Show me your polluted tanks: High Po4 High No3

[F i s h y]

Wanna see mine???

PO4 flashing at 0.90 and nitrates at 55...

Love when we confuse the testers... looks good!

 

[F i s h y]

Tested yesterday. Po .258 ni 40.

Absolutely beautiful good to see you here.

 

[F i s h y]

Last I tested everything no3 po4 where very high. I don't stress and let it do it's thing.

Let the tank tell you what it wants. That's the way to do it.

 

[F i s h y]

This is my previous anemone reef, 80 gallon display with 40 gallon refugium and 25 gallon sump. At one time, Nitrates were as high as 67 and phosphates a .35. Average nitrates in the 40's, phosphate .25. Attributed to weekly feeding of the anemones. The tank looked great! All anemones and other corals looked great!
I transferred everything to a 360 gallon tank a couple of months ago. Nitrates at 20, phosphates at .10 and the anemones don't look as good as they did with higher levels.

Love this! I miss my nem tank. And they absolutely did better with my dirty water!

 

[F i s h y]

Are there some secrets in here for the super clear glass, especially with some of the higher than most people would recommend numbers? Or are y'all just scrubbing all the time?

Clean mine a couple times a week. That's all.

 

[NonstopSoda]

Last time I checked I had Nirates: 50 phosphate: 0.61! The phosphates were higher but Im using phosguard to get rid of silicates because of the diatom outbreak on the sand.

 

[F i s h y]

Last time I checked I had Nirates: 50 phosphate: 0.61! The phosphates were higher but Im using phosguard to get rid of silicates because of the diatom outbreak on the sand.

Looking good. Also unless your water has cilicates in it that you are using to top off or mix saltwater with, diatoms generally take care of themselves in my experience as they use up the available cilicates in newer sand (assuming that's where they may be coming from) give them time. You will get ahead of them.

 

[NonstopSoda]

Looking good

Thank you!

unless your water has cilicates in it that you are using to top off or mix saltwater with

Currently topping off and mixing water with filter drinking water through my tap cause the LFS that i bought RODI from is currently closed for repairs : ( so with every top off and water change i add more silicates unfortunately but Im purchasing a home RODI system soon to take care of it, the phosguard is more of a bandaid at this moment just cause I love keeping my sand clear and clean :3

 

[F i s h y]

Thank you!

Currently topping off and mixing water with filter drinking water through my tap cause the LFS that i bought RODI from is currently closed for repairs : ( so with every top off and water change i add more silicates unfortunately but Im purchasing a home RODI system soon to take care of it, the phosguard is more of a bandaid at this moment just cause I love keeping my sand clear and clean :3

Makes sense. Your rodi system will Def help. Good luck in your battle. Keep us updated.

 

[BryanM]

I love this thread. It re-enforces things I've read, both staunch numbers folks, and staunch let the tank tell you folks.

I'm in the newbie phase, I test, I ask, I wonder. I think I added a couple things too soon, even though the tank was "Seeded" with 100 pounds of live sand and 150 pounds of live rock. But I've also been far more successful than a lot of people coming up on 10-12 weeks?

Due to some me and wife mis communications, tomorrow is ending up being a very big day. Filefish, goby, 6line wrasse, derasa clam, and 3-4 corals are all coming tomorrow. Bonkers, but tank parameters are good, things are looking good. Hopefully in a month I can report back that everything survived!

 

[schooncw]

A section of my overstocked and overfed LPS dominant 120. PO never drops below 1.0 and NO3 is usually between 40-75.

 

[reefer2/19/24]

Wanna see mine???

PO4 flashing at 0.90 and nitrates at 55...

My phosphate got up to .40 and nitrate was 19.4 and I freaked out! But after a 10% water change phosphate down the. 23 and nitrate 15.2 not sure what to think. Typically. 09 and 8.6 respectively. I will add that during the low numbers I had the uglies basically the brown stuff on the sand and snotty brown algae on the the aqua scape. I gently scrubbed the rocks with a toothbrush and siphoned the sand. and cleaned the sump a bit. I think low numbers were that way because the uglies were consuming the phosphate and nitrate as food?? Started dosing microbactor7 and it's clean also cut food in half. No picture because I'm old and don't know how but it's as beautiful as I've ever seen. Maybe 7 small SPS frags.

 

[Seansea]

.41 phos
35 nitr

I do find growth slows above.3 phos and 15 nitr. I try to aim for between .1 -.2 phos and nitr 10-15.

 

[GARRIGA]

I believe the problem lies with what constitutes a reef tank. Seems the standard are Acros and internet just parroting that heard. I'm about to start second round of testing and will add corals this time and see what I see as problematic vs adequate. End of day, I'll define what reef means in my house. In the 80s it was live rock, shrooms and CUC

 

[Mschmidt]

N around 40 p at .7

I probably need more light

 

[strich]

Cool thread and love the tank shots!

I think it's worth being clear that the bigger more mature tanks can obviously take way bigger hits to "non-optimal" parameters than smaller younger tanks. Its also probably something you just can't escape too - PO4 gets absorbed into the rocks and sand over time and then leeches back out when its low enough, and I imagine some of you have wasted time and stress making big changes to try to fight that battle that you cannot win, inevitably upsetting something else in the system in the process.

 

[reefluvrr]

A section of my overstocked and overfed LPS dominant 120. PO never drops below 1.0 and NO3 is usually between 40-75.

Nice hammer garden!
I want to do the same in a tank that is skimmerless. How fast or slow is the growth of your hammers when the PO is at your level?

Thanks!

 

[BryanM]

Well, I think I said it before, I love this thread. As a newbie, I've been chasing numbers a bit, though truth be told, I've only done 3 water changes in the 2-3 months the tank has been up. I started dosing AFR 2-3 weeks ago to help with the goal of no water changes.

Currently tanks at .15 phos and 9.5 nitrates, so my pic doesn't exactly belong in this thread.

Also, the magic eraser is indeed magic.

 

[bobnicaragua]

This thread is interesting. I changed from felt socks to 1/2 felt and 1/2 mesh and my phosphates hit .26. A lot of my acros lost color and some browned out. I’m back down near .1 and things are happy again.

 

[Bdroid]

N: 30 P: 0.01-0.03