Nitrates and phosphates

[elireefer7]

Hey what’s going on everyone! Hoping you are all well. I wish I wasn’t confused about this topic, but after reading so many forums it’s a lot of information to choose which to go with in terms of option. My nitrates and phosphates have been high for some time. I neglected testing my water for nitrates and phosphates as I just continued to check alk, calc and mag. They spiked up to 50 ppm nitrates and 0.25 phosphates. I wanted to get some advice on how to lower them safely. I started using some gfo to lower phosphates but tbh not really wanting to do that long term. Looked into a Chaeto reactor and carbon dosing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

75 gallon reef
- Alk ~8.2-8.5
- Calc 400
- Mag 1320
- Phosphates 0.25 but after gfo has started decreasing to 0.13 with Hanna checker
- Nitrates 50 with salifert 40 with api

 

[14 foot reef]

If you would like to start a DM with me, I wouldn't mind helping guide you through this.

Where you should start is stop reading multiple forums with multiple people with multiple different systems and solutions.

Pick a person that has a "Known long term" successful reef that is willing to show their good, bad, and ugly stages of their successful reef.

Pick a person that has a reef in similar size and "Type" of reef.
Getting a bunch of info from a person trying to keep and grow the rarest and most difficult corals and all you want to do is keep softies and a couple LPS will have a completely different and WAY more expensive path than you.

 

[Reef.]

If you would like to start a DM with me, I wouldn't mind helping guide you through this.

Where you should start is stop reading multiple forums with multiple people with multiple different systems and solutions.

Pick a person that has a "Known long term" successful reef that is willing to show their good, bad, and ugly stages of their successful reef.

Pick a person that has a reef in similar size and "Type" of reef.
Getting a bunch of info from a person trying to keep and grow the rarest and most difficult corals and all you want to do is keep softies and a couple LPS will have a completely different and WAY more expensive path than you.

Sounds good but this is a forum, the knowledge is meant for us all, not sure why you would bypass that and take away from this forum, you can give your advice, the OP can choose to only listen to your advice but imo it would add more to the forum to share that advice for everyone.

 

[14 foot reef]

Sounds good but this is a forum, the knowledge is meant for us all, not sure why you would bypass that and take away from this forum, you can give your advice, the OP can choose to only listen to your advice but imo it would add more to the forum to share that advice for everyone.

I don't disagree with that, but when I see someone post that they have been getting too many different plans and advice on a subject I try to help them on a one on one basis to get them on track without all of the "Forum" noise that his original post hinted towards.

 

[Reef.]

I don't disagree with that, but when I see someone post that they have been getting too many different plans and advice on a subject I try to help them on a one on one basis to get them on track without all of the "Forum" noise that his original post hinted towards.

I can see where you are coming from but there are many routes to a good reef, hearing more than one way can be very beneficial and then its down to the OP to decide which way they want to go, its all part of learning , for every piece of equipment in this hobby and method to achieve a given result their are people that would swear its the wrong way or the equipment is absolutely needed yet others that would say the complete opposite.

Maybe a suggestion to the mods to implement a “help team” section where such one2one help can be given but where its also viewable by the forum as a whole.

 

[14 foot reef]

I can see where you are coming from but there are many routes to a good reef, hearing more than one way can be very beneficial and then its down to the OP to decide which way they want to go its all part of learning , for every piece of equipment in this hobby and method to achieve a given result their are people that would swear its the wrong way or the equipment is absolutely needed yet others that would say the complete opposite.

Maybe a suggestion to the mods to implement a “help team” section where such one2one help can be given but where its also viewable by the forum as a whole.

Not a bad suggestion!!
Me investing a ton of time in helping someone to only have many very inexperienced people chime in with really bad advise "personally" annoys me. ( Maybe that's my problem )

Sound advise from a few excellent reefers is always my path I like to promote.

