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Nitrates and Phosphates help please (1 Viewer)

tthorn125

tthorn125

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General opinions and practices of folks. I can not keep SPS to save my life.

System is 180 gallon tank with 75 gallon sump. I figure about 220 gallons of H2O.

I have Nitrates at 16, Phosphates that are .02 on two different test kits, Alk is high at about 13, Ca is 513. I have a calcium reactor that was running too high but effluent been turned down. Alk and Calcium should be stable once it drops, I will dial that in.

I've been dosing NOPOX at 20ml/day and Acropower at 10ml/day for about 2 weeks. I also have auto water changes at 3 gallons/day. I also have BioPellets running on the tank. Auto feeder is twice a day with very little food. Thera+ small pellets.

What can I do to lower Nitrates? I've tried feeding more flake food to raise PO4 in order to let the NOPOX have a bigger impact, but nothing.
 
Yeah I definitely get it, but it can tell you if something else is going on. Assuming you are using good RO water.

I have been dealing with High Nitrates for months. My phosphates are .03 with nitrates at 40. My SPS are doing fine. Not growing very well right now and the color sucks but not dying. I keep Alk much lower though, high Alk is tough with higher nutrients. I run 7.5

I finally said heck with it and went old school. Recently installed a T3 aquamaxx sulphur denitrator, which will eliminate any nitrate problems in about 4 weeks after bacteria colonizes. I tried everything but nothing worked. I have a good amount of fish so most likely just overstocked. Bacteria just couldn’t keep up.

Deep sand bed helps with nitrate. So does chaeto if you can run a refugium.


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I hear you. I've been doing this for a fair amount of time and should know this stuff.

I can grow leathers and LPS like no ones business, but SPS are just off limits in this tank. I got Orange digi to grow like weeds for about 2 years and then it died.

I can't keep chaeto in my sump, but I only had a red grow light. It just dwindled down to nothing the dozen times I've tried.

I have 4 clowns, 4 tangs, royal gramma, engineer goby, flame angel, hundred tiny snails, 30 hermits in the tank. That's about it.

Live in the country so it's well water. 5 stage 150 GPD RODI unit from BRS, TDS is next to nothing.

I just don't get it.
 
tthorn125 said:
General opinions and practices of folks. I can not keep SPS to save my life.

System is 180 gallon tank with 75 gallon sump. I figure about 220 gallons of H2O.

I have Nitrates at 16, Phosphates that are .02 on two different test kits, Alk is high at about 13, Ca is 513. I have a calcium reactor that was running too high but effluent been turned down. Alk and Calcium should be stable once it drops, I will dial that in.

I've been dosing NOPOX at 20ml/day and Acropower at 10ml/day for about 2 weeks. I also have auto water changes at 3 gallons/day. I also have BioPellets running on the tank. Auto feeder is twice a day with very little food. Thera+ small pellets.

What can I do to lower Nitrates? I've tried feeding more flake food to raise PO4 in order to let the NOPOX have a bigger impact, but nothing.
Click to expand...

Honestly, your nutrient readings aren’t that bad. Am I the only one that thinks that?

How long have you been using nutrient reduction methods? Have you considered stopping the bio pellets and the nopox to see if chaeto alone would work? It would be a more balanced reduction method.

Do you have any algae growing in the display?

I don’t think nutrient levels are what’s holding back your success with Sps. I get that ICP tests aren’t cheap, but sometimes they can uncover an issue you’d never have discovered otherwise. Might be worth a shot.

My sps are growing and coloring nicely and my levels as of today were NO3 at 25 and PO4 at .04 just for reference.


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KJoFan said:
Honestly, your nutrient readings aren’t that bad. Am I the only one that thinks that?

How long have you been using nutrient reduction methods? Have you considered stopping the bio pellets and the nopox to see if chaeto alone would work? It would be a more balanced reduction method.

Do you have any algae growing in the display?

I don’t think nutrient levels are what’s holding back your success with Sps. I get that ICP tests aren’t cheap, but sometimes they can uncover an issue you’d never have discovered otherwise. Might be worth a shot.

My sps are growing and coloring nicely and my levels as of today were NO3 at 25 and PO4 at .04 just for reference.


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Click to expand...

What are you keeping your Alk at?


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I have the opposite problem, .25 nitrates and 0 phosphate as of this evening with red sea test kit.

No nopox, no chaeto, just some old siporax and water changes every couple weeks or so.
 
I don't see any algae growing in the tank other than some stuff on the side of the tank that I need to scrape. Nothing in the sump either.

I started the biopellets about a month ago and the NOPOX and Acro Power about 2 weeks ago.

There is a ton of flow in the tank and I have the auto water changes running which is about 90 gallons a month.

I also don't have coralline algae. I did in my previous 75 gallon mixed reef (12 years ago). I had an urchin that probably consumed a bunch of it, but that died a year ago.
 
I had (12 years ago) been running T5's, now I use Onyx LED's that I bought from RapidLED about 5 years ago.
 
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