Low nitrates causing almost no coral growth?

[Jonathan lee]

So after my tank crash at the end of last November, i added some new corals, 4 heads of hammers, head of frogspawn, 3 heads candy cane. Prior to the crash, my tank was also stocked basically the same coral wise and i had to dose to keep alk stable. Hammers in tank prior to crash were growing and splitting before the crash then every single thing died. About 2 weeks ago i put the alk dosing tube back in sump cause i assumed the alk was dropping like how it did previously. I wasnt testing yet cause my kit finished and i had to get a new one but my itchy fingers decided to just put the dosing tube back in the sump cause it was only dosing 3ml a day to raise alk by 0.03dkh i thought the corals would use more than that. I obviously thought wrong as when i got my new test kit, the alk was 10.2dkh now. Immediately stopped dosing to let alk fall back down but its not budging. Im quite confused because previously alk would drop 1 point every 3 days. Now its not dropping at all. Calcium is also not dropping. Could low nitrates cause the very slow growth of corals so alk and calcium consumption dropped so much? Or is there some imbalance going on?


26g aio nano with pair of clowns and one blenny.

Parameters before the crash
1.026
26c
No3 - 10
Po4 - 0.01-0.03
Calcium - Cant remember but more than 420
Mag- 1500 plus
Alk 8.3
Ph8
Only dosing alk cause calcium was dropping very little so water changes handled it

Parameters after crash
1.026
25.5c
No3 - 2 ish
Po4 - 0.01-0.03
Calcium 435
Mag 1350
Alk was 9 then now 10.2(since dosing stopped a week ago till now)
Ph 8
Not dosing anything for the past week.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Probably due to lack of bio- diversity in your set-up. Assuming it took a major hit in the crash. Established bacterium whose byproduct is food for said corals may not be up and running yet.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Probably due to lack of bio- diversity in your set-up. Assuming it took a major hit in the crash. Established bacterium whose byproduct is food for said corals may not be up and running yet.

Anything i should do? I started dosing bacteria once a week now and started feeding aminos.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Anything i should do? I started dosing bacteria once a week now and started feeding aminos.

I would try Tropic Marin Reef Actiff to start and try to get your PO4 up, once you hit a steady .05 PO4 you can start switch to TM's Bacto Balance. So you are using carbon dosing to provide the bacteria for nutrition. I also started using Phos-feed but I have no results on that yet.
This is all in theory on that this is the issue. ie: if your trace elements are not in line etc.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally, I would stop the dosing and bring the tank back to base line with water changes. Once your at base line again, then start testing to determine what your tank is consuming, then you know if you need to dose or not.

Your tank has changed since the crash, so the dosing has to change with it, not remain the same as before the crash.