 

[eggie]

Carbon Dosing could help easily plus weekly water changes.
Either Tropic Marine Elimini NP or NP Bacto balance are good

 

[Reef.]

Hey what’s going on everyone! Hoping you are all well. I wish I wasn’t confused about this topic, but after reading so many forums it’s a lot of information to choose which to go with in terms of option. My nitrates and phosphates have been high for some time. I neglected testing my water for nitrates and phosphates as I just continued to check alk, calc and mag. They spiked up to 50 ppm nitrates and 0.25 phosphates. I wanted to get some advice on how to lower them safely. I started using some gfo to lower phosphates but tbh not really wanting to do that long term. Looked into a Chaeto reactor and carbon dosing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

75 gallon reef
- Alk ~8.2-8.5
- Calc 400
- Mag 1320
- Phosphates 0.25 but after gfo has started decreasing to 0.13 with Hanna checker
- Nitrates 50 with salifert 40 with api

You first need to be honest with yourself and ask why the nutrients are high, is it because you over feed, add coral food, not keep up with maintenance etc then fix that issue because you can fix your numbers but if you don’t fix the underlying reason why they are high, they will just go up again.

You can use gfo to get high po4 down, then switch to carbon dosing to keep them stable. (I recommend Tropic Marin bacto balance for carbon dosing)

Decide where you want your nitrates and po4 to be, say under 10 for nitrates and around 0.1 or under for po4, then aim to keep them there, a 50% water change will drop your nitrates by 50% but pointless if you don’t fix the reason why they are high in the first place.

If you start keeping records of your numbers you will see how fast they are increasing and how much water changes and general maintenance keeps those number where they need to be, so you then know if you need to do more or feed less or have too many fish etc etc

You are not too far off decent numbers now, a little lower on po4 and a few biggish water changes will get your nitrates down, then keep a good record of how fast your numbers go up over a week or two, then you will have a good idea on a good route to follow, what percentage water change you need to do, changing filter socks more often or less often, adding a little gfo or upping your dose of carbon etc

 

[UMALUM]

The first step in the battle is figuring out how you got where your at. Whatever you've done or haven't done will need to change if you don't want to fight it forever. After getting your maintenance and feeding regulated the sky's the limit these days for extra export options.

 

[elireefer7]

You first need to be honest with yourself and ask why the nutrients are high, is it because you over feed, add coral food, not keep up with maintenance etc then fix that issue because you can fix your numbers but if you don’t fix the underlying reason why they are high, they will just go up again.

You can use gfo to get high po4 down, then switch to carbon dosing to keep them stable. (I recommend Tropic Marin bacto balance for carbon dosing)

Decide where you want your nitrates andpo4 to be, say under 10 for nitrates and around 0.1 or under for po4, then aim to keep them there, a 50% water change will drop your nitrates by 50% but pointless if you don’t fix the reason why they are high in the first place.

If you start keeping records of your numbers you will see how fast they are increasing and how much water changes and general maintenance keeps those number where they need to be, so you then know if you need to do more or feed less or have too many fish etc etc

You are not too far off decent numbers now, a little lower on po4 and a few biggish water changes will get your nitrates down, then keep a good record of how fast your numbers go up over a week or two, then you will have a good idea on a good route to follow, what percentage water change you need to do, changing filter socks more often or less often, adding a little gfo or upping your dose of carbon

The first step in the battle is figuring out how you got where your at. Whatever you've done or haven't done will need to change if you don't want to fight it forever. After getting your maintenance and feeding regulated the sky's the limit these days for extra export options.

Carbon Dosing could help easily plus weekly water changes.
Either Tropic Marine Elimini NP or NP Bacto balance are good

Thank you for all this advice! i Appreciate it all. I will keep you updated on the progress!

 

[elireefer7]

Any recommended info on carbon dosing?

 

[UMALUM]

Any recommended info on carbon dosing?

I don't trust fueling bad bacteria and have no patience for gfo so I got an ATS.

