Dosing nitrate expectations?

Rogergolf66 · Nov 7, 2018

ok I have a large very established reef 3 years old 90% sps. With out counting I would say over 500 corals. My setups have always been of the theory most nutrient export as possible is better. That being said I have a very large 4ft tall deltec skimmer and an 80gal refuge with 2 h380 running 16 hours a day. Well corals have grown ok. Most people say my system is impressive with growth and color but I know it could be better. Also I have always in all my tanks had a small cyno problem hence the max export setup. A couple years ago I bought the stuff to dose nitrate and phosphate but was scared to do it. I instead started feeding insane amounts of food and removed the filter socks. This did seem to help with color and the corals seem happy. The fish are fat and happy but I never got any nitrates to show on a test. No3 reads zero Red Sea pro. My po4 reads .036 triton.

So questions are
will the nitrate eliminat the cyno issues.
After dosing the nitrate will my po4 drop too?unwanted drop that is so will I have to dose po4 too
I currently don’t test for nitrate and po4 just watch the tank. I Will have to test both reg after dosing how often and for how long?
What to be careful for?
What things should I look for and expect?

Breadman03 · Nov 7, 2018

That sounds like a good plan that could bring down PO4. I’m not good enough to advise on issues, though I’d start slow, add the NO3 and test after a few minutes to see it register, then the next day to see if it was used up.

jda · Nov 7, 2018

If your tank is processing nitrate into nitrogen gas right now, then dosing will not make much difference. You will add more fuel and the bacteria in the anoxic places will increase in numbers and they will chew it right back up again. Then, you have to add even more and then the bacteria population grows even more.

If you want to know a nitrate number, then you will need to send out for IC test. I can never get any to show up on a test kit, but was about .1 on a IC. This is enough N to not be growth limiting.

Residual N numbers are not important. Throughput with heavy import and export are the key - what you are doing. You have more than enough if you are growing cyano.

There are probably other things that you can do to make the color and growth better - lights are higher on my list than building blocks.

Rogergolf66 · Nov 7, 2018

jda said:
If your tank is processing nitrate into nitrogen gas right now, then dosing will not make much difference. You will add more fuel and the bacteria in the anoxic places will increase in numbers and they will chew it right back up again. Then, you have to add even more and then the bacteria population grows even more.

If you want to know a nitrate number, then you will need to send out for IC test. I can never get any to show up on a test kit, but was about .1 on a IC. This is enough N to not be growth limiting.

Residual N numbers are not important. Throughput with heavy import and export are the key - what you are doing. You have more than enough if you are growing cyano.

There are probably other things that you can do to make the color and growth better - lights are higher on my list than building blocks.

My lighting is good. Multiple tanks on one system. One tank has radion g4 pros.
Other tanks have ATI T5 setups with reefbright xhos front and back. I am not limited in lighting. I do icp testing with triton but they don’t test nitrates. I will send ATI icp soon to get nitrates when I run out of my triton tests. My understanding is undetectable nitrates with low but detectable po4 is what causes the cyno?