About a week or two ago I did some testing after several coral didn’t look quite right. I found that my NO3 had bottomed to zero (salifert, no perceptible color at all) but my PO4 was still up around 0.1 (Hannah ULR).
I got some clear max to reduce the PO4 and Neonitro to bring up the NO3. I was worried about stripping nutrients so tested each day and after about 36 hours my PO4 read .05 and I pulled the clear max. Over those same two days I slowly dosed NO3 up to 5ppm.
All the coral looked happy and better, but after work today I noticed my alveopora had almost no polyp extension. I can’t rule out a snail or my hawk fish but retested my nutrients to be sure.
As expected my NO3 was still at 5 but my PO4 read 0.09. That is a jump from .05 on the 8th to .09 today. Did a salifert PO4 in high-res double mode yesterday and it appeared to be about .06.
I feed mainly Xtreme pellets to my fish (LN hawk, 2 clowns) and a small piece of Rod’s food every other or couple days. Also 3-4ml of AB+ a few times a week.
Could some pellets a couple times a day or a dime size piece of Rod’s throw my PO4 up that fast? And, I’m not really sure I even fed Rod’s in between those two tests.
So, if not the food, what is driving my PO4 up like that? I’m okay running clearmax/GFO but testing PO4 constantly is time and cost prohibitive.
Tank is a Lifegard 24 (est 20 gal H2O), no skimmer, 6 months old from dry rock.
I got some clear max to reduce the PO4 and Neonitro to bring up the NO3. I was worried about stripping nutrients so tested each day and after about 36 hours my PO4 read .05 and I pulled the clear max. Over those same two days I slowly dosed NO3 up to 5ppm.
All the coral looked happy and better, but after work today I noticed my alveopora had almost no polyp extension. I can’t rule out a snail or my hawk fish but retested my nutrients to be sure.
As expected my NO3 was still at 5 but my PO4 read 0.09. That is a jump from .05 on the 8th to .09 today. Did a salifert PO4 in high-res double mode yesterday and it appeared to be about .06.
I feed mainly Xtreme pellets to my fish (LN hawk, 2 clowns) and a small piece of Rod’s food every other or couple days. Also 3-4ml of AB+ a few times a week.
Could some pellets a couple times a day or a dime size piece of Rod’s throw my PO4 up that fast? And, I’m not really sure I even fed Rod’s in between those two tests.
So, if not the food, what is driving my PO4 up like that? I’m okay running clearmax/GFO but testing PO4 constantly is time and cost prohibitive.
Tank is a Lifegard 24 (est 20 gal H2O), no skimmer, 6 months old from dry rock.