Zero nitrates: how do I raise?

[Dmsick]

I find this issue confusing. I have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. I've been feeding my tank heavily for the last couple weeks. It's a 100 gallon tank with 2 clowns, 3 damsels and a foxface. I have a handful of snails and a few hermits. I also have 10 coral frags. With feeding 3x/day I'm growing algae but can't measure nitrates or phosphates. Obviously they are in the water to some extent because the algae is growing. Won't I get more algae by dosing more nutrients? I'm not sure anyone can really give a right answer as it seems one tank does fine with ULN and others seem to benefit from "dirtier" water. I have the supplies to dose nitrates and phosphates but I'm not convinced that I need to do it at this point.

 

[Acuario]

What worked for me was to remove the protein skimmer, the GFO, and the carbon. Now my sps are happy.

 

[favites]

Ferrell- would be interested in seeing a picture of your tank And also am curious why you want increased nitrates. Every tank is different but if your corals look good and you have algae present in the tank- you may have adequate nitrates.. point is “be careful treating the numbers”

Sticking to your original question outside of adding more fish perhaps removing some of your mechanical/chemical filtration as has been suggested would make sense.

Mark

 

[MTBake]

I find this issue confusing. I have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. I've been feeding my tank heavily for the last couple weeks. It's a 100 gallon tank with 2 clowns, 3 damsels and a foxface. I have a handful of snails and a few hermits. I also have 10 coral frags. With feeding 3x/day I'm growing algae but can't measure nitrates or phosphates. Obviously they are in the water to some extent because the algae is growing. Won't I get more algae by dosing more nutrients? I'm not sure anyone can really give a right answer as it seems one tank does fine with ULN and others seem to benefit from "dirtier" water. I have the supplies to dose nitrates and phosphates but I'm not convinced that I need to do it at this point.

I think it all comes down to what issues one is trying to resolve. Some algae thrive in low nutrient conditions. Therefore, keeping nutrient levels up a little bit is encouraged if those species are thriving in a system. And vice versa.

Same goes to coral health. They need some level of nutrients to thrive.

If algae that thrives in a low nutrient situation is present, I also noticed coral health issues. Increasing the nutrient load in my tank, visually abates those issues. As a tank hits it's stride, it shouldn't need these nutrients artificially added. This can be 3 years down the line if the tank was started with all dry rock and sand.

This is purely based on my observations and opinion of course

 

[Dmsick]

I think it all comes down to what issues one is trying to resolve. Some algae thrive in low nutrient conditions. Therefore, keeping nutrient levels up a little bit is encouraged if those species are thriving in a system. And vice versa.

Same goes to coral health. They need some level of nutrients to thrive.

If algae that thrives in a low nutrient situation is present, I also noticed coral health issues. Increasing the nutrient load in my tank, visually abates those issues. As a tank hits it's stride, it shouldn't need these nutrients artificially added. This can be 3 years down the line if the tank was started with all dry rock and sand.

This is purely based on my observations and opinion of course

I did start my tank from dry rock and this is likely the issue I'm facing. I guess I should just start dosing the nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Jordan Prather]

My issue is I have 0 nitrate and .3-.6 phosphates that dont want to come down even gfo doesnt really touch the phosphate

 

[dmantz1]

My issue is I have 0 nitrate and .3-.6 phosphates that dont want to come down even gfo doesnt really touch the phosphate

If you dose nitrates your phosphates will drop.

 

[Ferrell]

Ferrell- would be interested in seeing a picture of your tank And also am curious why you want increased nitrates. Every tank is different but if your corals look good and you have algae present in the tank- you may have adequate nitrates.. point is “be careful treating the numbers”

Sticking to your original question outside of adding more fish perhaps removing some of your mechanical/chemical filtration as has been suggested would make sense.

Mark

Here are a couple of the most recent.
I’m only going on the advice of most who say that even undetectable Nitrate and Phosphate are bad. When I spoke with WEC they suggested I get them up for better coal health. Low values can cause all sorts of problems, most notably cyano which is starting to rear it’s head and diatoms which have just now appeared. For the most part corals look good and sps are surviving. I just didn’t think it was as healthy as it could be.

 

[Oldsalt01]

I’m experiencing a similar issue with my 3 y/o 14g BC. Detectable Nitrates dropped to 0, phosphates < 0.01 after over-stripping the water with a ‘fugue (cut by 1/2) and a skimmer (shut down), but a 3 week explosion of diatoms and blue/green cyano has suddenly become an issue. I suspect the cyano is a flow issue but when I added a small Ehiem pump to up the flow, my temps spiked to 83, so I had to pull the pump. The diatoms seem to have vanished as quickly as they showed up. I do have a small bit of GHA and a fair amount of turf algae (which I kinda like) so I’m suspecting nitrate uptake before it becomes detectable above .5ppm (Salifert low-range test). I’ve added a reticulated foam block to the filter section in the hopes of creating a nitrate factory but I feel like I’m chasing my tail on this one. The nitrates seem to be slowly rising and my zoas are starting to open more but stopped spreading about the time I discovered a lack of nitrates. Still don’t know what to do about the cyano. I’d throw an MP10 in there but my darling bank has closed my credit line on the tank, lol.