Dosing No3?

[b4tn]

I am having some issues with coral color and growth that I originally attributed to a bubble algae take over. I started dosing vibrant which is slowly starting to get the bubble algae under control but is also causing a bacterial bloom. I read that dosing No3 can help with the cyano. I have always had non readable no3 and Po4 levels and am starting to think that maybe the lack of Nitrate is causing my corals to suffer pre bubble algae outbreak as well. Dosing Nitrate is kind of a strange idea to me though. I have always been told that nitrate and phosphate need to be as close to zero as possible and I beat a GHA outbreak by aggressive algae scrubbing and GFO. Now I am reading its good to add Nitrate to my system!?? I am reading to keep parameters at the following levels.

No3: 1-2ppm
Po4: .01-.02 ppm
Alk: 7.7-8

How will dosing No3 affect my algae scrubber? If I’m reading 0 nitrates I assume it’s gha consuming it in my scrubber. Won’t dosing just accelerate the gha in the scrubber? Once I determine the amount of No3 to dose and start dosing whats the cause and effect? What else am I going to have to keep an eye on? The formula seems pretty easy and Nitrate is cheap but what are the downsides? Can anyone recommend an article that really breaks down the pros and cons?

 

[jsker]

I am having some issues with coral color and growth that I originally attributed to a bubble algae take over. I started dosing vibrant which is slowly starting to get the bubble algae under control but is also causing a bacterial bloom. I read that dosing No3 can help with the cyano. I have always had non readable no3 and Po4 levels and am starting to think that maybe the lack of Nitrate is causing my corals to suffer pre bubble algae outbreak as well. Dosing Nitrate is kind of a strange idea to me though. I have always been told that nitrate and phosphate need to be as close to zero as possible and I beat a GHA outbreak by aggressive algae scrubbing and GFO. Now I am reading its good to add Nitrate to my system!?? I am reading to keep parameters at the following levels.

No3: 1-2ppm
Po4: .01-.02 ppm
Alk: 7.7-8

How will dosing No3 affect my algae scrubber? If I’m reading 0 nitrates I assume it’s gha consuming it in my scrubber. Won’t dosing just accelerate the gha in the scrubber? Once I determine the amount of No3 to dose and start dosing whats the cause and effect? What else am I going to have to keep an eye on? The formula seems pretty easy and Nitrate is cheap but what are the downsides? Can anyone recommend an article that really breaks down the pros and cons?

I would suggest not running the algae scrubber all the time and let the nitrate build up.

 

[TexasReefer82]

Vibrant eats Nitrate! Vibrant will strip your system of nitrate and eventually will starve your corals if left unchecked. Vibrant will also have a negative effect on your algae scrubber itself. It works by both starving algae of necessary nutrients as well as directly attacking and eating the algae with their proprietary bacterial strain. I agree with jsker that you should probably remove your scrubber for now while using vibrant.

When using Vibrant you want to maintain Nitrates in the 3-5 ppm range so as not to deprive your corals. Dosing with KNO3 or NaNO3 is the easiest way to do this.

Be careful when dosing nitrate that you don't zero out your phosphate. This can happen when dosing nitrate, especially when dosing a carbon source such as Vibrant along with the nitrate, because the phosphate becomes the limiting nutrient. A lack of phosphate is far worse for corals than a lack of nitrate. At this time it looks like your phosphate levels are adequate but they'd be perfectly fine to go up to 0.05. You may find that it's necessary to dose phosphate as well as nitrate at some point. I dose both to my SPS dominant tank because the corals themselves consume both nutrients for growth. If I don't dose they both trend toward zero and inevitably bleaching and STN ensue.

Side note: I assume that you're using a Hanna Checker Ultra Low Reader to test phosphate. Be aware that the accuracy of that gauge is +/- 5 ppb (0.015 ppm PO4). So, if you get a reading of 5 ppb or less it may actually be zero. The concentration of phosphate that you reported above is right at the limit of detection (LOD) of the Hanna Checker. I'd retest a couple times and see how repeatable that number is. You may want to remove the GFO, or if you already have done so you may want to dose a little phosphate as well.

Regarding hair algae in the reef tank... It's my opinion that attempting to control hair algae by limiting nutrients will equally as well kill your corals. There are a variety of herbivores that eat hair algae - my favorite is urchins. I control it in my tank with a couple urchins and snails and a pygmy angelfish. If what you have is actually bryopsis you should kill it using fluconazole.

