Dosing Nitrate Issues

[Huskymaniac]

I have been dosing Seachem Nitrogen and Phosphorus to try and raise nutrients a bit. It has only been a week and I am now dealing with a major cyano outbreak on the sand. I have also had 2 acros bleach on me and my birdsnest and red planet just stopped expanding polyps. I changed out carbon and added polyfilters. Also doing a warer change tonight. Anyone run into issues like this? I was dosing such a minimal amount, 10ml nitrogen daily in 160 gallons of water and 1ml of phosphorus.

 

[dwest]

I have been dosing Seachem Nitrogen and Phosphorus to try and raise nutrients a bit. It has only been a week and I am now dealing with a major cyano outbreak on the sand. I have also had 2 acros bleach on me and my birdsnest and red planet just stopped expanding polyps. I changed out carbon and added polyfilters. Also doing a warer change tonight. Anyone run into issues like this? I was dosing such a minimal amount, 10ml nitrogen daily in 160 gallons of water and 1ml of phosphorus.

What are your measured nitrate and phosphate levels in your tank? I certainly would have expected the cyano, but not the bleaching, unless you possibly had a major overdose...

 

[jda]

I know that this all the rage, but dosing either can cause more problems than they solve.

How old is the tank? What were your readings before, and now... and also how you tested them (there are a lot of bad test kits for this).

I would stop until you at least see the corals recover...

 

[Huskymaniac]

Tank is a year old but all my fish are in QT so nutrients were low. I have been dosing reef energy at the ulns dosage to keep the corals fed. Nitrates were .75 and phosphates 0.00. Kicking myself because everything was doing good. Numbers today are nitrates 1 and phosphates .02 and a super ugly red sand bed.

 

[Huskymaniac]

I know that this all the rage, but dosing either can cause more problems than they solve.

How old is the tank? What were your readings before, and now... and also how you tested them (there are a lot of bad test kits for this).

I would stop until you at least see the corals recover...

Tested nitrates with red sea pro yest kit and phosphates with hanna meter.

 

[jda]

.75n is enough... plenty. I would stop dosing this. Just keep on feeding the corals until you get some fish and then you can stop.

Remember that throughput of building blocks is what is important. A tank with .75n and .01p can be fine if there are 20 fish, whereas the same tank with no fish might need some Reef Energy for a while. I would caution anybody not to chase absolute numbers and focus on throughput with high import and export both.

 

[Huskymaniac]

.75n is enough... plenty. I would stop dosing this. Just keep on feeding the corals until you get some fish and then you can stop.

Remember that throughput of building blocks is what is important. A tank with .75n and .01p can be fine if there are 20 fish, whereas the same tank with no fish might need some Reef Energy for a while. I would caution anybody not to chase absolute numbers and focus on throughput with high import and export both.

I agree and lessoned learned. No reason to fix something thats not broken. Just hope everything recovers.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Do you think a water change will make things worse? Last thing I want to do is cause any other fluctuations. Was going to do 30 gallons on 160 gallon tank.

 

[jda]

I would probably chill out for a little while and just see what happens when you let stuff alone.

 

[SEMA]

I agree on letting it ride out. New tanks have immature bacterial counts and diversity. A tiny spike in nutrients will cause cyano to start competing right away. Let the system mature more before trying to supplement nutrients. Use aminos first to keep coral health.
Good luck

 

[Huskymaniac]

Birdsnest and Red Planet are back to normal. My toadstools are kind of looking funky though. Hopefully they will bounce back as well. The only time I jave ever seen them look like this was when I used white phosphate remover.

 

[Mattrg02]

Maybe some microbacter7 could help?

 

[Huskymaniac]

Maybe some microbacter7 could help?

Will see how things look later today. Not sure how I feel about adding any other chemical. I am just chamging carbon and polyfilters. If things still look off I guess a large water change is in order.

 

[Mattrg02]

Will see how things look later today. Not sure how I feel about adding any other chemical. I am just chamging carbon and polyfilters. If things still look off I guess a large water change is in order.

Mb7 is a bacteria supplement that munches on nitrates and whatnot. Usually used to support a low bacteria population until a strong one is established. Large water changes can cause instability if you don’t have everything zeroed in perfectly.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Nitrates are only 1ppm. I am thinking that the flourish nitrogen or phosphate added some contamination to the tank or reacted in someway with reef energy.

 

[Lasse]

I have been dosing reef energy

When did you start that - long before your NO3 and PO4 dose or at the same time? IMO - cyanobacteria outbreaks often come because too low readings of PO4 and NO3. But there is reports that amino acids in a ULN system can trigg cyanobacteria.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Huskymaniac]

I have been dosing reef energy since October 2017. Everything was good. Fish got some weird disease in June so had to take everything out to get them in quarantine. In june started dosing at the ULNS since there were no fish in the tank. Everything was looking perfect. Started researching about nutrients and tested and noticed nitrates were under 1 and phosphates were 0. Figured since no fish would dose flourish Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Within a week of starting to dose I bleached a pink turaki and green tenius. My red planet and birdsnest looked off. Immediatley stopped dosing and birdsnest and RP looked better yesterday. Toadstools seemed off. The cyano started after dosing flourish nitrogen. Was never there before.

 

[Mattrg02]

I’ve dosed Flourish nitrogen and Neophos back when I couldn’t keep either up. Never had anything go wrong.

I might have missed it, but are you running carbon and a poly filter? That might remove a contamination if there is one.

Got to get some fish in there! They are the best way to keep nutrients up, hands down.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I have been dosing reef energy since October 2017. Everything was good. Fish got some weird disease in June so had to take everything out to get them in quarantine. In june started dosing at the ULNS since there were no fish in the tank. Everything was looking perfect. Started researching about nutrients and tested and noticed nitrates were under 1 and phosphates were 0. Figured since no fish would dose flourish Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Within a week of starting to dose I bleached a pink turaki and green tenius. My red planet and birdsnest looked off. Immediatley stopped dosing and birdsnest and RP looked better yesterday. Toadstools seemed off. The cyano started after dosing flourish nitrogen. Was never there before.

If you have some nutrients in your system and are dosing Reef Energy, IMO I would just continue with the Reef Energy and as long as the corals look healthy, not try to chase a number. Depending on the test kit you are using, your PO4 probably isn't really 0 ppm. Which Hannah checker are you using?

As others have said, just let it ride for a while and go back to what you where doing before the NO3 and PO4 dosing.

 

[Lasse]

https://www.seachem.com/flourish-nitrogen.php

Is it this you have used ? It content NH3/NH4 (or probably urea) too.

Sincerely Lasse