Zero phosphates, nitrates keep going up

[Markreed84]

Are there any foods that are balanced or even low in nitrates and high in phosphates?

My phosphates have been zero for months but my nitrates keep going up and up. They're slowly gone from 10 up to 38 over the past few months. I'm currently feeding frozen mysis once a day.

I'm going to cut my feeding down from Monday and start dosing phosphates but if I could balance things out with different feeding that would be a better option for me personally. I've tried reef roids every few days but that's not changed anything yet.

Some of my acros have slowly stripped their flesh and my Montis and other acros have gone very pale (alk,calc and mag are fine), do you think it's likely the low phosphate causing this or the high nitrates? Or maybe something else ? (I do plan to do an icp)

Thanks

Mark

 

[Jekyl]

I'd wait and see how it reacts from the dosing

 

[Markreed84]

Thanks. I suspect it's the CaribSea liferock I've used, whatever they put on it that they claim speeds up the cycle etc seems to absorb phosphate way too much. After doing a search it seems I'm far from the first to say this

 

[OfficeReefer]

@Markreed84, it's sounding like you have something masking the phosphate rise or you've got an imbalance in your tank. How old is the tank and size if I may ask? Have you made any additions to the tank in the past few months or changed your feeding?

You mentioned the reef roids, how much are you using and how do you apply this to your tank?

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Are there any foods that are balanced or even low in nitrates and high in phosphates?

My phosphates have been zero for months but my nitrates keep going up and up. They're slowly gone from 10 up to 38 over the past few months. I'm currently feeding frozen mysis once a day.

I'm going to cut my feeding down from Monday and start dosing phosphates but if I could balance things out with different feeding that would be a better option for me personally. I've tried reef roids every few days but that's not changed anything yet.

Some of my acros have slowly stripped their flesh and my Montis and other acros have gone very pale (alk,calc and mag are fine), do you think it's likely the low phosphate causing this or the high nitrates? Or maybe something else ? (I do plan to do an icp)

Thanks

Mark

What are you using to test PO4?

 

[OfficeReefer]

Thanks. I suspect it's the CaribSea liferock I've used, whatever they put on it that they claim speeds up the cycle etc seems to absorb phosphate way too much. After doing a search it seems I'm far from the first to say this

This is part of the reason for your issues. This rock is not very porous and doesn't edify healthy bacteria well. Are you running an external sump or is this an AIO or all in one?

 

[Markreed84]

Will try to answer all questions at once.

Tanks 4 months old, 60g cube with sump. Running filter roller and skimmer, and have tried a refugium but for obvious reasons the chaeto doesn't grow. Have 5 fish, a few nessarius snails and a conch. Never had even a spec of algae in the tank. Tank was super clean for 2 months, so clean it was weird, despite being overfed to try and get things going (had no filter roller at that point). I did have Diatoms for like a day on week 3 but then they went. After 3 months As the nitrates slowly went up week by week with zero phosphates I started to get a stubborn cyano which overtook the tank. Eventually had to used reef flux on this, if has killed 90% of it off and have no has a huge diatom bloom for the last 2 weeks that I have to blow off the rocks and corals daily despite having a lot of flow (2 mp10 and a maxspect jump gyre 2k). Tanks also developed that seawater smell recently but it's stronger than I've had In the past with other tabks. I'm pretty sure from lots of other reports I've seen that the liferocks absorbing the phosphates and it's the imbalance and lack of phosphates that's feeding these issues.

I use a Hannah checker HR and ULR to check nitrates and phosphates. Occasionally I get a reading of 0.03 for phos if it's tested at the right time after feeding (or it's just inconsistencies in the Hannah) but most of the time I get 0.

Only started reef roids 10 days ago as I heard it raises phosphates. I dilute a teaspoon in water and add a teaspoon.

I should add all frags we're doing great until about a month ago, growing very fast, encrusting, good polyp extension, nice colour etc, then things have slowly took a turn.

