Dosing Nitrates

[PeteGibbons]

Hi
My tank has been running for around 5 months now and is registering 0 nitrate. My corals are looking pale, not growing and I have lost my first 3 frags in the last few weeks. I have put my skimmer on a timer for 6 hours a day, started feeding more and then dosing nitrates.
I have been testing nitrates every 24-48 hours and it’s barely moved over the last ten days . ATI recommend 2ml a day and at the moment I have upped it to 4ml a day.
I thought it might be my test kit but my tap water is registering 50ppm
I’m just wondering what I am doing wrong and what to try next?
Tank is 90gal, one tang, 2 clowns, 2 bangaii, 2 cardinals, yellow wrasse, hawkfish, blenny
I prob feed a few pinches of flakes, 3/4 to a cube of mysis, 1/4tsp of reef roids. Is feed more but I find the fish don’t even get through the above.
Thanks

 

[Nick Steele]

Just keep up with dosing. I believe I dosed double the mount for two weeks before I even registered any nitrate in my system. Then another week until it stabilized and now I haven’t dosed for 2 weeks.

 

[PeteGibbons]

Just keep up with dosing. I believe I dosed double the mount for two weeks before I even registered any nitrate in my system. Then another week until it stabilized and now I haven’t dosed for 2 weeks.

Have you used ATI?

 

[PatW]

I run an ultra low nutrient SPS dominate system. I feed pellets, frozen mysis and frozen enriched brine daily. So the fish poop does pretty well for nutrients. I run nitrates under 1 ppm and add some if it gets down to 0 or below .25 ppm. I run phosphates at 0 ppm but it gets to about .02 ppm during the day after feeding.

I would suggest dosing until you get a reading on nitrates. If you are concerned about your test, you could go to a LFS and have them test your water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi
My tank has been running for around 5 months now and is registering 0 nitrate. My corals are looking pale, not growing and I have lost my first 3 frags in the last few weeks. I have put my skimmer on a timer for 6 hours a day, started feeding more and then dosing nitrates.
I have been testing nitrates every 24-48 hours and it’s barely moved over the last ten days . ATI recommend 2ml a day and at the moment I have upped it to 4ml a day.
I thought it might be my test kit but my tap water is registering 50ppm
I’m just wondering what I am doing wrong and what to try next?
Tank is 90gal, one tang, 2 clowns, 2 bangaii, 2 cardinals, yellow wrasse, hawkfish, blenny
I prob feed a few pinches of flakes, 3/4 to a cube of mysis, 1/4tsp of reef roids. Is feed more but I find the fish don’t even get through the above.
Thanks

Tap water should not ever be 50 ppm nitrate. That is far in excess of the EPA allowed limit.

 

[Nick Steele]

Have you used ATI?

I used brightwells neophos and neonitro

 

[nereefpat]

Tap water should not ever be 50 ppm nitrate. That is far in excess of the EPA allowed limit.

Keep in mind the MCL is for 10 ppm Nitrate nitrogen, so that reads about about 44 ppm on our aquarium test kits.

50 is still too high, though.