Help! Need to raise nitrates!

[TriciaC]

Ok so my nitrates are currently at 0 (because of a nitrate reducing plate) and I need to raise them up high without raising phosphate, any tips? My corals are losing some color due to zero nitrates. And all my other parameters are perfect.

 

[fcmatt]

I have never used a plate before. How about cutting it in half? Reduce that?

 

[Auquanut]

Welcome to R2R! I would definitely remove the plate(never heard of it). If it were me, I would go the natural route to increase nitrate VERY SLOWLY before resorting to any chemical means. Perhaps increase feeding or turning off your skimmer for a few hours a day until they come up. Any change you make will have an effect on the tank itself. How big is your tank? How long has it been running? Do you have a refugium? I'm sure you will get more opinions soon.

 

[TriciaC]

I have never used a plate before. How about cutting it in half? Reduce that?

Sadly I can’t do that as it says on the directions not to. Their other products can be, but not this one.

 

[TriciaC]

Welcome to R2R! I would definitely remove the plate(never heard of it). If it were me, I would go the natural route to increase nitrate VERY SLOWLY before resorting to any chemical means. Perhaps increase feeding or turning off your skimmer for a few hours a day until they come up. Any change you make will have an effect on the tank itself. How big is your tank? How long has it been running? Do you have a refugium? I'm sure you will get more opinions soon.

Hello! Removing the plate at this point would be very hard as I would have no where to put it, and it would be destroyed. It’s the brightwell NO3 plate, my tank too is 100 gallons, it’s been up for 2 years, and sadly I don’t.

 

[PatW]

You could dose nitrates. I dose analytical grade sodium nitrate. I mix half a cup of crystals into 1 gallon of RODI. For your tank, about 2 teaspoons of the solution will yield about 1 ppm nitrate. I dose to maintain so this might be off. I would try a teaspoon at first, test and see if you get a measurable result.

You could feed more but that would also add phosphates which seems like a bad idea.

 

[TriciaC]

You could dose nitrates. I dose analytical grade sodium nitrate. I mix half a cup of crystals into 1 gallon of RODI. For your tank, about 2 teaspoons of the solution will yield about 1 ppm nitrate. I dose to maintain so this might be off. I would try a teaspoon at first, test and see if you get a measurable result.

You could feed more but that would also add phosphates which seems like a bad idea.

What are these crystals called that you dose in the RO?

 

[homer1475]

What are these crystals called that you dose in the RO?

I dose analytical grade sodium nitrate.

 

[Ray 713]

Following along. My nitrates bottomed our recently and watching for opinions...

 

[TriciaC]

Ohhhhh! Thank you I’ll check that out!

 

[Silver14SS]

A Nitrate Dosing Calculator For Better Tank Health (And Better Coral Color!)

by Stratos It has become a phenomenon of increasing frequency in the reefing hobby today to have “too clean” of a tank. Zero nitrates, and sometimes even zero phosphates are found behind more and …

reeformadness.wordpress.com

Here's some good reading material and a calculator to figure out how much to dose.

 

[jeffchapok]

You can also use potassium nitrate, sold as stump remover available from almost any lawn and garden or hardware store. Per the MSDS, it's 100% potassium nitrate, with no other additives. I've used it successfully myself.