How do you bump up nitrates

Shaddow_wolf169 · Feb 21, 2017

Okay so I am running 160g total water volume. I need to bump my nitrates to .5 to .10 I run a fuge with chaeto and no mech fliter other then my nyos 160 skimmer aka (THE BEAST) I need the nitrates for my corals 40 frags. Fish I have diamond goby, watchman goby, 2 scooter dragons, pep shrimp, pistol shrimp, sifter star, and 20 or so snails and hermits. I dumped a bunch of mysis and brine 1 cube each with packaged water hoping to help but nothing 2 hours later 0 nitrates 12 hours 0 and 24 hours 0 help do I have to start dosing?

Jason mack · Feb 21, 2017

You could feed more , run Your skimmer less , or put Some flakes in Your filter socks

Maritimer · Feb 21, 2017

That's a rather light bioload for 160 gallons of water. Not sure you could feed those fish enough to raise nitrates significantly. You might consider dosing, but go slowly and test often, IMO.

~Bruce

ahiggins · Feb 21, 2017

Maritimer said:
That's a rather light bioload for 160 gallons of water. Not sure you could feed those fish enough to raise nitrates significantly. You might consider dosing, but go slowly and test often, IMO.

~Bruce

agreed, way low bioload. You dont even need to run a skimmer at the moment.
The natural way would be to get more fish and feed them, thus feeding the tank. Obviously you would test once or twice a day to ensure youre not overdoing it. You could also turn off the skimmer to speed it up.
OR
You could dose. Ive never done it before so I would be zero help in this catagory.

PS. you need a bada** wrasse in that tank!!

Shaddow_wolf169 · Feb 21, 2017

I don't run socks I was think about getting 6 clowns for the tank. Unfortunately I did have a powder brown and tomini tangs maroon and oscellaris clown lawnmower blenny died this week do to ich and a faulty hydrometer was pushing 1.030 sg stressed and killed them. I did get a refractometer and sg is at 1.024 even with all the fish and feeding corals daily my nitrates at 0

Waters · Feb 21, 2017

As everybody else stated, you either need to remove less nutrients, or add more. You can add more by adding fish, feeding more, or dosing. I dose dry KNO3 mixed with RO/DI water. You can also dose stump remover which seems to have become pretty popular.

mcarroll · Feb 21, 2017

No matter what changes you make, be sure to make them small and allow at least 2-3 weeks to monitor the system for changes before making further changes.

I would consider adding some kind of auto-feeder.

Either Eheim's feeder for flake/pellets or one of the in-tank brine shrimp hatcheries like the one from Tom Aquatics or the DIY design @Paul B has published in his book and in a few online posts. Or both if you think it would be appropriate.

Brine shrimp eggs are easy to decapsulate so they're a lot less messy to use....and can post-decapsulation, they can even be fed without hatching if you want!!
Decapsulating Brine Shrimp Eggs
Salt Lake nauplii are larger than San Francisco Bay strain.

For selecting your dry foods, you can use the information about fatty acids and nutrition here to make the best selection possible:
Choosing an Appropriate Live Feed for Larviculture of Marine Fish

Lots of smaller fish we keep would do great on the same diet they're talking about for larviculture. In particular copepods....some, like cyclopeeze and arctipods, are already commonly available. In addition to the live and refrigerated versions of these pods, there are flake, pellet and freeze-dried forms available too that would work in an auto-feeder.

Shaddow_wolf169 · Feb 21, 2017

Awesome advise guys I am going to start with the skimmer 2 days off 1 day on. Even with my light load I pull a lot of nasty skimmate everyday. I think my skimmer is a little overkill for my system.

Abhishek · Feb 21, 2017

You can try sodium or potassium nitrate .
I use sodium nitrate lab grade and slowly bring it upto 5 ppm and maintain it .
Skimmer has other important function like oxygenating your tank and with an external line connected to the air intake , can stabilize your pH .. and anyways I would personally never run it off for more than an hour while doing weekly maintenance .

Regards,
Abhishek

wkscott · Feb 21, 2017

I agree with leaving the skimmer on for most of the time for pH stabilization. If you want to turn it off, connect it to a timer. Make sure the skimmer is running during lights out time as this is when the pH tends to dip.

Frop · Feb 21, 2017

Would removing the chaeto help consume less? I have chaeto in my nano but it was mainly for pods which I no longer have.

wkscott · Feb 21, 2017

Frop said:
Would removing the chaeto help consume less? I have chaeto in my nano but it was mainly for pods which I no longer have.

Yes, if you don't have excess nitrates and no pods you really don't have much of a need for the chaeto. Chaeto is very efficient at removing nutrients from the water.

Dumb question but I have to ask: Are you by chance running GFO or carbon on your tank?

Shaddow_wolf169 · Feb 21, 2017

I run a bag of carbon in the fuge but it's like 3 months old no gfo chaeto since 3 weeks ago no filter socks. I do not dose CA is 520 alk is 13.5 mag is 1650 had an issue with hydrometer sg got to 1.030 got it back down to 1.024 parameters are still high. I must have some nitrates I'm getting green hair algae. Also I need chaeto and pods for my scooter blenny

wkscott · Feb 21, 2017

Your carbon is probably exhausted or too slime coated to be working. Green hair algae is not necessarily an indication of nitrates. It is however an indicator of phosphates. Have you tested your phosphate level?

As a side note, you mentioned that you had several fish die of ich but some survived. Did you treat the survivors and let the tank go fallow for 76 days? If not, the group of 6 clowns that you plan to introduce are going to be in trouble.

Shaddow_wolf169 · Feb 21, 2017

The clowns were just a though. I have not tested for phos my lfs was out of reagents.

beaslbob · Feb 21, 2017

in addition to potassium nitrate you could also try calcium nitrate which is sold as a plant fert.

jason.kennedy.98478 · Feb 21, 2017

Get a biowheel

ReeferBee · Feb 21, 2017

Feeding more is going to raise phates a lot more than trates

mcarroll · Feb 21, 2017

ReeferBee said:
Feeding more is going to raise phates a lot more than trates

+1

Feeding quality foods should raise both the correct amount....they key of course is not to overfeed in the process.

Small changes to the routine and lots of time for observation between changes!