Dosing Nitrate
- Thread starter Evan West
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Darryl
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gotchyu
Faraday
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Vaughn17
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Unless you have a really good clean up crew, it is better to keep it lower. I aim for .1 but often end up higher. In my tank, I've found a little too high to be preferable to too low. Keeps the acros happy and the CUC fed. For a system as small as yours, I would add just a few drops of the phosphorus product that I use (aquavitro activate), then test for PO4 in a few hours. Sorry, I'm not trying to sell you on activate, it's just that it's the only PO4 product that I've used. Beware, IME, with high nutrient systems, many acros need really high light to keep them from turning brown (and eventually dying).
I use food grade sodium nitrate that I purchased on Amazon. I think it's normally used to make corned beef, lol. I originally used potassium nitrate, but it was not food grade and also caused my nitrates to rise too high in my smaller tanks.
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Coronus
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Not an accurate comment. The basics work for everyone. Maybe just not at the time some think they should. But thank you for the compliment.
How old is the tank? This is a big question.
Young tanks dont respond well. I am going to say that you currently have dinos due to over feeding and the use Pohls Extra. Or the tank is brand new? Maybe less than 1 year? Or both. I would stop all if it. Stop all the feedings of everything. Stop NO3 dosing. Go to 1 feeding a day and do a nice water change. Only feed your fish. Dinos will go away. Color will come. Be patient. A tank so young will experience problems.
Let it ride. Do regular water changes.
Vaughn17
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I stand by my comment and it is accurate.
I have a fairly new tank as well, ~8 months, and I went through similar issues with dinos, cyano, poor polyp extension, whatever around the 4-6 month mark. I took advice similar to what @Coronus is suggesting, so I'll give +1 to this advice. I had been trying to do all this, dosed nitrates for a couple weeks, fed reef roids every day, blah blah trying to get my nitrates up to detectable levels. I ended up trimming my chaeto, lowering my Alk to sub-8.0, and just letting it ride, few gallon water changes here or there (a few times per month) but nothing above 10-20%. Tank looks much better just letting it be and keeping my hands out rather than trying to screw with it all the time. My growth rates could be better...at this point I'm just assuming that will come with time and stability. Polyp extension came back on its own, I now dose nothing but kalk (and two-part as-needed since usage is a little in flux for me right now...I check Alk each time the 5g ATO container empties and adjust up to ~7.8 or add less kalk next time if it's slightly high).
Looking at the build thread, OP started his tank august 2016 with dry rock. He's running chaeto and matrix in the sump (coincidentally so am I). The rock looks good, but I've heard a lot of dry rock tanks don't start REALLY maturing (to be able to support colorful, fast-growing SPS) until the 18-24 month range. If this were my tank, I'd do exactly what I did to my tank - try to maintain alk at a lower level 7.5-8.5, trim back the chaeto by 25-50%, run the fuge light for a couple hours less (start with -1 hr from both ends of the current photoperiod), make sure you're only lightly skimming (so the stuff that comes out should be realllly dark), and feed your fish a nice mix of dry/frozen/fresh every week. Personally, I'd also recommend you pickup a hanna checker ULR phosphorous and test once every 2-4 weeks...my phosphates ended up being a lot higher than I expected, not low like I thought they were despite nitrates being undetectable on multiple kits.
Looking at the build thread, OP started his tank august 2016 with dry rock. He's running chaeto and matrix in the sump (coincidentally so am I). The rock looks good, but I've heard a lot of dry rock tanks don't start REALLY maturing (to be able to support colorful, fast-growing SPS) until the 18-24 month range. If this were my tank, I'd do exactly what I did to my tank - try to maintain alk at a lower level 7.5-8.5, trim back the chaeto by 25-50%, run the fuge light for a couple hours less (start with -1 hr from both ends of the current photoperiod), make sure you're only lightly skimming (so the stuff that comes out should be realllly dark), and feed your fish a nice mix of dry/frozen/fresh every week. Personally, I'd also recommend you pickup a hanna checker ULR phosphorous and test once every 2-4 weeks...my phosphates ended up being a lot higher than I expected, not low like I thought they were despite nitrates being undetectable on multiple kits.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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That's sodium nitrite. It would probably work, but isn't directly adding nitrate.
