Why do I have high nitrates but low phosphates?

Skynyrd Fish · Dec 29, 2018

KCSUMPS said:
did your refugium do it?

Yes. It worked great. I am dosing Nitrate in my make up water now to keep PO4 down. However,since my original post, my tank maintenance guy unplugged my heater, and my tank was at 68 degrees before I caught it 2 weeks later. Dory died, SPS stopped taking up ALK and CA, and I started getting a hair algae issue. I also noticed an absence of small pods. After 6 weeks the hair algae started killing my sps. I did stop all dosing except ATI essentials. It has been a slow turn around since May, my fuge is now starting to grow macro again. My last ICP test end of August said NO3 = 0 PO4 = .03 I almost took the tank down I was so fed up. I lost 40 frags, my purple tang and my blue tang. Sorry about my rant. Fuge yes.

KCSUMPS · Dec 29, 2018

Skynyrd Fish said:
Yes. It worked great. I am dosing Nitrate in my make up water now to keep PO4 down. However,since my original post, my tank maintenance guy unplugged my heater, and my tank was at 68 degrees before I caught it 2 weeks later. Dory died, SPS stopped taking up ALK and CA, and I started getting a hair algae issue. I also noticed an absence of small pods. After 6 weeks the hair algae started killing my sps. I did stop all dosing except ATI essentials. It has been a slow turn around since May, my fuge is now starting to grow macro again. My last ICP test end of August said NO3 = 0 PO4 = .03 I almost took the tank down I was so fed up. I lost 40 frags, my purple tang and my blue tang. Sorry about my rant. Fuge yes.

so frustrating. thanks for your reply... my no3 is 10-20ppm and po4 is 0.00 . going to try two things next

Skynyrd Fish · Dec 30, 2018

If you add PO4 your No3 will go down, NO3 won't go down without PO4 on its own IMO.

KCSUMPS · Dec 30, 2018

makes sense - just ready to get to the next step but being patient

tri989 · Jan 8, 2019

Skynyrd Fish said:
If you add PO4 your No3 will go down, NO3 won't go down without PO4 on its own IMO.

My NO3 is 25, PO4 is 0.08. Do i need dose some PO4?

Skynyrd Fish · Jan 8, 2019

No. Your in a good place with both. How does your tank look?

KCSUMPS · Jan 9, 2019

I am at 20 nitrate and 0.0 on phosphates - only upset that my chaeto in my sump keeps dying off

siggy · Jan 9, 2019

KCSUMPS said:
I am at 20 nitrate and 0.0 on phosphates - only upset that my chaeto in my sump keeps dying off

Feed frozen foods or oyster feast

some say to add iron for the chaeto. @randyBRS should know. Also I am constantly battling High phos and have no nitrates (dosing N) I changed out My rodi system, run my 380 24/7 1/2-cup GFO + 1/2 cup carbon nori-pellets and frozen for a dozen fish in a 75 gallon + sump

KCSUMPS · Jan 9, 2019

siggy said:
Feed frozen foods or oyster feast some say to add iron for the chaeto. @randyBRS should know. Also I am constantly battling High phos and have no nitrates (dosing N) I changed out My rodi system, run my 380 24/7 1/2-cup GFO + 1/2 cup carbon nori-pellets and frozen for a dozen fish in a 75 gallon + sump

Great feedback... I will work the same for a bit and see how it goes... Thanks again...

randyBRS · Jan 9, 2019

KCSUMPS said:
I am at 20 nitrate and 0.0 on phosphates - only upset that my chaeto in my sump keeps dying off

It sounds like you have a disparity between the nutrition input and the nitrate/phosphate export, leaning towards more export than input. Ryan does a really detailed job at explaining the relationship between them in this video. Well worth checking out a couple of times!