0 Nitrates so I dosed Sodium Nitrate

hart24601 · May 19, 2017

That is what I would do. Hold off and see what they do.

Fragzilla · May 19, 2017

I haven't read through all the answers but from reading the op I would be inclined to believe your colour loss is down to the removal of micro nutrients, trace elements from the rapid growth of chaeto in combination with your fluidisation of GAK. I would bet my bottom dollar your tank is lacking in either Ion, iodine or molybdenum, I would pick Iron out of those 3 as the main culprit.

I've kept zoas and palys in systems run solely by Chaeto in a fuge with a big LED light like yours and my zoas colours were much better with zero nitrate than with and readings. The growth rates were terrible at zero nitrate but they looked fantastic.

I have also dosed sodium nitrate before, I wasn't dosing it for long because although my zoas loved it my Palythoas did not. If I was to try again I would use potassium nitrate as zoas love potassium.

Vaughn17 · May 19, 2017

IME, you will need to dose PO4 to lower your NO3 an appreciable amount. IME, growth slows/stops without PO4.

PO4 of .o1 is really low. My corals would be seriously unhappy.

Vaughn17 · May 19, 2017

I dose sodium nitrate and have not noticed that it bothers any corals. I used to dose KNO3, but it raised my K too high.

Mark Gray · May 19, 2017

Very Interesting write ups guys. I maybe need a little nitrate in mine colors at fading since I started my fuge

steallife904 · May 20, 2017

so since my nitrate is a bit over 5ppm now and phosphate .01 should i still dose phosphate to get it closer to .03?

Vaughn17 · May 20, 2017

So Steallife904, I just tested the PO4 in my 180 a few minutes ago and it was on the high side of .03 with a Salifert test kit. Does that mean I run a low nutrient system? No, because I've dosed several ml of PO4 today, and will dose it again before I go to bed, plus the fish are fed heavily twice each day, and the corals are fed Reefroids each night. My point is that the test result isn't indicative of the amount of PO4 that is consumed by the tank's ecosystem daily (i.e. hopefully, primarily the corals and corraline algae).

I like to experiment, so I would dose a small amount and then watch it.

LV3 · May 20, 2017

steallife904 said:
so since my nitrate is a bit over 5ppm now and phosphate .01 should i still dose phosphate to get it closer to .03?

I would keep it there and see how your system progresses. This way you can isolate one variable at a time and note then effects. I'm at PO4 .03 and figured that was good for now.

HolisticBear · May 20, 2017

Vaughn17 said:
Does that mean I run a low nutrient system? No ...

I liked the analogy of looking at an empty plate. Is it empty because there was never any food or because all the food was consumed? Big difference, yet they measure the same.

ReeferSurf · May 21, 2017

Anyone else get big cyano outbreak? I dossed to 5ppm.

with the help of water changes etc in back down to 0.5ppm now, cyano still there.

Should I try again before taking out the chemiclean?

Vaughn17 · May 21, 2017

I don't have any cyano, but my LFS tried dosing nitrate and ended up with cyano. I would check your Ro/Di unit.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 22, 2017

Vaughn17 said:
I would check your Ro/Di unit.

For what?

Vaughn17 · May 22, 2017

First off, I don't use an Ro/Di unit, so I probably shouldn't have commented; however, from what I have read they remove bacteria. Don't the membranes need to be periodically replaced?

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 22, 2017

Vaughn17 said:
First off, I don't use an Ro/Di unit, so I probably shouldn't have commented; however, from what I have read they remove bacteria. Don't the membranes need to be periodically replaced?

Sometimes, yes. But not usually because the TDS rises after the DI, unless the DI is depleted.