Why wont my Nutrients rise?

[TheDuude]

I am currently battling a Dino outbreak in my relatively ( 6 month ) new tank. In my efforts to avoid too many new tank uglies N & P bottomed out and the dinos bloomed. I am now working to raise nutrients but struggling.

My question is regarding my nutrient dosing. I have been dosing 20ML NeoNitro and 10ML NeoPhos daily for 21 days and am still only reading 1PPM Nitrate (Nyos) and undetectable phosphates. (Salifert).

WHERE ARE ALL THESE NUTRIENTS GOING?

I am feeding a cube a day ( sometimes 2) Flakes, pellets, and pieces of Nori multiple times per day.
Should I keep doing or up my dosage? The few small SPS frags I have are all nearly dead but my Acans, Torch, Candy Cane, and toadstool are all doing fine.



Tank Specs :

Redsea Reefer 250 60ish gallons total.
NO Refugium
Aquamaxx Skimmer running but draining back to sump
No water changes for past month
No GFO
Running a small amount of carbon ( absorbing any toxins dinos may release )
55 watt UV
NO other filtration or nutrient export

Alk - 8.5
CAl - 450
MAG - 1540
Nitrate - 0 ( some days 1 )
Phos - 0
Temp - 81.5 Stable with Apex
Ph - Ranges from 7.9 to 8.25 throughout the day

 

[DivingTheWorld]

What do you have for fish? Also, what were your efforts to reduce Nitrate/Phosphate? IMO that's generally a bad idea on a new tank. Regarding your sps not doing well in a 6 month old tank, that's not unexpected IMO.

 

[Timfish]

Corals, sponges (don't forget cryptic species), algae and biofilms and anything else living in your tank are all messing with nitrogen and phosphorous

 

[TheDuude]

What do you have for fish? Also, what were your efforts to reduce Nitrate/Phosphate? IMO that's generally a bad idea on a new tank. Regarding your sps not doing well in a 6 month old tank, that's not unexpected IMO.

Agree with you on the tank being to young for SPS.

Fish:
Bangaii cardinal
Orchid Dottyback
2 ORA Clowns
Coral Beauty Angel
juvenile yellow tang

After cycle I was running a bit of GFO, my skimmer 24/7 and water changes every other week. I took GFO offline 2 months ago, Skimmer has been draining back to sump for 21 days and no water changes for last 2 months.

Aside from the Dinos I do not have a stitch of algae anywhere in the tank. I do see a pretty decent population of pods in the sand when looking with my scope.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Agree with you on the tank being to young for SPS.

Fish:
Bangaii cardinal
Orchid Dottyback
2 ORA Clowns
Coral Beauty Angel
juvenile yellow tang

After cycle I was running a bit of GFO, my skimmer 24/7 and water changes every other week. I took GFO offline 2 months ago, Skimmer has been draining back to sump for 21 days and no water changes for last 2 months.

Aside from the Dinos I do not have a stitch of algae anywhere in the tank. I do see a pretty decent population of pods in the sand when looking with my scope.

That's a decent selection of fish and it sounds like you're doing everything right now. At this point I would probably just feed more, monitor Nitrate/Phosphate and wait for the tank to mature. Being that your Nitrate/Phosphate are rock bottom, it wouldn't hurt to allow your Alk to drop a bit. I run mine around 7.5 and there is correlation that I subscribe to which suggests lower Alk for lower nutrients, higher Alk for higher nutrients. I keep mine around 5/0.05 which I consider to be low.

 

[TheDuude]

The directions on the NeoNitro bottle are a bit confusing but state that I may be carbon limited if I cannot get the numbers to rise? Does this make any sense?

I assume carbon dosing would lower the nutrients I am trying to raise.

Allow 24-hours to elapse; re-test nitrate and phosphate concentrations. If concentrations remain unchanged, then the system is likely carbon-limited. Dose with REEF BIOFUEL at the rate of 1-ml per 25 US-gallons and allow 24-hours to elapse, then re-test phosphate and nitrate concentrations. Continue daily dosing with REEF BIOFUEL until phosphate or nitrate concentrations begin to decrease, indicating that the rate of carbon input to the system
matches the rate of phosphorus- or nitrogen-input, respectively.

