How to increase NO3 and PO4

Simeondupreez

Simeondupreez

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Hi Forum,

I have been struggeling with undetectable nitrates and phosphates for a few months now. I have recently started adding SPS frags to my tank and they have all lost their original colour. From the research that I have done I am quite sure that the issue is due to my nutrient levels.

In order to try increase my nutrients I started feeding more frequently about a month ago (frozen food twice a day for fish and dry food once a day for corals). And a week ago I removed my filter floss. I have also been dosing seachem's phyto and zoo plankton for about a month now. I havent seen an increase yet.

Any ideas of how I can SLOWLY increase my nutrients without disrupting the whole tank? My current filtration includes a BM Curve 5 skimmer, Seachem De-Nitrate, ceramic rings, plastic balls, a home made algae scrubber, bituminous carbon and a bag of cuprisorb. I have 7 small fish (clown fish size) a few inverts and a bunch of soft corals, LPS and a few frags of SPS.

I'm not too keen on dosing nitrates, because I feel I need to get the tank's nutrient input and export in balance for a long term sollution.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Simplest option is to add more fish, feed more and take your scrubber off line.

More complicated option is to dose nitrates and phosphates.
 
I dose diy sodium nitrate to keep my nitrates up. I haven't really fiddled with phosphates but I know there are commercial products available to raise it aswell. Some time ago... Actually a year ago I tried the more feeding route. I couldn't get it right. So for me dosing is the easiest. I have much better control on what I add and how much I add
 
I have seen alot of similar threads here and on other forums and I'm still playing with the idea but can tell from my experiment that light and heat will have an effect on your color and also your levels, for example algea under more light will consume more nutrients thus keeping levels in check but taking over the tank the test will show fine levels and indeed it is as the algae is using everything , still a noob at this but seems to make sence as I lowered light intensity the algea slowed growth and my pocillopora opened up more and tips are more bright in color my monti caps still new have faded to pale color so I turned down the lights more few days back and I notice small differences in my tests today but heat is close to dangerous at moment as we experiencing a heat wave so cant say it for a fact
 
your tank sounds a lot like mine

my tank is about 6years old now, SPS dominant system and my undetectable nutrients have often been a problem. sometimes with coloration of sps, sometimes making them a bit more vulnerable to small changes in the tank. i have barely any algea growth on my live rock, at most a dusting on the glass after a week or so. ive tried adding more fish, feeding daily frozen cubes and nori on top of pellets. and that just hasnt helped. i managed to get a blip when i added a 14kg piece of dead rock, but that passed also and it went undetectable soon after
i started dosing phosphates and nitrates directly and immediately saw improvement in coral but it wasnt sustainable to keep dosing in the amounts required as those nutrients would get consumed quickly
i ran algea scrubber, about 10l of siporax, also a chamber in sump for deep sand topped with about 2l of matrix on top of a monster skimmer and some media reactors

after getting advised by someone with fantastic experience i eventually removed my scrubber (the argument was the scrubber was consuming necessary nutrients as well as releasing glucose and fueling unwanted bacteria proliferation) and within a week i saw improvement in color and a growth spurt. i was hesitant to remove it at once, i thought of reducing light time on scrubber or size but i ended up doing it in one go

now i went the next step to remove the siporax, matrix and deep sand bed. so far its been off a week and im seeing further improvement in color with metallic sheen of colors starting. i plan on testig nutrients next week to see where we are at but for now im extremely happy with the changes

i definitely dont think adding livestock is the way to go. in a newer tank yes adding livestock has an impact, but in an established tank it just doesnt have that same effect

i dont often post on the forum, im very much a casual lurker so my post may not hold much weight but i made the suggestion because your issue sounds very similar to mine
 
Last edited:
Simeondupreez said:
Hi Forum,

I have been struggeling with undetectable nitrates and phosphates for a few months now. I have recently started adding SPS frags to my tank and they have all lost their original colour. From the research that I have done I am quite sure that the issue is due to my nutrient levels.

In order to try increase my nutrients I started feeding more frequently about a month ago (frozen food twice a day for fish and dry food once a day for corals). And a week ago I removed my filter floss. I have also been dosing seachem's phyto and zoo plankton for about a month now. I havent seen an increase yet.

Any ideas of how I can SLOWLY increase my nutrients without disrupting the whole tank? My current filtration includes a BM Curve 5 skimmer, Seachem De-Nitrate, ceramic rings, plastic balls, a home made algae scrubber, bituminous carbon and a bag of cuprisorb. I have 7 small fish (clown fish size) a few inverts and a bunch of soft corals, LPS and a few frags of SPS.

I'm not too keen on dosing nitrates, because I feel I need to get the tank's nutrient input and export in balance for a long term sollution.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

If you want to raise Nitrate, use Saltpeter Potassium Nitrate from Clicks: https://clicks.co.za/clicks_saltpetre-50g/p/81222 Start dosage with a gram or 2, then test.

For Phosphate, use Seachem Flourish Phosphorous.

Algae scrubber also stripped my tank off nutrients, dosing the above helped. I setup Flourish on a dosing pump to keep up with scrubber consumption
 
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