Anyone else auto dosing NO3 and PO4?

[OceanDiver]

I wasn’t sure if that question was directed at me. But I dose Acropower as well

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I have been trying to raise my phosphates up to 0.08 and I can't get it there.

History of the tank it's a nearly 4 year old tank with live rock that is over 14 years old now as this is the 3rd tank it's been in. It's a 24x18x18 90litre tank with no sump or skimmer, I only have 2 clowns, 1 yellow watchman and shrimp pair, some hermit crabs, also an emerald crab. I dont feed over heavy as don't have much live stock.

About 2 years ago I had great growth from my montipora digitata (first sps) and my euphillias. Then a year or so later I started to lose my digitata, it started going pale then stn, and euphillias didn't puff up as much.
Could it be that the corals used up all the available nitrates and phosphates for growth, looking amazing, then starving my system of them, in turn killing them?
The levels bottomed out causing cyano, I cleared that, now I have a little dino left and have been manually dosing both nitrates and phosphates.
My levels are:
Alk 9.9
Cal 445
Mag 1350
Temp 78.5
Salinity 1.025
No3 20 (happy here for now)
Po4 0.03. (0.08- 0.1 ideally)
I only have euphillias now so would like phosphates a little higher really. Is it a case that I have to keep dosing phosphates to replenish what has been taken out from rock,sand etc. Once its level just dose when needed? I'm currently dosing 1.3ml solution of (0.75tsp potassium phosphate per 500ml rodi) based on a 90l system that should raise it to 0.08ppm as per james' planted tank calculator. I dose that morning and evening and tests still come back 0.03ppm. Could I dose higher to raise it faster or just keep going as I am? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NanoSteam]

I just dose Nitrates into my fresh saltwater mix in order to maintain 5ppm. Phosphates I don't have an issue with. I use Seachem Flourish Nitrogen though. It's been working great for me.

 

[OceanDiver]

Put a quick video together going over auto dosing nitrates and phosphates. Interested to see how many people currently do this.

I watched your video but was wondering if you could more details on the initial start up.

i have a 525xl and started my first dose Monday night. I tested last night and nitrates were still zero but my PO4 dropped from .025 to .020. I Aadded my second dose last night and will be testing again tonight.

i am assuming that once my NO3 is at 2.0 and can dose throughout the day once I determine my daily drop in NO3.

Am I missing something. Just want to make sure I’m not setting myself up for failure.

 

[Bob Lauson]

I dose Phosphate (NeoPhos) at a rate of about 8 ml/day and this keep my phosphate around 0.15-0.20 ppm. The nitrate is normally running at between 5 and 10 ppm

 

[OceanDiver]

I dose Phosphate (NeoPhos) at a rate of about 8 ml/day and this keep my phosphate around 0.15-0.20 ppm. The nitrate is normally running at between 5 and 10 ppm

Do you dose neonitro?

 

[Bob Lauson]

Do you dose neonitro?

I don't does anything for nitrate. My tank just runs around 5ppm

 

[OceanDiver]

I have the opposite problem PO4 stable at .025. But NO3 always zero

 

[Harleyguy99]

I dose both AB+ and Acropower once a week of each (Tues AB+, Fri Acropower). I'm seeing some great color on my Acros. My Nitrates are low and PO4 at .04. I just dosed HEX NO3, we will see what that does to slowly bring up Nitrates. I have a 135 cube custom build (36"x36"x24"), 155 gal total volume, 5.5 months old (new tank). Full of Acro Frags, Euphyllia, and Gonioporas in the shady spots. Build Forum here - http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/41492-johns-135-cube-build/.

 

[OceanDiver]

I an dosing neonitro and my NO3 is stable at 1-2ppm now . Any time I go higher than 2ppm, I will get some cyano

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Why dosing nitrate?

Nitrate is the endproduct of aerobic remineralisation. if remineralization takes place most of the organic carbon present in the organic waste is used for the production of energie, the production of CO2, the rest is used for growth. So, after using up all organic carbon a lot of inorganic building materials are left over ready to be reused for autotrophic processes ,reusing produced CO2, ammonia and phosphate. In a good remineralizing biofilm nitrogen left over is transformed into nitrate.
Ammonia must be reduced as fast as possible , it is determent for the carrying capacity, for supporting the bioload.
This is done fast by heterotrophic growth, limited by organic carbon availability, and autotrophic respiration ( nitrification) needing very little building materials compared to heterotrophic growth, wich means anough building materials stay available for taking up produced CO2, introducing organic carbon, closing the carbon and nitrogen cycles, using up produced nitrate. Organisms using nitrate as a nitrogen source grow very slow compared to organisms using ammonium-nitrogen. The natural production of nitrate ( reduction of ammonia) is very important for to maintain the carrying capacity and will limit fast growth which limits the risk for phosphate starvation induced by high growth rates.
Adding nitrate supplements does not create carrying capacity and may increase the total bioload for which the carrying capacity is not made available.
It is the intention photo-autotrophs use up the nitrate produced by fast ammonia reduction, using the created carrying capacity needed to support the bioload created by importing carbon, making good use of the available nutrients left over after remineralization.

Why dosing nitrate?

 

[Gungnir]

Why dosing nitrate?

Nitrate is the endproduct of aerobic remineralisation. if remineralization takes place most of the organic carbon present in the organic waste is used for the production of energie, the production of CO2, the rest is used for growth. So, after using up all organic carbon a lot of inorganic building materials are left over ready to be reused for autotrophic processes ,reusing produced CO2, ammonia and phosphate. In a good remineralizing biofilm nitrogen left over is transformed into nitrate.
Ammonia must be reduced as fast as possible , it is determent for the carrying capacity, for supporting the bioload.
This is done fast by heterotrophic growth, limited by organic carbon availability, and autotrophic respiration ( nitrification) needing very little building materials compared to heterotrophic growth, wich means anough building materials stay available for taking up produced CO2, introducing organic carbon, closing the carbon and nitrogen cycles, using up produced nitrate. Organisms using nitrate as a nitrogen source grow very slow compared to organisms using ammonium-nitrogen. The natural production of nitrate ( reduction of ammonia) is very important for to maintain the carrying capacity and will limit fast growth which limits the risk for phosphate starvation induced by high growth rates.
Adding nitrate supplements does not create carrying capacity and may increase the total bioload for which the carrying capacity is not made available.
It is the intention photo-autotrophs use up the nitrate produced by fast ammonia reduction, using the created carrying capacity needed to support the bioload created by importing carbon, making good use of the available nutrients left over after remineralization.

Why dosing nitrate?

How would you suggest keeping nitrates above 0 if they are chronically bottomed out (always 0)?

 

[Belgian Anthias]

How would you suggest keeping nitrates above 0 if they are chronically bottomed out (always 0)?

Increasing the protein content of the feed will increase the natural nitrate production, including the installation of the matching carrying capacity.