 

[TheDuude]

That's a decent selection of fish and it sounds like you're doing everything right now. At this point I would probably just feed more, monitor Nitrate/Phosphate and wait for the tank to mature. Being that your Nitrate/Phosphate are rock bottom, it wouldn't hurt to allow your Alk to drop a bit. I run mine around 7.5 and there is correlation that I subscribe to which suggests lower Alk for lower nutrients, higher Alk for higher nutrients. I keep mine around 5/0.05 which I consider to be low.

I too read that about the ALK... I have discontinued the bit a kalk i was dosing to let ALk fall slowly.

 

[spiraling]

I dosed enough n/po until I had the numbers I wanted, then checked and kept them there. (I used seachem products and dosed a few days a week) The rock, especially if you started with dry, can be sucking up phos. The dino are consuming both, along with other things in your tank. It took over a year for me to get detectable numbers, I think dosing amino acids helped.

 

[TheDuude]

So is it somewhat normal to test zero for a while despite daily dosing? Like I stated above I have been dosing daily for 21 days and testing every other day still seeing zeros.

I did start with all reef saver dry rock. Will dry rock absorb both nitrate and phosphate?

 

[spiraling]

So is it somewhat normal to test zero for a while despite daily dosing? Like I stated above I have been dosing daily for 21 days and testing every other day still seeing zeros.

I did start with all reef saver dry rock. Will dry rock absorb both nitrate and phosphate?

I dosed the amount on the bottle to get nitrates up to 5. After a few hours I remeasured to make sure I had dosed properly. If you are still getting 0 at that point either you are dosing incorrectly or your test kit is bad. You should be able to dose plain water and be able to measure it there.

 

[TheDuude]

I dosed the amount on the bottle to get nitrates up to 5. After a few hours I remeasured to make sure I had dosed properly. If you are still getting 0 at that point either you are dosing incorrectly or your test kit is bad. You should be able to dose plain water and be able to measure it there.

I am dosing the recommend amount to bring the numbers to my target however after only a couple hours I'm back to zeros. Something is consuming the N&P. And I have verified test kits are accurate.

 

[spiraling]

I did start with all reef saver dry rock. Will dry rock absorb both nitrate and phosphate?

I know it absorbs phos, not sure about nitrate. How high are you getting your nitrate each day?

 

[zachj7]

Interested in this thread, I'm in a similar situation, but just my nitrates, 0 ppm. Also using NeoNitro to add nitrate to my 180g (10 year old). Today was my only my second day. Dosed yesterday for a 1 ppm rise, read 0 ppm this morning. Dosed 2 ppm today, will read tomorrow. Been feeding a lot too, but phosphates are pretty steady for months now at around 0.05, so I decided i needed to add nitrate to the system. I have a lot of rock and sand and a refugium (with no macroalgae in it, just rock and sand, my pod factory), so i guess i'm not too surprised the tank can consume nitrate so well. Fortunately my corals are all doing ok, except for the only acropora and birdsnest I tried (paled out, starved).

 

[Jeffcb]

Not sure? Measuring wrong or incorrect nutrients?

 

[TheDuude]

I know it absorbs phos, not sure about nitrate. How high are you getting your nitrate each day?

I am dosing according to the bottle to bring the tank to 5ppm nitrate and .02 phos however even testing just hours later im getting zeros.

 

[WIReefer]

I am dosing according to the bottle to bring the tank to 5ppm nitrate and .02 phos however even testing just hours later im getting zeros.

It will take time to raise your numbers, everything is consuming it currently. It will change just keep going

 

[spiraling]

I am dosing according to the bottle to bring the tank to 5ppm nitrate and .02 phos however even testing just hours later im getting zeros.

Do you measure right after dosing, then a few hours later measure 0? Or just a few hours later?

 

[Knotyet]

My tank did the same thing for the first 6 months I was dosing nit and phos and I'm at about 7 or 8 month and now I have trouble keeping them both down. I'd enjoy it while it lasts. I feel it's easier to dose them then take them out

 

[TheDuude]

Do you measure right after dosing, then a few hours later measure 0? Or just a few hours later?

Around 2 hours after dosing each day. I have not measured immediately after dosing. I will try that tomorrow after my dose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I know it absorbs phos, not sure about nitrate. How high are you getting your nitrate each day?

Rock surfaces do not bind nitrate.