How to balance nitrate and phosphate

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

But his tank has a lot of colorful sps though very high nutrients.

Yes, and in such cases, it has been hypothesized that another nutrient is limiting the algae, and possibly zoox, such as iron. High nutrients (higher than 5-10 ppm nitrate and ~0.03 ppm phospathe) are not "the cause" of colorful corals, but colorful corals might still be present.

 

[Wtyson254]

I would reccomend feeding more as a way to increase PO4. I dose KNO3 to increase nitrate as I am corrently nitrate limited with excessive PO4. Feeding more will increase both PO4 and NO3 so that may be a more balanced way to increase both.

 

[steveaus10]

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[scoopsthedog]

What do you feed to yr corals?

Weekly
2x polyp booster and reef roids or reef bugs (back and forth
2x coral frenzy
2x oyster egg feast
2x ocean magik

 

[Willy43]

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[tmtmtm]

following

 

[arman]

I would reccomend feeding more as a way to increase PO4. I dose KNO3 to increase nitrate as I am corrently nitrate limited with excessive PO4. Feeding more will increase both PO4 and NO3 so that may be a more balanced way to increase both.

So if we can have a good coloration and healthy corals with acceptable range of nitrate and phosphate so why we spend lots of money for these foods?
Im not talking about sps because i still have not success in sps,but i have LPS with good growth in these levels and every time my corals bleached was the fault of very poor nutrients.
Im sure that the reef masters are having the best reef tanks and feed their tank very much but i myself as a student do not have enough money to afford these stuffs.

 

[Scott.h]

So if we can have a good coloration and healthy corals with acceptable range of nitrate and phosphate so why we spend lots of money for these foods?
Im not talking about sps because i still have not success in sps,but i have LPS with good growth in these levels and every time my corals bleached was the fault of very poor nutrients.
Im sure that the reef masters are having the best reef tanks and feed their tank very much but i myself as a student do not have enough money to afford these stuffs.

it all depends on what corals you have. Originally I went to town adding fish. Those fish eventually grew, along with feeding fish food, causing higher (by most standards) nitrates/phosphate. I don't feed coral food ever in that tank. Now some corals don't like the higher levels in that tank so I've had to accommodate those to other tanks. On my other tank I purposely understocked it so I don't have to deal with as much nonsense. But then I'm forced to put coral food in there to keep the levels from undetectable. Or they will bleach. Personally I don't and wouldn't dump all that nonsense in there that you are adding. I feed the fish all they can eat. Dump a few ml of coral food every other day in hopes I see the smallest bit of pink and blue in the salifert kits. If you do that you'll succeed.

 

[arman]

One more question.What it is in my tank that consumes this much of nitrate and phosphate,i just have a maybe 30 litrs macro algae ref and 5% siphone every week and no carbon dosing or nitrate or phosphate absorbers in a 250 litr tank.Many people with the same method have high level problems.

 

[Scott.h]

Corals will consume nitrates and phosphate as well as the Marco algae. Some even use Xenia in their fuge instead of macro. Keep in mind many corals don't mind modest levels. What all do you have for corals?

 

[arman]

You mean what corals do i keep?(sorry my mother tongue was not English)

 

[Scott.h]

You mean what corals do i keep?(sorry my mother tongue was not English)

Do you have sps, lps, softies? Why were you dosing nitrates? What are your levels currently? What were your levels?

 

[arman]

I have mostly LPS and ive mushrooms and polyps and a leather coral .Because my levels were near zero and my corals were going to die and every time i raised the parameters they got their color and health back.Now my nitrate is about 15 and phosphate about 0.5

 

[Val Shebeko]

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[DanP-SD]

For what it's worth, I was running biopellets on my mixed reef for the past year. Phosphate and nitrate levels were undetectable even using the Hanna ultra low range PPB test. Things were ok. Corals were healthy but not growing fast. Then the tank suddenly started developing out of control lyngbya and needed to change up the tank's microbiome.

So i removed the biopellets and started dosing vinegar. I also started dosing Korallen-Zuch 4-part coral program and feeding more. Nitrate rose from zero to 2ppm and has held steady there. Phosphate rose from zero to 27 ppb or 0.027 ppm. Most of the corals are thriving with faster growth and better color. Best of all, the tank is spotless. I used to clean the glass every other day. Now, I can go 7-10 days and barely see any build up.

While changing the bacteria load played a huge role in the cleaner tank, I attribute the better coral growth and coloration to the higher nutrients. I know it's just one anecdotal datapoint but my experience seems to corroborate the range suggested by macdaddynick1.

 

[Nik Buhl]

@DanP-SD do you run a refugium as well?

 

[Sallstrom]

Funny this that your nutrients are sinking, usually it's the other way around. But on the other hand, it's easier to raise the nutrients then making them go down
I think you should continue dosing nitrate and phosphate, but try to find out how much you need to dose everyday so the value stays at the same number. Then if it's 5 or 15 ppm nitrate doesn't matter as long as its stabil and the corals(and everything else in the tank) can get adjusted to that conditions. Same with phosphate, but maybe keep it under 0,15 if you want to keep stony corals.
To lower nitrate and phosphate to get rid of algae is a bad idea in my opinion. If you get that low nutrients your corals will probably starve as well (if they don't get added food).

/ David

 

[DanP-SD]

@DanP-SD do you run a refugium as well?

No refugium. I tried a chaeto reactor for a while but it really didn't grow. I think the nutrients were too low. Now that they're a bit higher I may try it again.

 

[A4goulet]

I have mostly LPS and ive mushrooms and polyps and a leather coral .Because my levels were near zero and my corals were going to die and every time i raised the parameters they got their color and health back.Now my nitrate is about 15 and phosphate about 0.5

I know this thread died a while ago but im curious how things turned out for you @arman. Did you end up having to dose NO3 and P04?

 

[vio]

In my opinion , is ALL about .....".steady Balance "....if , some how , you keep Nitrate 2 ppm to 5 ppm ( Macro Algae , Bio- Pellets, Sulfur filter etc.) then is easy to use Rowa to control PO4 ( 0.02 to 0.05 ppm) , but when Nitrate go way up then undetectable , very hard to have some " Balance", you just stress everything , include Bacteria. Also 7.2 dKH max 8 dKH , help.