This is the nitrate from that same company:
https://www.loudwolf.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=158
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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FWIW, maintaining adequate (not too low) levels of nitrate and phosphate seems to be a very good way to deal with dinos, and very low levels increases the risk of getting them.
There are many species of dinos that may respond differently, and many people think they have dinos actually have something else, but the evidence that too low of nutrients is a risk factor and raising them helps when you get them is pretty convincing. There is a huge thread in the main forum with dozens of cases discussed.
There are many species of dinos that may respond differently, and many people think they have dinos actually have something else, but the evidence that too low of nutrients is a risk factor and raising them helps when you get them is pretty convincing. There is a huge thread in the main forum with dozens of cases discussed.
Everytime I mention this it basically starts a war -- but personally, I didn't like the stump remover because it has a chemical smell to it. I prefer using FW planted tank fertilizer, they're just as anal as reefers. NilocG is my source for kno3, it's odorless, completely crystal clear, expertly made, and to double down doesn't smell like chemicals. Certified 3rd party tested at 100% pure. $3 for a pound.
Salty Irishman
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Totally on board with Evan and Randy. Been at this 30+ years and I've never had a battle like the one I'm having right now with Dino's. I've been reading everything I can for months and have reached the same conclusion, zero or non-detectable NO3 & PO4 is not a good thing and what most likely brought this on. So I to have been feeding heavier, stopped doing water changes, took the skimmer off line and am now looking for the best way to bring these numbers up and balance everything out. Thanks for the advice Randy on exactly where to get those products.
Salty Irishman
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Totally on board with Evan and Randy. Been at this 30+ years and I've never had a battle like the one I'm having right now with Dino's. I've been reading everything I can and have reached the same conclusion, zero or non-detectable NO3 & PO4 is not a good thing, and most likely what brought this on. So I too have been feeding heavier, stopped doing water changes, took the skimmer off-line and am now looking for the best way to bring these numbers up and balance everything out again. Thanks for the advice Randy on exactly where to get those products that can help. In all the years I've been involved in this hobby, this is absolutely the first time I've ever thought about calling it quits.
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IMO, maintaining phosphate in the range of 0.02 ppm or so by dosing is a fine target.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Do you have a link to that analysis? I couldn't find it and I'm curious what they actually look for as impurities.
Salty Irishman
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Would this be a good source of phosphate to dose?
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It is likely fine, yes. Depends, I guess, on whether you trust Seachem since they do not claim a purity for it.
BigJohnny
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OP, listen to this^. First step would be to ask yourself, why do you want higher testable nitrate? Are you experiencing issues that you believe are directly attributed to this? If you are just trying to hit a number, that's a bad idea IMO. Everyone's system is different and a tank with 10 fish and 0 nitrate has way more available nutrients to corals then the same tank with 5 fish and 0 nitrate. I would 100% add more fish if you believe your corals are starving. Another poster commented about the dangers of phosphate bottoming out when dosing nitrate, this is definitely true and I know of people who dose nitrate to lower phosphate (risky imo). I personally wouldnt even consider dosing nitrate until I had physically maxed out my fish population.
Not sure I understand why you would want to dose nitrate. And I mean no disrespect here.
Keep it simple. I have had undetectable no3 and po4 I’m my tanks for several years. My current DT is 7 years old. With great color and growth. An adequate bioload and your set. Feed the fish, the fish poop and that feeds the corals. Having no3 linger is not a want for my system.
Nutrients in and then right back out.
I am assuming you want more color? If so, add more fish. Broadcast feeding IME does nothing but cause algae. All of sudden, Dino’s, hair algae or something caused by trying to raise no3.
My suggestion is to add more fish and don’t over feed. Color will come. Chasing numbers is dangerous. Things happen fast that are bad. The good always takes longer.
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