Nutrients

[gprdypoo04]

If my nitrates are 1ppm and my phosphates say an average of 0.6 ppm would that be regarded as low nutrients?

 

[hegeh]

If my nitrates are 1ppm and my phosphates say an average of 0.6 ppm would that be regarded as low nutrients?

From the numbers, it looks low. But it still depends on your coral if they are starving if your concern is low nutrients. But imo you could lower po4 further down since no3 is at 1ppm.

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[bertoni]

I wouldn't call 0.6 ppm phosphate low nutrient. I would try to lower that to 0.03 ppm, but there's a lot of debate on the topic. 1 ppm nitrate probably is safe for any animal that you would like to keep.

 

[gprdypoo04]

Ok. So then I can assume my corals could take a little higher alkalinity which is about 8.7 dkh or little more intense lighting.

 

[bertoni]

I suspect that they'll be fine.

 

[gprdypoo04]

I wouldn't call 0.6 ppm phosphate low nutrient. I would try to lower that to 0.03 ppm, but there's a lot of debate on the topic. 1 ppm nitrate probably is safe for any animal that you would like to keep.

Let's say that phosphate is 0.06. What would be your answer now out of curiosity????

 

[bertoni]

That's still fine with a higher alkalinity, in my opinion. If you got a measured zero, I might think more carefully about raising the alkalinity. Lots of people are fine with higher alkalinity and very low nutrients, though. It's not clear what's happening.

 

[gprdypoo04]

Thanks. My alk is 8.4 give or take a bit and just wanted to know if my nutrient level would support that. I've come a long way over the years from 50 ppm of nitrate to where I am now. Just got to keep my phosphates low now. I don't have a fuge or sump but I'll have to look into getting some more macro algae. The fish that I have don't eat it so just hang it from my top screen.

 

[bertoni]

You're welcome. It sounds as if you've made a lot of progress.

 

[coralcruze2020]

I dont see any change in my tank if my No3 is between 1-5 and po4 is between .03-.1 However these two have to be in balance with one another. 16:1 or there about.

 

[bertoni]

What do you see when the ratio is different than that?

 

[gprdypoo04]

You're welcome. It sounds as if you've made a lot of progress.

Well since my nitrates are finally low i picked up a few different kinds of caulerpa to see if it would drop my phosphates. Since i dont have a fuge or sump it was suggested i make a little box out of egg crate. I also changed out 10 gal of water and sucked up some of the sand and dumped it. What a couple of black buckets that was! Now i don't know what dropped my phosphates to .02 ppm but I'm happy with that. I'm still running a few ounces of that seachem product for phosphates too. Give it 5 days or so and do another test but it looks like things are moving in the right direction. But now I'm worried about nutrients getting to low....lol. From one problem to the next! I hope my caulerpa doesn't go sexual cause I had that happen when in a reactor and making a mess of my tank.

 

[coralcruze2020]

What do you see when the ratio is different than that?

I may see hair algae and other nuance algae typically start to be an issue. However mainly see that off balance Po4 to No3 will lock up one vs the other so if for example No3 is higher than I would like but Po4 is where it needs to be I will not be able to bring no3 down.