I've recently started dosing potassium nitrate (stump remover) in an effort to boost my nitrates and phosphates from undetectable levels. I feed 2x daily with a combination of flakes, frozen mysis, and oyster feast. The likely culprit is my oversized bh1000 skimmer on a 29 gallon sps dominant tank, but I don't want to shut that off. I've dosed my nitrates to 5.0 ppm and am definitely seeing improvement in polyp extension. My LPS have puffed up as well.
However, my concern is from reading other people's experiences with sudden RTN of their sps after dosing for several weeks. From my understanding, this is because artificially adding only nitrate to the system drives down phosphate to dangerous levels. The effect is similar to when people overdo GFO and strip their water of all phosphate, causing RTN. This is what's happening right?
A couple questions... do you believe I can maintain a safe level of phosphate with my current feeding regiment and dosing nitrate to 5.0 ppm? Does it give me more wiggle room if I maintain nitrate at 2.0 ppm instead? I'm pretty happy with the tank and want to avoid any crashes if I can help it. Thanks for reading!
However, my concern is from reading other people's experiences with sudden RTN of their sps after dosing for several weeks. From my understanding, this is because artificially adding only nitrate to the system drives down phosphate to dangerous levels. The effect is similar to when people overdo GFO and strip their water of all phosphate, causing RTN. This is what's happening right?
A couple questions... do you believe I can maintain a safe level of phosphate with my current feeding regiment and dosing nitrate to 5.0 ppm? Does it give me more wiggle room if I maintain nitrate at 2.0 ppm instead? I'm pretty happy with the tank and want to avoid any crashes if I can help it. Thanks for reading!
