What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

[Andy]

Just for MM/ecosystem peeps remember.....

[signus]

Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate = Nill, or very close to it.

Phosphate = Nill, but with the help of phosban :D

[Cranners]

Ammonia >0.25ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Phosphate - 0.015ppm (salifert test)

I am running a small phosphate reactor at the moment using a small pump and CT mini reactor. I am feeding the tank a little more so next tests will see if the phosphate is kept in check. I will be using my mates D&D test kit for this

J

[Andy]

Im just interested to see if a purely algae scrubber environment can sustain NSW levels.

My interim project would be a mixture of miracle mud, algae as well as probiotic bacteria.

[dan-the-man]

Couldn't be sure since I haven't checked for the past few months but nothing has changed and nitrate and phos were both at zero. When something is wrong I think it's easier to tell with these systems.

[Ocean Corals]

I have a MM system that has been running 2.5 years (the MM has never been changed) and its far to say i'm over stocked.....
Nitrite, 0/2
phosphate 0, but some times creeps up abit.

Paul

[Haile S]

My nitrate peaked at 5 during the cycle and since then has varied between nd and 0.5 under normal conditions and 0.5-1 when I’ve been lazy and not harvested the chaeto. (Salifert tests)

Phos has been more problematic, I think due to leaching from second hand LR. About a year ago I switched to the D&D test kit which showed my phos at about 0.1 mg/l P. I added a phosban reactor and it took 3 changes of phosban to get the phos down to 0.03. For the next few months the phos varied between 0.015 and 0.03 when the phosban needed changing. For the last couple of months it has been at 0.008, I have been changing the phosban every two months or so.

The tank is moderately stocked with fish but I feed the fish and corals quite heavily. I do a 15% water change every two months and probably change about another 5-10% every month due to adding or removing livestock.