Halal Hotdog
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2017
- Messages
- 1,502
- Reaction score
- 1,883
1ppm nitrates might be a bit low if you are seeing dinos. If dinos get out of control then it becomes very difficult to eliminate.
High phosphates low nitrates
- Thread starter Krissreef
- Start date
- Tagged users None
1ppm nitrates might be a bit low if you are seeing dinos. If dinos get out of control then it becomes very difficult to eliminate.
OP
OP
Krissreef
Community Member
Belgian Anthias
Valuable Member
Nitrate is a safe nitrogen reserve. Normally it is the endproduct of aerobic remineralisation, producing CO2, phosphate and ammonia, and a lot of other building materials and nutrients have been produced at that stage. The safely stored nitrate-nitrogen can then be used to re-use up the produced building materials and nutrients. In a closed aquarium system with a skimmer, this skimmer removes constantly and very selective parts of the building materials but leaves excreted ammonia and inorganic nutrients behind, creating an unbalance between nutrients and building materials.
If nitrate is added to a closed system with a skimmer, what would be the purpose of that nitrate supplement? Using up building materials that were never produced? Or compete with ammonium as a nitrogen source which is not possible?
You also dosed organic carbon, supporting fast heterotrophic growth, stealing the building materials of other slower growing animals like photo-autotrophs, corals and nitrifiers, building materials which are already limited available. Those fast-growing bacteria prefer ammonia-nitrogen for fast growth, by which little or no nitrate can be produced. What about the autotrophic carrying capacity ?
The nutrient reserves measured are very good, a bit more phosphate or a bit less nitrate would make it ideal for the nutrient reserve not to become responsible for phosphorus starvation.
I think you have been dosing about everything too much for the wrong reasons, the natural balance is lost and the autotrophic carrying capacity will be minimal. My advice is to restart and continue to add an organic carbon source to support the carrying capacity and build it off very slowly to reinstall sufficient autotrophic carrying capacity, which may take a few weeks. The brownish is typical for a cycling tank struggling with ammonia and nitrite. Cycling and conditioning the tank again is what I think must be done. Otherwise, you will have to continue dosing organic carbon and in that case, dosing must be in function of the daily nitrogen overproduction as having a high C/N ratio is not what corals really like.
If nitrate is added to a closed system with a skimmer, what would be the purpose of that nitrate supplement? Using up building materials that were never produced? Or compete with ammonium as a nitrogen source which is not possible?
You also dosed organic carbon, supporting fast heterotrophic growth, stealing the building materials of other slower growing animals like photo-autotrophs, corals and nitrifiers, building materials which are already limited available. Those fast-growing bacteria prefer ammonia-nitrogen for fast growth, by which little or no nitrate can be produced. What about the autotrophic carrying capacity ?
The nutrient reserves measured are very good, a bit more phosphate or a bit less nitrate would make it ideal for the nutrient reserve not to become responsible for phosphorus starvation.
I think you have been dosing about everything too much for the wrong reasons, the natural balance is lost and the autotrophic carrying capacity will be minimal. My advice is to restart and continue to add an organic carbon source to support the carrying capacity and build it off very slowly to reinstall sufficient autotrophic carrying capacity, which may take a few weeks. The brownish is typical for a cycling tank struggling with ammonia and nitrite. Cycling and conditioning the tank again is what I think must be done. Otherwise, you will have to continue dosing organic carbon and in that case, dosing must be in function of the daily nitrogen overproduction as having a high C/N ratio is not what corals really like.
Last edited:
