Testing No3 Po4

[fishlips]

Need some help. My Red Sea pro test kit is giving me a reading of 0 on both , No3 & Po4.
I'm sure the Po4 is somewhat false, because in overflow has a small patch oh HA in it.
The No3 is something I'm concerned about.
My tank is all SPS. Want to improve on the colors of acros. Polyps are good on most, some better then others.
Have plenty of fish, Feed 3 times a day. Pellets in morning and afternoon, Then frozen 2 cubes of mysis shrimp. Or brine shrimp.
I run gfo,and carbon.
Cal- 440
Alk - 7.5
Mag1400

 

[russ-iv]

anything below 2ppm and my corals pale. if it is a red sea pro kit giving you 0... that is quite troublesome.

i feed as often as i want and nitrates still decrease. no skimmer. no carbon dosing.

you can dose it via stump remover or seachem flourish nitrogen and bump it to 5 to see what happens.

some other tell tale signs:
corals wont bioluminesce at night. pale colors, stunted growth, white tips - depebding on alk and severity

 

[jbdreefs]

I recently had an experience with a bad Red Sea mag test. It was old.

The first thing I would do, is get a second opinion on the test results.

 

[fishlips]

Thanks, Got a API for back up,and it shows the same.Tested with Red Sea again,and the same.
Should i pull the carbon. I don't want to stop the gfo, reason last month I stopped gfo and I could see algae starting.
My Red Sea kit is fairly new. I'm sure the No3 is an accurate read at 0. Would like to do something to try to improve. And again, Thanks,I appreciate the imput from all.

 

[snowmansnow]

I'm sure I'll take some shots for this, but that's cool.... Be very careful in trying to RAISE no3. 0 no3 is not bad, and good coloration is very attainable with 0. Raising your po4 and or no3 is just one way to do things, but in my biased opinion an acceptable level of these things in you ur tank if over 0 is difficult to maintain.
Remember testing reveals what has already happened, and to maintain a level of "x" you're going to end up dosing something extra.
Again, just my 2 cents. Some folks get real fiery about this topic for some reason.

For me... With my schedule it's just easier to get things going at undetectable levels and let it roll.



So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[snowmansnow]

In reading the above .... If you do want to get your po4 down without gfo... The nopox DOES work. Yea it's dosing something else .... Just saying it's an option.


So long, and thanks for all the fish.