Controlably raise Nitrates?

[StikHedRon]

I'm wondering how I can go about controlably raising nitrates in my aquarium, I have an sps dominant tank and notice that some of my corals are not quite as vibrant as they should be. I keep my system pretty clean with 0 nitrates and .01-.02 on po4. I figured why not try and raise the nitrates controllably 1ppm and see where the sweet spot is. Can someone please give some advice. I do carbon dose with vinegar, I do run gfo also.

 

[SloppyJ]

Cut back on the dosing or add ammonia.

 

[StikHedRon]

I am about 2 months into carbon dosing and really on dose 10ml a day of vinegar, do you think I can stop carbon dosing until my nitrates get to the desired level then start again? Or will that cause issues? Or should I just cut back to say 1ml a day to keep some sort of carbon in the system.

 

[Alabamareef]

Hate to chime in with this but if your wanting your corals more vibrant I think you should look at your lights and leave your p04 and nitrates alone. I along with several other firends run SPS dominant tanks with 0 p04 and 0 Nitrates with very vibrant colors. Also a good supplement to use is K. But dont use it without testing first.

 

[StikHedRon]

My lighting is 3 250w 14k pheonix bulbs with 4 39w Blue+ T5's, I run the MH at 6 hrs a day and the T5's at 12 hrs a day. I notice the color issue the most in my garf bonsai and its body is pale and not the deep purple it should be.

 

[StikHedRon]

Hate to chime in with this but if your wanting your corals more vibrant I think you should look at your lights and leave your p04 and nitrates alone. I along with several other firends run SPS dominant tanks with 0 p04 and 0 Nitrates with very vibrant colors. Also a good supplement to use is K. But dont use it without testing first.

How much K you dosing a day in your system? And how large is your system?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Just cut your dosing in half. The Trates will slowly creep up. If you stop dosing, they will defiitely come up, but you'll have to start dosing again to knock em down. If you just cut the dose back some, you'd still have some going into the tank and could up it a lil if the Trates got to high on you.
Then feed all you want.

 

[StikHedRon]

So you don't see any ill effects happening to the tank if I just stop the carbon dosing? Starting back up isn't a big deal. I just don't want to shock the tank or cause my sps to stress out.

 

[StikHedRon]

What would you guys say to the suggestion of shutting down the skimmer for a bit, to bring trates up? Is that a wise option?

 

[howaboutme]

I have used Spectracide Stump Remover from Lowes. It's 100% KNO3. Dose in small quantities and it does the job. I agree that 0 on NO3 is not good, nor is it good for PO4 too but that's another thread at another time. Don't worry too much about the K because before K becomes a problem, your NO3 will already be bad. For example, I put a couple of salifert spoonfuls into a cup of rodi and then dump in a high flow area. I have a small tank (29G) and that can raise my NO3 to ~2ppm or so from 0. I did this for a few months until my tank can maintain between 2 to 5ppm between water changes in its own. People also dose NO3 to lower PO4 based on the Redfield ratio. You can also use NaNO3.

 

[Pete polyp]

Check this out....

0ppm nitrate

0.5-1ppm nitrate

The only thing that changed was the nitrate. It spiked during moving the tank to 1ppm. After 3 weeks it had fully colored up. You're on the right track with your thinking. The lights have less to do with it than most people want to believe. I'm not saying you can color acro with a standard light bulb. I'm saying if it is adequate lighting for sps then that's all you need.

 

[Pete polyp]

What would you guys say to the suggestion of shutting down the skimmer for a bit, to bring trates up? Is that a wise option?

With the carbon dosing you would probably see a huge increase in nitrate quickly. I had to increase feeding to keep mine up at 0.5ppm. I feed about a fingernail size piece of rods 4-6 times per day and normally alternate reef roids and coral frenzy every night. This is in a 29g

 

[StikHedRon]

I have used Spectracide Stump Remover from Lowes. It's 100% KNO3. Dose in small quantities and it does the job. I agree that 0 on NO3 is not good, nor is it good for PO4 too but that's another thread at another time. Don't worry too much about the K because before K becomes a problem, your NO3 will already be bad. For example, I put a couple of salifert spoonfuls into a cup of rodi and then dump in a high flow area. I have a small tank (29G) and that can raise my NO3 to ~2ppm or so from 0. I did this for a few months until my tank can maintain between 2 to 5ppm between water changes in its own. People also dose NO3 to lower PO4 based on the Redfield ratio. You can also use NaNO3.

Are you talking about your experience with dosing the spectracide stump remover here?

 

[StikHedRon]

Check this out....

0ppm nitrate

0.5-1ppm nitrate

The only thing that changed was the nitrate. It spiked during moving the tank to 1ppm. After 3 weeks it had fully colored up. You're on the right track with your thinking. The lights have less to do with it than most people want to believe. I'm not saying you can color acro with a standard light bulb. I'm saying if it is adequate lighting for sps then that's all you need.

This is exactly what my bonsai looks like in the top pic, I'm wanting the bottom pic for sure.

 

[howaboutme]

With the carbon dosing you would probably see a huge increase in nitrate quickly. I had to increase feeding to keep mine up at 0.5ppm. I feed about a fingernail size piece of rods 4-6 times per day and normally alternate reef roids and coral frenzy every night. This is in a 29g

The problem w/ feeding more is that you increase PO4 too. If you dose NO3 of any kind, you skip the PO4 increase.

Are you talking about your experience with dosing the spectracide stump remover here?

Yes, I mentioned spectracide in the initial sentence.

 

[StikHedRon]

The problem w/ feeding more is that you increase PO4 too. If you dose NO3 of any kind, you skip the PO4 increase.



Yes, I mentioned spectracide in the initial sentence.

And this spectracide stump remover is 100% reef safe? What about dosing straight Sodium Nitrate into the aquarium? I'm assuming if it's food grade it would be reef safe? Any thoughts on that.

 

[StikHedRon]

I just found this link on dosing sodium nitrate. Its a calculator stating that 1/4 tsp will raise 50gal of water 7ppm of nitrate.

Sodium nitrate - The Free Freshwater and Saltwater Aquarium Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit - The Aquarium Wiki

 

[howaboutme]

And this spectracide stump remover is 100% reef safe? What about dosing straight Sodium Nitrate into the aquarium? I'm assuming if it's food grade it would be reef safe? Any thoughts on that.

Yes. I'm not the first one to use it. I'm pretty cautious and conservative when it comes to reefing so I researched a ton. If you google stump remover and reefing/nitrates what have you, you'll find a good number of information. You can also buy KNO3 from online that's not "sump remover" but the MSDS for spectracide is 100% KNO3. Yes, you can use sodium nitrate and take the K out of the equation if you'd like. But spectracide is cheap and will last longer than you will have your tank.

 

[Jon Warner]

Here in SoCal the SPS are like crayon colors and Tank of the Month awards hang on every other mantle around here... you know what we do?

FEED your TANK!!

EMPLOY nutrient CONTROL including heavy skimming and ecoBAK.

REPEAT!!

 

[Alabamareef]

So I''m definitely wrong, your lights are plenty.

My lighting is 3 250w 14k pheonix bulbs with 4 39w Blue+ T5's, I run the MH at 6 hrs a day and the T5's at 12 hrs a day. I notice the color issue the most in my garf bonsai and its body is pale and not the deep purple it should be.