Something is happening in my tank?

[charbel101]

All tanks are different but just my, personal, experience with NeoPhos:
If I dosed and tested an hour later, PO4 rose by the expected amount but...
Next day I'd be back to 0.00 ppm so I've been having to dose more than I had anticipated to maintain residual desired levels.

So I'd say test daily at first until you find the amount that maintains the level you want then you can slow down on testing.

Wheres the nutrients going though?, im just confused by something how come tbe ocean have 0 nitrate and phosphate and everythign thrive?

 

[EricR]

Wheres the nutrients going though?, im just confused by something how come tbe ocean have 0 nitrate and phosphate and everythign thrive?

I used half dry rock and all dry sand during tank transfer.
Consensus seems to be that those can both act as phosphate drains (until they saturate).

*took 8 months before my phosphates started plummeting though so maybe other factors too,,, not sure

 

[jabberwock]

Tank is very young. I would not dose anything, I would not add anything. You need time. Suck it up and wait. Keep good maintenance habits. You are going to have to tough it out.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Wheres the nutrients going though?, im just confused by something how come tbe ocean have 0 nitrate and phosphate and everythign thrive?

into your coral, algae, bacteria everything that lives. The ocean is a balanced long established eco system. your tank is very much new

 

[charbel101]

Tank is very young. I would not dose anything, I would not add anything. You need time. Suck it up and wait. Keep good maintenance habits. You are going to have to tough it out.

I don't thing you need to take any extreme steps. It's a new tank so just do your water changes along with AB+ and wait. Dosing nitrates or phosphates may get you in more trouble. Make sure your alkalinity is staying stable.

U think so? Just AB+? Every night broadcast it in the water?

 

[zdrc]

Wheres the nutrients going though?, im just confused by something how come tbe ocean have 0 nitrate and phosphate and everythign thrive?

The ocean does not have 0 ppm Nitrate and Phosphate. It has 0.005 ppm phosphate and >0.1 ppm nitrate (numbers from here). These might seems like they're basically zero, but they really are not zero. Critically, these values are concentrations (parts per million) so the volume of water we are talking about is very important in determining the actual quantities of nitrate and phosphate present.

Consider your ~50 gallon reef system. Imagine this system was an actual volume on a real reef in the ocean. Lets assume that the flow through this section is going to be something like 2000 gallons per hour (40x turnover, no idea if this is realistic for the actual ocean or not, but it is typical for reef aquariums). Unlike in your aquarium, this is "fresh" water filled with unused nitrate and phosphate. In a sense, we can think about this flow as expanding the volume of the system. Over the course of a day this ~50 gallon section of the reef actually has ~50,000 gallons of water flow through it. With a nitrate concentration of 0.05 ppm or equivalently 0.05 mg/l, this 50 gallon section of the reef is exposed to about 10 grams of nitrate (0.05 mg/l * 190000 l * 0.001 g/mg = 10 g). A concentration of 10 ppm in your 50 gallon reef aquarium gives about 2 grams of nitrate (10 mg/l * 190 l * 0.001 g/mg = 2 g) . Although the concentration in your aquarium is way higher, it's actually less total nitrate than an equivalently sized system on an actual reef receives.

A similar argument works for phosphate as well. It's also a great example of why it's nonsensical to attempt to perfectly replicate the oceans parameters in your home aquarium unless you happen to be the owner of a massive (>10000 gallon) aquarium.

 

[Uncle99]

So i need to keep dosing till i see my numbers are up and then stop dosing?

Yup.
But don’t stop testing.
Matters more they are available and stable rather than any particular level (within reason).
If the trend starts falling, say over a week, ok to give her an instant bump.
Everything feeds on these nutrients. Too little, everything starves, too much, we can see some browning out and maybe the start of the bad guys.
Get all 8 in the band and work towards making them stable.
The less flux the better.
Salinity, Alk, Nitrate and Phosphate a have much influence.

 

[charbel101]

Yup.
But don’t stop testing.
Matters more they are available and stable rather than any particular level (within reason).
If the trend starts falling, say over a week, ok to give her an instant bump.
Everything feeds on these nutrients. Too little, everything starves, too much, we can see some browning out and maybe the start of the bad guys.
Get all 8 in the band and work towards making them stable.
The less flux the better.
Salinity, Alk, Nitrate and Phosphate a have much influence.

I just tested after dosing phosphate and nitrate. And i only got 0.1 nitrate and 0.0 phosphate im confused. I dosed nitrate up to 1ppm and phosphate up to 0.01

 

[Nate Chalk]

I just tested after dosing phosphate and nitrate. And i only got 0.1 nitrate and 0.0 phosphate im confused. I dosed nitrate up to 1ppm and phosphate up to 0.01

it takes some time to raise. 24 hours before next test after dosing.

 

[charbel101]

it takes some time to raise. 24 hours before next test after dosing.

Uhm its 24 hours..

 

[Nate Chalk]

Uhm its 24 hours..

Some gets used up in 24 hours, dose again

Now you know your demand daily. You should be able to establish a trend over the next couple of days and get to testing every 3 days or so

 

[Nate Chalk]

For instance I dosed to .1 and I landed at 0.01 for the first couple of days, now im at 0.06 after a daily dose to .1 P

Nitrate I have gotten locked in with just the skimmer draining right back into the tank.

 

[Uncle99]

I just tested after dosing phosphate and nitrate. And i only got 0.1 nitrate and 0.0 phosphate im confused. I dosed nitrate up to 1ppm and phosphate up to 0.01

Depends on the test kit.
Some kits don’t read phosphate well at all.
What kit?

 

[charbel101]

Depends on the test kit.
Some kits don’t read phosphate well at all.
What kit?

hanna checker

 

[adammarcos]

They release turpenes into the water as Tutuapp 9Apps Showbox a defensive mechanism and this irritates other corals.