**Please Help** :(

[Ry1]

Hi guys so i have a 100L nano, running around 4.5 month now and my corals seem a little unhappy so i did another test and i am now getting 0.1 of Nitrite and 10 Nitrate and battling phosphate with phos guard. The issue i have is i dont no where its coming from and its really getting me down. I am very active in water changes and because i buy NSW from my lfs i thought it might be coming from that as i did a 25L water change the other day so i tested it and there was nothing, it was perfectly fine so i no its my tank thats the issue.
It has a built in sump and i only have in the tank 2 clowns, bengal cardinal,baby box fish and a mandarin with cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp, so i think thats not overloading surely. I have just started lst week dosing live photoplankton and some Zeobak. Can anyone please help where they think this can be coming from.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and it is very much appreciated for your response.

 

[Cell]

Nitrite is probably a false positive but it wouldn't matter anyway because nitrite is not harmful in reef tanks. We need to know alk/calc/mg/po4/sg/temp and a full tank picture is always helpful.

 

[Ry1]

Alk 7
Cal 400
Mag 1280
Nitrate 10
Temp 26.3

 

[Ry1]

Here is tank

 

[MaxxuM]

Between month's 4-6 there's usually a resurgence or spike of nutrients in the system that have been gathering since the cycle. It's like the tuning stage of a young tank. It'll happen again around the year mark. What I usually do is weekly water changes for a month (clean glass, sand, blow off rocks an hour before), change out the mechanical filtration every 3 days, and feed sparingly until it passes. Might even go feeding with TIgger Pods 2-3 times a week to cut down on biological load.

 

[Ry1]

Between month's 4-6 there's usually a resurgence or spike of nutrients in the system that have been gathering since the cycle. It's like the tuning stage of a young tank. It'll happen again around the year mark. What I usually do is weekly water changes for a month (clean glass, sand, blow off rocks an hour before), change out the mechanical filtration every 3 days, and feed sparingly until it passes. Might even go feeding with TIgger Pods 2-3 times a week to cut down on biological load.

Thanks very much, i will do another water change tomorrow and just keep testing as i go on.

 

[Dom]

What are you feeding?

 

[Ry1]

What are you feeding?

Just 3 quarters of a cube of frozen food a day.

 

[Dom]

Just 3 quarters of a cube of frozen food a day.

My experience has been that both frozen and flake foods are a huge source of phosphate.

I feed frozen, but, I thaw 8 cubes at a time In RODI water. Once thawed, strain off the liquid, then feed small amounts until the fish lose interest. It means they are done eating.

Feeding this way in conjunction with regular water changes should bring down your phosphates.

For added help, you can also purchase some ferric oxide from BRS along with a media bag and place it in an area of high flow in your sump.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like filter may be not keeping up. What filter are you using?

here is a tip: Add a pouch of ChemiPure Elite. It polished the tank water and keep both phos and nitrate in check.

 

[Ry1]

Sounds like filter may be not keeping up. What filter are you using?

here is a tip: Add a pouch of ChemiPure Elite. It polished the tank water and keep both phos and nitrate in check.

Hi mate thank you i will try that, the tank just has its own built in sump with different sections