Symptoms of low NO3/PO4

[ZaneTer]

Hi everyone

I am hoping to get some feedback about the symptoms you have noticed when you have bottomed out on one or the other nutrient. In my case I have noticed the following:

Low Nitrate: Very pale corals/slow growth/STN
Low Phosphate: Zero tissue growth/ Slow or zero tissue repair/STN

I have found that I can actually go about 3 weeks with zero of a nutrient before it becomes an issue however zero phosphate poses a significantly larger problem to me. In my case corals will die faster when PO4 is bottomed out.

Please let me know what you think.

 

[Centerline]

Hi everyone

I am hoping to get some feedback about the symptoms you have noticed when you have bottomed out on one or the other nutrient. In my case I have noticed the following:

Low Nitrate: Very pale corals/slow growth/STN
Low Phosphate: Zero tissue growth/ Slow or zero tissue repair/STN

I have found that I can actually go about 3 weeks with zero of a nutrient before it becomes an issue however zero phosphate poses a significantly larger problem to me. In my case corals will die faster when PO4 is bottomed out.

Please let me know what you think.

I've experienced the same. Next step will be burned tips and death. I actually had to start dosing N03 and P04 - made a massive difference.

 

[ZaneTer]

Agreed @Centreline
I also dose NO3 and PO4 as needed and agreed it made a very large improvement to the health of my corals.
I have found that colours took a while to come back ~6 weeks when dosing NO3
Tissue growth and repair on LPS <3 days after dosing PO4 - this one completely surprised me, I expected the tissue repair to be extremely slow.
SPS tissue repair is quite slow at about 2 weeks for a noticeable improvement.

 

[Centerline]

Agreed @Centreline
I also dose NO3 and PO4 as needed and agreed it made a very large improvement to the health of my corals.
I have found that colours took a while to come back ~6 weeks when dosing NO3
Tissue growth and repair on LPS <3 days after dosing PO4 - this one completely surprised me, I expected the tissue repair to be extremely slow.
SPS tissue repair is quite slow at about 2 weeks for a noticeable improvement.

Agreed with respect to the SPS tissue repair. With LPS I have never considered running low nutrients. If anything the opposite is true for me. I feed my LPS so much and that has it creates its own problems. Interesting observation though with the tissue repair time. I have found that the RedSea Colors program works wonders with both LPS and SPS. I have also observed that the KZ Flatworm stuff MAY have a positive effect on both LPS and SPS in low nutrient environments. Absolutely no idea why it would help though.

 

[ZaneTer]

In truth I never intended to run an ULNS. I have a ball of chaeto that is about 1.5 cubic feet, its a greedy monster when it comes to my nutrient. I decided to play a few months ago so I added excess NO3 to intentionally bottom out PO4. I left it in that state for about 2 weeks then decided to add 1 gram of trisodium phophate which in my tank equates to 0.87ppm, within 24hrs I had bottomed out again. Corals werent fussed by the experiment.

 

[Centerline]

In truth I never intended to run an ULNS. I have a ball of chaeto that is about 1.5 cubic feet, its a greedy monster when it comes to my nutrient. I decided to play a few months ago so I added excess NO3 to intentionally bottom out PO4. I left it in that state for about 2 weeks then decided to add 1 gram of trisodium phophate which in my tank equates to 0.87ppm, within 24hrs I had bottomed out again. Corals werent fussed by the experiment.

I didn't either - somewhere between N0P0x dosing and adding Probidio I ended up with a tank that consumed every bit of P04 and N03 I added to it... really dang weird.