 

[b4tn]

Its all gotten so frustrating and complicated. I almost threw in the towel with the GHA. I was gone for a month and no one took care of my tank. Every surface was covered with GHA. I could remove it by hand (toothbrush on the rocks) but it was back in a matter of days. Nothing living would touch it. Even the Sea hare I temporarily put in ate a small patch, decided he didn't like it and just roamed the tank looking for something else to eat. I got that under control with water changes, an algae scrubber, and GFO. All GHA is now confined in the scrubber. All was well till I started noticing the green bubbles. Then more, then more, than all over! The bubbles where getting under my encrusting corals and detaching them from the rocks. I tried moving rocks to the sump with no light and they would still grow and spread, emerald crabs did nothing, water changes and manual removal made it look good on the weekends only to be covered again by next week. I lost my stylo because a snail died in the middle of the colony and bubble algae just kept growing out ward from the center. All the while I would read 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate the entire time using API for nitrate and red sea for phosphate. Yet all my SPS and LPS seem happy with PE and grow, some faster than others, albeit a little pale.

I am frustrated because I feel like I am doing everything right I am using RO/DI, bi weekly water changes, dosing 2 part, I only feed 1 cube a day of frozen mysis or a veggie mix, Occasionally pellets but only enough the fish can eat in 5 minutes. I was avoiding the use of vibrant but it was my last straw for the bubble algae and it appears to be working. Stuff I remove is not coming back and some places I cant get to are starting to look unhealthy. But now I have cyano everywhere and am told I should dose nitrates. But my confusion comes from the fact that if I am eating nitrates to rid algae, why would I put them back in again? Isnt that going to defeat the process? Should I just shut down the algae scrubber while dosing vibrant till he bubble algae is gone? I am seeing everything I do or add has a cause and affect so to speak so if I start adding nitrate what do I need to plan for to fix next?

 

[TexasReefer82]

Its all gotten so frustrating and complicated. I almost threw in the towel with the GHA. I was gone for a month and no one took care of my tank. Every surface was covered with GHA. I could remove it by hand (toothbrush on the rocks) but it was back in a matter of days. Nothing living would touch it. Even the Sea hare I temporarily put in ate a small patch, decided he didn't like it and just roamed the tank looking for something else to eat. I got that under control with water changes, an algae scrubber, and GFO. All GHA is now confined in the scrubber. All was well till I started noticing the green bubbles. Then more, then more, than all over! The bubbles where getting under my encrusting corals and detaching them from the rocks. I tried moving rocks to the sump with no light and they would still grow and spread, emerald crabs did nothing, water changes and manual removal made it look good on the weekends only to be covered again by next week. I lost my stylo because a snail died in the middle of the colony and bubble algae just kept growing out ward from the center. All the while I would read 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate the entire time using API for nitrate and red sea for phosphate. Yet all my SPS and LPS seem happy with PE and grow, some faster than others, albeit a little pale.

I am frustrated because I feel like I am doing everything right I am using RO/DI, bi weekly water changes, dosing 2 part, I only feed 1 cube a day of frozen mysis or a veggie mix, Occasionally pellets but only enough the fish can eat in 5 minutes. I was avoiding the use of vibrant but it was my last straw for the bubble algae and it appears to be working. Stuff I remove is not coming back and some places I cant get to are starting to look unhealthy. But now I have cyano everywhere and am told I should dose nitrates. But my confusion comes from the fact that if I am eating nitrates to rid algae, why would I put them back in again? Isnt that going to defeat the process? Should I just shut down the algae scrubber while dosing vibrant till he bubble algae is gone? I am seeing everything I do or add has a cause and affect so to speak so if I start adding nitrate what do I need to plan for to fix next?

I understand that it seems counter-intuitive. The only real reason to dose nitrate along with vibrant is to ensure that your corals have enough nitrogen for their own uses. To control hair algae I'd suggest you get an urchin or two. I like the tuxedo and halloween urchins; I have one of each in a 40 gallon tank. They're hair algae eating machines and will keep it constantly mowed down in your tank. Urchins along with herbivorous fish and snails are how it works on the wild reef - TONS of algae grows on wild reefs but it never lasts long because it gets constantly mowed down. The nutrients it contains are then released back into the water column via fish poo for use by corals. Urchins also help inhibit bubble algae growth by constantly scraping the rock surface clean.

Another option for hair algae is fluconazole. Fluconazole will outright kill bryopsis and remove the species form your system. It won't kill hair algae, however, it will completely inhibit it's growth when present at the same concentration used to kill bryopsis. This may be a good idea for you as it would stop growth of the hair algae and give your system bacteria a chance to catch up in the nutrient processing department. When the Fluconazole is removed form the system the hair algae can grow back. Some people utilize a constant low dose of fluconazole in their system at all times to constant inhibit hair algae growth. But I like herbivores better.

That nothing will eat the algae you have suggests to me that you have bryopsis and not hair algae. Hair algae is quite palatable to quite a number of herbivores. NOTHING eats Bryopsis. If you have bryopsis, or even an unusual variety of bryopsis that looks like hair algae then fluconazole is both your only hope and your best most effective cure.

Cyano is typically caused by excessive accumulation of detritus in the substrate when it occurs in established tanks. Siphon out and rinse clean portions of your substrate and the cyano will likely go away.