0 Phosphates 0 Nitrates What to do?

[Natereef]

I have a 26 gallon cobalt cvue aquarium that was set up 4/6/19

This is the first time that this happened to me, usually I struggle with high nutrients. My sps are starting to bleach especially my encrusting montis. I recently just bought a salifert phosphate and nitrate test kit and lo and behold zero nitrates and phospates. I have 2 clowns and 2 bangais in there, I feed 2 cubes of mysis everyday and a scoop of reef roids everyday. I have no algae or cyano. I dont know what to do short of dosing nutrients. My fishes stomachs would explode if I feed more. Any tips? I took my skimmer and gfo reactor offline about 4 days ago still 0 nutrients. Corals that are bleaching are red dragon, encrusting and branching cyphastreas, encrusting montis. My green slimer on the other hand is growing at an extraordinary rate.  Everything else seems happy and content except for those mentioned above.

Should I just keep dumping food even if it doesnt get eaten?😵

 

Salinity 1.025

Nitrates 0

Phosphates 0

CA 425

KH 9.3

MG 1300

[Clown79]

I found dosing phyto for my pods and corals increased my phos and things look much better in my tank since phos has increased. Unfortunately I have not been able to get my nitrates higher than 2.

 

You feed pretty heavily, so you should have nutrients. 

 

How often and large are your waterchanges?

[seabass]

The bleaching could be light related.  I might try lowering levels just a little.  Continue feeding.  Maybe consider adding amino acids.

 

What's your alkalinity levels?  High alkalinity and low nutrients can also be a problem.

[ninjamyst]

you can also dose nitrate straight up to raise it without feeding more and introducing unwanted nutrients.  https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

[Natereef]

7 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I found dosing phyto for my pods and corals increased my phos and things look much better in my tank since phos has increased. Unfortunately I have not been able to get my nitrates higher than 2.

 

You feed pretty heavily, so you should have nutrients. 

 

How often and large are your waterchanges?

 

27 minutes ago, seabass said:

The bleaching could be light related.  I might try lowering levels just a little.  Continue feeding.  Maybe consider adding amino acids.

 

What's your alkalinity levels?  High alkalinity and low nutrients can also be a problem.

 

Last water change was a week. I usually do 5 gallons weekly but I dont think i would be doing that soon 😂. 

 

Thats what I thought too seabass. So I actually put my hydra26 in acclimation mode. Im running my lights all the way down to 20%. 

 

That stump remover looks freaking scary though 😱

 

ill try dosing phyto and zoos to add more nutes. Im already dosing red sea aminos a & b. 

[SaltyBuddha]

Your tank is less than a month old.... are you sure it is cycled?

That is a lot of stuff to put in there under 4 weeks old. 

The corals and fish all look okay, but this would be my first concern.

 

Phytos is a good idea.

Any coral foods like Rods or Coral Frenzy can help increase nutrients pretty easily as well. 

 

[empresto]

I have this same issue with my tank which is about 23 gals total water volume, and I'm quite sure a lot of it for me is due to the cheato in my fuge growing well under a good grow light.  I've had to dose KNO3 (Saltpeter) via my ATO to keep something in the tank for the corals to use or my montis bleach as well.  I feed a cube a day with about a 16th to an 8th of a tsp reef roids added and the only thing I can raise with food is phosphates (and that still needs the Hanna ultra low range phosphorus checker to detect).

 

I figured out what my tank was using per day by slowly raising the concentration of KNO3 in the ATO until I could get a detectable level, and then backed off to where it was stable.  This works reasonable well, but when you live in MN, the humidity swings in winter can really screw with this method since evaporation can fluctuate a lot.  I used the calculator at this link (http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm) to get a starting dosage for my tank (something like .25 ppm NO3 added per day) and then increased from there, testing every day to make sure I wasn't polluting the tank.  A bit 'mad scientist' but it has kept my montis happy 🙂

[Natereef]

56 minutes ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Your tank is less than a month old.... are you sure it is cycled?

That is a lot of stuff to put in there under 4 weeks old. 

The corals and fish all look okay, but this would be my first concern.

 

Phytos is a good idea.

Any coral foods like Rods or Coral Frenzy can help increase nutrients pretty easily as well. 

 

 

16 minutes ago, empresto said:

I have this same issue with my tank which is about 23 gals total water volume, and I'm quite sure a lot of it for me is due to the cheato in my fuge growing well under a good grow light.  I've had to dose KNO3 (Saltpeter) via my ATO to keep something in the tank for the corals to use or my montis bleach as well.  I feed a cube a day with about a 16th to an 8th of a tsp reef roids added and the only thing I can raise with food is phosphates (and that still needs the Hanna ultra low range phosphorus checker to detect).

 

I figured out what my tank was using per day by slowly raising the concentration of KNO3 in the ATO until I could get a detectable level, and then backed off to where it was stable.  This works reasonable well, but when you live in MN, the humidity swings in winter can really screw with this method since evaporation can fluctuate a lot.  I used the calculator at this link (http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm) to get a starting dosage for my tank (something like .25 ppm NO3 added per day) and then increased from there, testing every day to make sure I wasn't polluting the tank.  A bit 'mad scientist' but it has kept my montis happy 🙂

 

Yes its fully cycled. I just bought some seachem phyto and zoo, lets see where that gets me or I might have to look into that saltpeter stuff. Thanks for linking that calculator.

[Natereef]

Update: Good news nitrates are up at 2ppm already, man those phyto and zoo are effective haha. Lets get it up some more. Phosphates are still low and Im still having a hard time reading it with the salifert. Cant distinguish the colors yet. Ill buy a hannah in the future to make it easier for me. Little short on funds right now.

[seabass]

Yeah, the Salifert Phosphate kit is a bit difficult.  I  usually shoot for just the slightest tinge of blue (with totally clear being undesirable).  And when you can't distinguish between 0.03 and 0.1, then phosphate is too high.