 

[bobnicaragua]

I prefer cheato, it will lower nitrates and minimize the nightly PH drop. It also helps with stability and biodiversity.

I can crank the light in the fuge and get my nitrates down as low as I want, but I always have to run GFO.

Try to get on a regular maintenance routine that maintains your water quality.

 

[elireefer7]

I don't trust fueling bad bacteria and have no patience for gfo so I got an ATS.

I saw someone’s thread on building a chaeto reactor out of a phosban 150 reactor. Is that similar to an ATS

 

[Reef.]

Any recommended info on carbon dosing?

Look into Tropic marin bacto balance, its very easy to use, there are 3 products but generally you only need 2,the 3rd product is just adding back nutrients if you are at zero…bacto balance you add if your po4 is under 0.1 or Elimi if its over 0.1, the difference between the two is only that bacto balance has some nutrients added to it so its to safeguard against dropping your nutrients to zero as that's bad, they add a few nutrients so safeguard against thst, the Elimi doesn’t have those, that’s why you use it only when above 0.1 as there is no point adding more nutrients when you already have high nutrients, its that simple, the dose is on the bottle, its really a very tiny amount, start with half the recommended amount for two weeks then increase if needed but do not add more than the bottle says, use gfo if your po4 will not come down over a month or so.

The reason why its bad to add too much is because it is feeding bacteria in your tank, which makes them multiply, they then use more oxygen from the water which reduces the oxygen available for your fish which could have a real possibility of killing your fish.

 

[UMALUM]

I saw someone’s thread on building a chaeto reactor out of a phosban 150 reactor. Is that similar to an ATS

I would say close enough but some systems don't grow chaeto well. A scrubber is gonna grow what the system provides without manipulation.

 

[elireefer7]

Look into Tropic marin bacto balance, its very easy to use, there are 3 products but generally you only need 2,the 3rd product is just adding back nutrients if you are at zero…bacto balance you add if your po4 is under 0.1 or Elimi if its over 0.1, the difference between the two is only that bacto balance has some nutrients added to it so its to safeguard against dropping your nutrients to zero as that's bad, they add a few nutrients so safeguard against thst, the Elimi doesn’t have tho so thatq why you use it only when above 0.1 as there is no point adding more nutrients when you already have high nutrients, its that simple, the dose is on the bottle, its really a very tiny amount, start either half the recommended amount for two weeks then increase if needed but do not add more than the bottle says, use gfo if your po4 will not come down over a month or so.

The reason why its bad to add too much is because it is feeding bacteria qin your tank, which makes them multiply, they then use more oxygen from the water which reduces the oxygen available for your fish which could have a real possibility of killing your fish.

Would you say this is an option to just lower the nutrients and then continue a better maintenance schedule? Or is it part of your weekly maintenance

 

[UMALUM]

Look into Tropic marin bacto balance, its very easy to use, there are 3 products but generally you only need 2,the 3rd product is just adding back nutrients if you are at zero…bacto balance you add if your po4 is under 0.1 or Elimi if its over 0.1, the difference between the two is only that bacto balance has some nutrients added to it so its to safeguard against dropping your nutrients to zero as that's bad, they add a few nutrients so safeguard against thst, the Elimi doesn’t have those, that’s why you use it only when above 0.1 as there is no point adding more nutrients when you already have high nutrients, its that simple, the dose is on the bottle, its really a very tiny amount, start with half the recommended amount for two weeks then increase if needed but do not add more than the bottle says, use gfo if your po4 will not come down over a month or so.

The reason why its bad to add too much is because it is feeding bacteria in your tank, which makes them multiply, they then use more oxygen from the water which reduces the oxygen available for your fish which could have a real possibility of killing your fish.

Fish? Who cares about the fish?

Just kidding fish lovers.

 

[elireefer7]

Is that a paletta pink tip

 

[UMALUM]

Is that a paletta pink tip

Think it's a banana hammock.