although it never opened after I received it so maybe it just wasn't going to make it. Based on the amount of food I'm dumping in the tank I can't imagine there are inadequate nutrients.

That may be hair algae on the sand. Especially if the foxface is nipping it

If you are feeding daily 1-2 times. I would not be dosing anything. If your LPS are happy then they are getting enough food. Dosing NO3 and PO4 in a tank that new could cause worse problems. Let your tank find its balance

Thanks for the response. I'm actually feeding 3x daily and pretty heavy. It's mostly Reef Frenzy and frozen mysis and one time flake food. I guess I'll just wait it out for now. I definitely don't want to create a problem if there isn't one.

 

[Fishfinder]

Thanks for the response. I'm actually feeding 3x daily and pretty heavy. It's mostly Reef Frenzy and frozen mysis and one time flake food. I guess I'll just wait it out for now. I definitely don't want to create a problem if there isn't one.

That is plenty. Won't worry about the 0 reading if you are feeding heavy and often. Likely it will come up on its own in time. But this is great excuse to add another fish if you have room for it!

 

[Dmsick]

That is plenty. Won't worry about the 0 reading if you are feeding heavy and often. Likely it will come up on its own in time. But this is great excuse to add another fish if you have room for it!

Thanks. I have a small purple tang in my QT with 2 weeks left to go. I'm sure he will add some waste to the tank but will also help with algae removal!

 

[Fishfinder]

It's a perfect natural solution to raise nutrients.