Nitrates staying at 0 ppm

[ssagar89]

Hi Everyone.
I wanted your help with some issue I am facing in my nano 10 gallon tank.
I have LPS and soft corals.
I have been noticing that my nitrates have been reading 0 since a month. Phosphates stay around 0.07ppm. I have one clownfish in there.
I feed mysis shrimp + brightwell amino acid a lot but can’t get my nitrates raised up a bit. I see my corals aren’t doing well.
I do 1 gallon per week water change. What should I do now? I am confused and lost as I am afraid corals might start dying. Thanks everyone.

 

[Mike konesky]

Do you have an algae issue? If not I'd dose nitrate.

 

[ssagar89]

Do you have an algae issue? If not I'd dose nitrate.

I had some algae but added hermits and now it’s all gone . Would feeding be an option? Why is it that nitrates aren’t going up? Should I add a fish? Will the corals completely die of the nitrates stay 0?

 

[hds4216]

What test kits are you using?

 

[ssagar89]

Salifert and api

 

[ssagar89]

Just a random question, what temperature you guys keep your tank at? I have the ink bird controller which fluctuates from 78-79. Is that a good range or should I lower it to 77-78? Trying to think of that could be one of the factors leading to coral retraction?

 

[hds4216]

You could try dosing nitrates. Normally with low nutrients you could just feed more, but your phosphate isn't low and you don't want them being too unbalanced.

 

[ATAquariums]

Brs just did a good. Idea on nutrients vs nutrition.

 

[hds4216]

Just a random question, what temperature you guys keep your tank at? I have the ink bird controller which fluctuates from 78-79. Is that a good range or should I lower it to 77-78? Trying to think of that could be one of the factors leading to coral retraction?

I keep mine 78-79. Warmer is generally slightly better imo.

 

[ssagar89]

Brs just did a good. Idea on nutrients vs nutrition.

I’ll have a look at it thanks for the brs recommendation

 

[Mike konesky]

Personally I've found it troublesome to just 'feed more'. Adding a mixed batch of nutrients (food) Seems to cause issues. 0 nitrate isnt good. Attack the problem imo and dose nitrate. Corals will get angry with 0's. Monitor phos as you dose nitrate as it should slowly drop.

 

[ssagar89]

Wait pho will drop when I’ll dose it? Why?

 

[Reef.]

Have you a picture of the tank?

 

[hds4216]

Growth of coral or algae depends on the existence of both nitrates and phosphates, so growth slows or stops if one or the other is lacking. In your case once you start providing the missing nitrates, growth increases, which means you'll be depleting phosphates faster than when growth was slow.

 

[ssagar89]

Growth of coral or algae depends on the existence of both nitrates and phosphates, so growth slows or stops if one or the other is lacking. In your case once you start providing the missing nitrates, growth increases, which means you'll be depleting phosphates faster than when growth was slow.

 

[Reef.]

What’s the issue? The tank looks great, it’s could be a testing error, if not you still could have some nitrates in there as tests are not that accurate.

I would feed more, just mysis is not ideal IMO for the fish, try other frozen foods too, I wouldn’t be rushing to do much to the tank when it looks good like that, just keep a close eye on your lvls if you do go the feeding more route.

 

[ssagar89]

The zoas have not opened much in a white and hammer corals is not wide open .

 

[Reef.]

The zoas have not opened much in a white and hammer corals is not wide open .

Try feeding more than, sounds as if you are not feeding much anyway, if that doesn’t work then try something else.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

add another fish

edit: on my nano, after an ICP of 0.01 nitrate, i took that as the go ahead for another fish or two.... Corals are growing great, phosphate was a little high too. As to phosphates, i don't have any issues with algae, but to correct i am just adding less dried food and more frozen...

 

[mdb_talon]

If it were me i would feed a bit more and keep an eye on phosphates. If it starts rising i would use gfo intermittently to bring it back down.