0 Phosphates with high nitrates???

bahamasmls · Feb 1, 2023

Hi, i would like to get someones opinion on this. I seem to have zero phos and 10.5 nitrates. I did recently add a few new fish which would explain the higher nitrates currently. They were 5-6 before adding. I have been over feeding a bit to help curve the stress of the new tangs i added in my 280g.

My alk is at 8.3 and i have a skimmer, filters socks, and chaeto in my refuguium(growing like crazy). Could the chaeto growth be sucking out the phosphates?

I have tested my phosphates several times with my hanna ULR test kit and keep getting zeros. Could the test kits be bad?

sps and everything is looking good minus a meat coral with its mouth open for a few days.

Just wondering if anyone has ever seen this before? Thanks

Charlie the Reefer · Feb 1, 2023

Interesting. Phosphates should rise a bit with nitrates in theory.

are you using GFO? Any nuisance algae? What do you feed?

bahamasmls · Feb 2, 2023

Charlie the Reefer said:
Interesting. Phosphates should rise a bit with nitrates in theory.

are you using GFO? Any nuisance algae? What do you feed?

No noticable nuisance algae and no gfo used

Charlie the Reefer · Feb 2, 2023

bahamasmls said:
No noticable nuisance algae and no gfo used

I don't know to be honest. 10 nitrates is a decent number for nitrates, i.e. not too high or low... So i'd be hesitant to say to feed more / increase bio load.

Looking fwd to someone else's answer on this one.

Treefer32 · Feb 2, 2023

I'm running 03-06 phosphates and as high as 65 ppm nitrates in my 340 gallon mixed reef with 15 large fish (1 of them around 11-12" in size). They eat a lot! I feed 8 cubes of frozen food a day, 1 sheet of nori per day, and I have an auto feeding flake / pellet food 4 times a day.

I vodka dose and run an algae turf scrubber. The algae turf scrubber keeps the phosphates lower (I believe) and the vodka dosing manages nitrates.

I'd kill for nitrates of 10-20 as my standard range. You need some or you will kill your corals. I had my nutrients bottom out once over the years and I lost a massive montipora, stylaphora, and a few other things. Everything has recovered since, but, no nutrients will kill corals faster than excessive nutrients.

If you are unable to get phosphates above zero, I would consider liquid phyto. Small doses of it provide the microscopic nutrients corals need. Just a couple ml of a good quality phyto 2 times a week keeps the corals in check without phosphates.

You could also do reef chili, reef roids. Be careful with these, they will skyrocket phosphates with just a tiny amount! I think reef roids said 1/4 or 1/8 of a teaspoon 1-2 times a week.

Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry about the nitrate number at all. My fish and coral did fine with the nitrates at 65. They had issues with phosphates being .30. I finally have them down under .1 and my corals so much more amazing!