0 nitrates...remove chaeto?

[JonoB]

60 G cube, current stocking is 2 clowns, 1 fairy wrasse, 1 spotted goby, 1 lyre tail anthias.

Here is the question:

My nitrates are currently at 0, but my phosphates are .04. My zoas haven't been doing great and I would like to get my nitrates up a bit, but I don't think simply feeding more is really going to help without also spiking my phosphates.

Does my chaeto absorb/use a significant amount of nitrates? Should I try removing it for a bit to see if I can get nitrates back up? Or should I leave it and try to feed more and get nitrates up.

Guide me, oh wise reefers.

 

[theMeat]

Macro generally consume nitrates to phosphate 4 to 1.
IMO leave cheato and dose nitrates.

Would guess you have some nitrates, just undetected when lights are on and they’re getting consumed.

Might wanna check magnesium. Because growing macro consumes magnesium too

 

[JonoB]

Yeah I should have posted that, my mag was lower than I wanted it (1260) so I am dosing to get it back to 1300

 

[Dan_P]

60 G cube, current stocking is 2 clowns, 1 fairy wrasse, 1 spotted goby, 1 lyre tail anthias.

Here is the question:

My nitrates are currently at 0, but my phosphates are .04. My zoas haven't been doing great and I would like to get my nitrates up a bit, but I don't think simply feeding more is really going to help without also spiking my phosphates.

Does my chaeto absorb/use a significant amount of nitrates? Should I try removing it for a bit to see if I can get nitrates back up? Or should I leave it and try to feed more and get nitrates up.

Guide me, oh wise reefers.

I agree about dosing nitrate. This is the most straightforward approach.

At some point you will need to prune the Chaeto but not as part of a nitrate level adjustment scheme. The time between pruning and seeing an effect is too unpredictable.

 

[Salthead007]

You might also consider reducing the length of the photo period of your refugium.

 

[RomoFL]

Instead of dosing nitrates can’t you add more livestock?

 

[theMeat]

Adding level livestock or feeding more will increase phosphate along with nitrate. Dosing nitrate will only increase nitrate

 

[Jstn]

do you target feed your zoa? If not i would use reef roids or a similar plankton based food before going down the path of dosing nitrates. Nitrate dosing can be helpful with a true imbalance (high phosphates) or a tank that's heavily feed and can't keep the levels up. Try feeding more first.

A PO4 reading of 0.04 is fine i wouldn't chase it lower and if it creeps up i wouldn't lose sleep, let the chaeto do its job. I dump food in my 120 and my nitrates float at 1 ppm with my chaeto based fuge and my
PO4 is between 0.04 and 0.10 (30 mins after feeding)

 

[ScottR]

do you target feed your zoa? If not i would use reef roids or a similar plankton based food before going down the path of dosing nitrates. Nitrate dosing can be helpful with a true imbalance (high phosphates) or a tank that's heavily feed and can't keep the levels up. Try feeding more first.

A PO4 reading of 0.04 is fine i wouldn't chase it lower and if it creeps up i wouldn't lose sleep, let the chaeto do its job. I dump food in my 120 and my nitrates float at 1 ppm with my chaeto based fuge and my
PO4 is between 0.04 and 0.10 (30 mins after feeding)

I like this method. Reef roids feeds a lot of stuff and you have wiggle room in this case.

 

[JoeD_]

I agree on target feeding your zoas in your situation.

 

[theMeat]

Agreed, as plan moving forward, after you get nitrates up a lil, but at zero nitrates...
Reef roids is great stuff, very concentrated and priced great.
While .04 po4 leaves you wiggle room while waiting for nitrates to rise, why wait and risk cyano. Nitrate dose cheap, easy and pretty instant

 

[Jstn]

Agreed, as plan moving forward, after you get nitrates up a lil, but at zero nitrates...
Reef roids is great stuff, very concentrated and priced great.
While .04 po4 leaves you wiggle room while waiting for nitrates to rise, why wait and risk cyano. Nitrate dose cheap, easy and pretty instant

LOL at those levels i wouldn't worry about cyanobacteria, if you get a tiny patch here and there who cares, is the goal hitting a specific number in terms of nutrients or a good looking tank. 0.04, he isn't going to have an algae break out and has a ton of wiggle room, the coral are hungry and need high quality food.

 

[theMeat]

LOL at those levels i wouldn't worry about cyanobacteria, if you get a tiny patch here and there who cares, is the goal hitting a specific number in terms of nutrients or a good looking tank. 0.04, he isn't going to have an algae break out and has a ton of wiggle room, the coral are hungry and need high quality food.

Already said there’s wiggle room. How do you know his corals are hungry? We know they’re hungry for nitrates. Why do you disagree with something so simple and cheap as nitrate dosing?

 

[SPR1968]

I’m just wondering why you have Chaeto in place if you have no nutrients in the system to reduce, especially nitrate, unless it’s gradually reduced to zero. Zero is not good as your risk other annoying things like cyno bacteria etc.

The easiest way to increase nitrates is to add more fish, and feed them, and it’s just a balancing act between nutrient import and export. And with the Chaeto taking out all the available nitrate, your getting sterile water and that’s probably why the corals aren’t happy.

So I would increase nitrate with possibly more fish, because I prefer to look at fish rather than dose something because, well it’s a reef tank, and maybe remove some of the Chaeto until you get the nutrients we’re you want them. A good target in my personal opinion is 5-10 Nitrate and 0.03 phosphate or a little higher or lower depending on where you want to be.

In the meantime feed the corals with whatever you choose, Reef Roids, Reef energy etc

 

[Jstn]

Already said there’s wiggle room. How do you know his corals are hungry? We know they’re hungry for nitrates. Why do you disagree with something so simple and cheap as nitrate dosing?

They are hungry for nitrates LOL? Do what you want, if you want to play chemist and start doing nitrate to a little tank that doesn't need it have fun, if you want to be successful feed things. Im not going to argue with you and you opinion, but i think most people would agree to feed before breaking out the chemistry, and I am a chemist by profession.

 

[Carlos Borges]

Feed the tank more...add more fish.
If phosphate gets a little higher then put some GFO in a bag somewhere....use just a bit to keep the levels where you want
Chaeto is something too good ro be out of a system. It helps with with so many things...

 

[CanuckReefer]

How old is the tank? How much live rock? These ideas of dosing nitrate without any knowledge of tank maturation, amount of rock for natural filtration yet keep the cheato blow my freakin mind....not feed more but DOSE NITRATE? LOL. CMON....be better....whoops just saw 2019, this tank is dead if listening to original advice....