Nitrates and Phosphates won’t go up

[ecoreefguy]

To start off, I feed the crap out of the tank. Using both pellets and frozen. I currently don’t have any chart. And tank is 10 months.

I can’t seem to get my phosphates and nitrates stable. It keep bottoming out. Phosphate especially read zero on trident, gamma, and salifret alot. Nitrates lowers gradually. I’ll fighting low levels as well, and every time I change my water the nutrient levels get even lower , cancelling anything I dose to raise it. I would like to eventually add a Fuge for pods and what not, but I think the macro would just starve.
Turning off skimmer is not too feasible either since it’ll drop my pH too low for my comfort. Any ideas what I can do to regulate levels?

 

[jvb89]

Add a co2 scrubber, and turn your skimmer as dry as possible. If it's a DC pump, crank the power to 100%. Your PH will be fine

 

[jvb89]

Of course you could always add more fish as well

 

[shanepike]

I had the same problem for a while. Had to dose both NeoNitrate and NeoPhos every day, but eventually my levels began staying elevated on their own. I don't run a skimmer, and my pH goes from 8.0 at night to 8.4 during the day.

All that said, I don't know why the levels finally stopped bottoming out. Did my dry rock finally stop sucking up phosphate? Did the fish grow enough that their poop is now making the difference? Something else? All of those things?

 

[ecoreefguy]

Add a co2 scrubber, and turn your skimmer as dry as possible. If it's a DC pump, crank the power to 100%. Your PH will be fine

I am already running a scrubber , but I guess I can try to lower the skimmer level to more dry

 

[ecoreefguy]

You can see where the phosphate and nitrate curve

 

[jvb89]

My choice would be dosing phosphate

 

[jcook54]

When I had the same issue, I ended up dosing both nitrate and phosphate. Never could figure out why they were always so low. Too many corals using NO3 and PO4? Not enough fish? I so turned the skimmer off for 12 hours every day.

 

[ecoreefguy]

When I had the same issue, I ended up dosing both nitrate and phosphate. Never could figure out why they were always so low. Too many corals using NO3 and PO4? Not enough fish? I so turned the skimmer off for 12 hours every day.

I have like 6 big tangs amongst many other schooling fish and wrasses. I think it’s my clams

 

[John Bowers]

I had constant low levels when I had a problem with dinos, and even if I dosed 2-3 PPM nitrate as an additive, the nitrate would return to zero in the next day. I added about 20 ppm nitrate 2-4 ppm a day until I saw a reading of >1 ppm. After that coral and tank health seemed to improve for a bit. Just dose nitrate slowly at <5 ppm a day until you get readings. Once Nitrate reached positive, the dinos declined. An established tank can run a nitrogen deficit and all nitrogen is being actively used, and there could be an unmet demand as well. I am trying to get it positive at least briefly every month or so the demand/supply is not too bad.

 

[John Bowers]

20 ppm nitrate is not a problem, in fact I would strive more for the 5-10 range.

 

[ecoreefguy]

20 ppm nitrate is not a problem, in fact I would strive more for the 5-10 range.

20 was after doesing. Both generally reads 0/0 after a week if nothing is added