Make my own RO water, tests zero TDS, all chambers frequently and recently changed. Salinity also tested weekly and is nice and stable and in range. I do weekly 10% water changes, although recently have changed about 70% of the water after dosing reef flux for the cyano

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the feeding does not soon solve the low P, it is easy to dose it.

 

[Markreed84]

If the feeding does not soon solve the low P, it is easy to dose it.

I've just made up a mix now from some of your previous posts. I like to keep things simple so didn't want to go down this route but you're in a bit of a rock and a hard place when feeding more will increase your already very high nitrates and feeding less with make the phosphate situation even worse

On a positive note I halved my lighting schedule a few days ago and a lot of the diatoms and other crud is starting to die off today, tanks looking cleaner and skimmers going nuts. Unfortunately also showing the true damage to some of the corals that are slowly stripping. Luckily most have just gone super pale / white so hoping to save them

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've just made up a mix now from some of your previous posts. I like to keep things simple so didn't want to go down this route but you're in a bit of a rock and a hard place when feeding more will increase your already very high nitrates and feeding less with make the phosphate situation even worse

Yes, which makes it a perfect situation for dosing, especially since you do not know how much might be needed to bind to the rock and sand before it starts to rise appreciably in the water.

 

[Markreed84]

Just in case anyone doubting what randy is saying about new rock absorbing phosphate, yesterday I dosed 0.04ppm of phos and still the Hannah said zero, I then when sod it and chucked in a cap full and a couple of hours later got a reading of 0.16 on the Hannah. Today it's already reading zero again.

 

[Blake423]

Just in case anyone doubting what randy is saying about new rock absorbing phosphate, yesterday I dosed 0.04ppm of phos and still the Hannah said zero, I then when sod it and chucked in a cap full and a couple of hours later got a reading of 0.16 on the Hannah. Today it's already reading zero again.

I am in similar situation, but my hanna shows 0.02 however its error range is 0.02, I seriously think mine is one the -0.02 end, ie, zero phosphates.
I am also considering dosing and doing and ICP test, have you managed to keep your phosphate to a desire level?

 

[Markreed84]

Nope, I dose twice a day now, still reads 0 about 6 hours after dosing.

Id say dose some phosphates and test like 30 mins later just so you know it's mixed through the tank properly, then test again 6-10 hours later, if it's dropped back down from say 0.1 to 0.02 already then you are likely correct. Or test some freshly mixed salt water and see if you get 0?

 

[Blake423]

Nope, I dose twice a day now, still reads 0 about 6 hours after dosing.

Id say dose some phosphates and test like 30 mins later just so you know it's mixed through the tank properly, then test again 6-10 hours later, if it's dropped back down from say 0.1 to 0.02 already then you are likely correct. Or test some freshly mixed salt water and see if you get 0?

That's a good idea, how come I didn't think of that

 

[EricR]

Nope, I dose twice a day now, still reads 0 about 6 hours after dosing.

Id say dose some phosphates and test like 30 mins later just so you know it's mixed through the tank properly, then test again 6-10 hours later, if it's dropped back down from say 0.1 to 0.02 already then you are likely correct. Or test some freshly mixed salt water and see if you get 0?

How's the phosphate dosing working out for you?
What are you using?

I'm at about 11 months since tank transfer from 37g to 40g tank and, for the past few months, I've been struggling to keep detectable phosphates while my nitrates are close enough to what I want:
-- NO3 always in 7-9 ppm range (Hanna HR)
-- PO4 is 0.01 ppm (occasionally even 0.02 ppm) when I'm lucky but I periodically see 0.00 ppm (Hanna ULR)
***maybe the fact that I don't ALWAYS see 0.00 ppm PO4 means I shouldn't worry but it's scaring me

People mention phos uptake by GHA and/or dry rock so, just in case anyone cares:
-- 1/2 my rock is aquacultured live rock -- never a spec of GHA (((already coralline covered when purchased and was in previous tank for 6-7 months prior to tank transfer)))
-- 1/2 my rock was new dry/white 11 months ago -- GHA pockets form here and can start really taking off when I don't at least make an effort to pull them.
-- also used new dry sand for tank transfer (so could be also absorbing phos)