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Originally Posted by LeanneP
My nitrates are .25 so not much. Did you get your phosphates down and if so how? I am thinking it might take some time since they have bee high for a bit but just hoping they do come down since I have such a high bio load with so many nems.
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Well, it was a bit of an experiment for my tank and I'm only a few weeks in but the results came quick. My issue was my NO3 was undetectable, and my PO4 was too as long as I used GFO. As soon as I ran out of GFO my PO4 would skyrocket fast but NO3 would stay at 0.
Wish I had more time to go further in depth, but start with the basics: weekly/bi-weekly water changes including vacuuming the sand and blowing off the rocks, good skimmer, don't let uneaten food sit, rinse food before feeding, good cleanup crew, etc.
It appears that an imbalance between nitrates, phosphates, and carbon will cause cyano as it was a constant fight in my tank.
First I started feeding the fish and corals a lot more than ever. PO4 raised quickly (over .2ppm) and eventually finally NO3 slowly started coming up. Then I resumed dosing carbon and bacteria. I use prodibio. I'm sure MB7 or the like with vodka or sugar would work too. Make sure you read on the proper way to dose carbon before you start.
Then I started to dose NaNO3 to bring up my NO3 to around 2ppm. As soon as it got high enough I had a bacterial bloom and the next day my PO4 was .02ppm without GFO! All I've had to do is keep my NO3 between 1-2ppm and it keeps the PO4 down.
I'm hoping I can keep this balance moving forward without having to dose NaNO3 on a regular basis, but we'll see. It is extremely cheap if I do end up having to dose.
The idea is bacteria need to consume nitrate, phosphate and carbon. I was putting plenty of bacteria in the tank, giving them lots of carbon and phosphates, but they were starved for nitrates. As soon as I gave them more nitrates they gobbled up the phosphates. Then my skimmer started pulling out some pretty thick and stinky skimate!