Raised nitrates, now how to maintain?

[EPMH59]

A little while back, I completely lost a Toadstool Leather. It little by little wilted away and eventually died. Shortly after, my Xenia shrunk and mostly stopped pulsing. Most likely culprit was my water being too clean. Nitrates and phosphates were testing at 0. And so, to raise nutrients, I skipped water changes for 3 weeks, fed more, and also started supplementing BeneReef.

 

My nitrates are now 5 ppm, phosphates at 0.25. (I know that’s high, gotta bring that down ASAP.) The Xenias are back to full size and pulsing rapidly. So my question is, am I now free to resume my regular weekly water changes and regular feeding, or will that eventually tap me out and bring me back down to 0? How do I maintain these slightly elevated levels?

 

Also, additional question pertaining to this, what are the most accurate testing kits? I currently use the API ones, but what I don’t like is that they go by intervals. For instance the nitrate one goes from 0-5-10, etc. Phosphate goes from 0-0.25-0.50, etc. So my nitrates and phosphates may not be exactly 5 and 0.25, but the test color was closest to the color for those intervals on the result cards.

[Clown79]

Api phosphates isn't recommended for reef tanks.

The nitrate works fine.

Salifert, hanna, red sea are the favoured kits.

I wouldn't stress about the phos level, many of us have had them that high with no ill effects to the tank.

Maintaing your levels is more a difficult answer. Watch your nutrient levels by testing and it can help you determine size and frequency of waterchanges needed for your system as well as feeding.

[SaltyGallon]

What are you feeding? I'm not sure how e.g. mysis/pellet/reef roids compare in terms of phosphate content but I often think pellets are less "polluting" - whether any logic to that I'm not sure. Thought I think frozen foods can be quite high in phosphate? The majority of the Salifert kits are excellent but I don't rate their Phosphate test kit.

 

I'd dial back your water changes to bi-weekly and continue to feed generously, and test every couple of days until you get into a new routine 🙂

[Tired]

Your phosphate is perfectly fine. High phosphates (and many tanks have it much higher) just encourage algae growth to some extent, it won't hurt anything. I'd even consider trying to get your nitrates up slightly more, especially if you plan to keep lots of soft corals, and seeing how the tank likes that. Maybe shoot for 10ish. 

 

Yep, lots of testing is the way to go. You just have to figure out what size/frequency of water change works best. IMO, smaller, more frequent water changes are better, since they involve less fluctuation. 

If I were you, I might try about a 5% water change every week. What you want to see is that phosphates and nitrates, when averaged out across multiple water changes, stay about the same. So you'd want them to stay fairly steady for at least a month. If they're slowly increasing over time, do larger water changes. If they're decreasing, do smaller or less frequent ones. 5% is a very small amount to change, you'll probably need to change a bit more, but it's a good starting point. Try that for a couple weeks. 

[mcarroll]

On 9/7/2020 at 1:41 AM, EPMH59 said:

My nitrates are now 5 ppm, phosphates at 0.25. (I know that’s high, gotta bring that down ASAP.) The Xenias are back to full size and pulsing rapidly.

Excellent.  Re-read that statement.  Notice that the part in parenthesis doesn't really fit.  

 

You brought up nutrients.  Your corals responded positively.  Your response would not be to undo that, right?  😉

 

On 9/7/2020 at 1:41 AM, EPMH59 said:

So my question is, am I now free to resume my regular weekly water changes and regular feeding, or will that eventually tap me out and bring me back down to 0? How do I maintain these slightly elevated levels?

I would say that your regular schedule was arbitrary and wasn't working.  So no, don't go back to it.  👍

 

Stop chasing numbers, but continue testing to keep tabs on how the system changes in the numbers and how those changes correspond to what you see going on in the tank (ie coral growth, etc).

 

You can still do water changes, but limit them (by frequency or volume or both) so that your numbers don't change very much as a result.  I'd probably test your tank water before and after you water change at least a few times so you get a better sense of the impact that a water change has.

 

On 9/7/2020 at 1:41 AM, EPMH59 said:

Also, additional question pertaining to this, what are the most accurate testing kits? I currently use the API ones, but what I don’t like is that they go by intervals. For instance the nitrate one goes from 0-5-10, etc. Phosphate goes from 0-0.25-0.50, etc. So my nitrates and phosphates may not be exactly 5 and 0.25, but the test color was closest to the color for those intervals on the result cards.

API kits are fine for what you're doing – the object is simply to NOT hit zero.  You aren't targeting any particular level – just not zero.

 

If you CHOOSE to chase numbers (or heaven forbid target zero) then you'll definitely want a digital readout.  I don't recommend this approach though, if that weren't already clear. 😉 

 

That said, you can still use a digital meter if you just want to.  They work very well, but are more cumbersome than the API test and a bit more expensive per test.