How high is too high? --->NITRATE for Softies and LPS

[davy31]

How much Nitrate in an LPS and Softie dominant tank is considered too high? Mine are between 20 - 50 ppm and after spending months with Nitrate at 0, I am not sure if I want to lower it.

 

[SDK]

What are your PO4 levels?

Personally, I think 50 ppm nitrate starts flirting with too high. It will be less of an issue if you have a mature tank with large colonies taking up a lot of the available room. If you have a newer tank with a bunch of frags, you are just asking for algae issues.

There is room in between your levels and 0. If you want help dialing it in, a description of your system and current export methods (skimmer? refugium?) will make it easier to help you dial it in a bit more.

 

[davy31]

What are your PO4 levels?

Personally, I think 50 ppm nitrate starts flirting with too high. It will be less of an issue if you have a mature tank with large colonies taking up a lot of the available room. If you have a newer tank with a bunch of frags, you are just asking for algae issues.

There is room in between your levels and 0. If you want help dialing it in, a description of your system and current export methods (skimmer? refugium?) will make it easier to help you dial it in a bit more.

The PO4 is betwwen o.03 and 0.06. The tank is about 8 months old. Started with dead rock.

It is a 30 gal cube.

For filtration I use a fluval external with mechnaical, bio (lava rock), activated carbon. I used to use JBL Nitrate Ex balls amd that got my Nitrate to 0. So I got those out. There is an intank skimmer running round the clock

I always use RODI water.

 

[Uzidaisies]

 

[Arego]

I run mine pretty high, I keep

 

[flagg37]

I had a 30 gallon tank that sounds similar to your set up. It stayed around 40 ppm for no3 and didn’t have any noticeable problems. It ran for about a year before I upgraded.

 

[muzikalmatt]

My nitrates and phosphates recently got out of control (lazy reefer syndrome) with nitrates maxing out at 55pm and phosphates around 0.3ppm. Pretty much all of my softies were fine including zoas, mushrooms, xenia, toadstool leather, etc. However, most of LPS did not like it at all save for a small hammer frag and my blastos. I lost a duncan, frogspawn, plate coral, bubble coral, and a platygyra/brain coral. I also experience an explosion of bubble algae. I can't for sure it was the high nitrates or high phosphates that did the most damage, but I know the LPS were not happy with the nutrients that high. I've since gotten them back down to under 10ppm nitrates and under 0.10ppm phosphates and everything is much happier. I would say an ideal target for softies LPS would be 10-20ppm nitrates and 0.03-0.15ppm phosphates.

 

[SDK]

I would think some light weekly carbon dosing to dial Nitrates in to around 10 would be a good idea. Just watch that you don't bottom out the PO4 levels until you balance them both back out again....

 

[blaxsun]

Just corals - no fish, yes?

 

[Explorer12]

I would think some light weekly carbon dosing to dial Nitrates in to around 10 would be a good idea. Just watch that you don't bottom out the PO4 levels until you balance them both back out again....

I try to keep mine around 10 as well on the nitrates. Phosphates around 0.06. I use refugium, skimmer, and just bought some supplies for carbon dosing for the weeks that I'm lazy and may have to miss a water change. Mixed Reef tank with plenty of zoas and shrooms but also have LPS and a few SPS.

 

[davy31]

Just corals - no fish, yes?

There are fish too. 2 clowns, 1 valentini and 1 goby

 

[MaxTremors]

I try to keep mine around 10 as well on the nitrates. Phosphates around 0.06. I use refugium, skimmer, and just bought some supplies for carbon dosing for the weeks that I'm lazy and may have to miss a water change. Mixed Reef tank with plenty of zoas and shrooms but also have LPS and a few SPS.

Carbon dosing is not something you do periodically, it’s a long term strategy, you have to dose every day, slowly ramping up the dose, for it to work. It’s not something you can do for a week because you missed a water change.

 

[blaxsun]

There are fish too. 2 clowns, 1 valentini and 1 goby

I would probably try to keep it under 25ppm, in the 10-15ppm range. NOPOX is a good short-term solution to get nitrates down to a more manageable level.

 

[Explorer12]

Carbon dosing is not something you do periodically, it’s a long term strategy, you have to dose every day, slowly ramping up the dose, for it to work. It’s not something you can do for a week because you missed a water change.

Maybe I don't understand it then because I don't want my nitrates to go to zero.

 

[Explorer12]

Maybe I don't understand it then because I don't want my nitrates to go to zero.

I think I just needed to harvest some of my chaeto. The nitrates started to go up but I harvested a ton of it this weekend and nitrates are now 10.1 Maybe I don't need carbon dosing.

 

[davy31]

Maybe I don't understand it then because I don't want my nitrates to go to zero.

Having had experience with 0 nitrates and phosphates, for sure it is not ideal for soft corals and lps as they use these nutrients to build up the algae in them. I kind of spooked my kenya tree with the low to 0 nutrients and he still hasn't perked up. I am not sure if the damage is permanent. Only now one of my GSP's is opening up. And this is after close to 2 months I think.

So I am at a phase where I am thinking what is actually right and is there a so called 'right' range for these nutrients. Some people run it with really high nit/phos and some others with less than 5 ppm. And they say they have had success in both scenarios running a mixed reef. As I ont have SPS, I sort of don't tweak the setup too much and just monitoring how the fish behave, are the polyps in the softies and LPS extended and seem happy. So far, only my kenya tree and xenias seem docile. And considering these are so hardy, I wonder if they are ever going thrive in my setup.

 

[davy31]

My nitrates and phosphates recently got out of control (lazy reefer syndrome) with nitrates maxing out at 55pm and phosphates around 0.3ppm. Pretty much all of my softies were fine including zoas, mushrooms, xenia, toadstool leather, etc. However, most of LPS did not like it at all save for a small hammer frag and my blastos. I lost a duncan, frogspawn, plate coral, bubble coral, and a platygyra/brain coral. I also experience an explosion of bubble algae. I can't for sure it was the high nitrates or high phosphates that did the most damage, but I know the LPS were not happy with the nutrients that high. I've since gotten them back down to under 10ppm nitrates and under 0.10ppm phosphates and everything is much happier. I would say an ideal target for softies LPS would be 10-20ppm nitrates and 0.03-0.15ppm phosphates.

This is interesting, so how did you get the nitrates down and are your phosphates and nitrates now stabilised? Also, how did the soft corals respond to the reduction? I assume the LPS were favored it yeah?

 

[muzikalmatt]

So my nutrients initially got so high just out of sheer neglect. I don't think I did a water change in several months and the chaeto in my refugium had died off. The only filtration I was running was filter floss and a skimmer, and I was pretty lazy about changing out my filter floss.

I restarted my refugium with a fresh ball of chaeto, added some ROWAphos (GFO) to help bring down the phosphates, and started doing ~15% water changes about twice a week. I didn't want to bring things down too quickly or overshoot it and bottom out my nutrients entirely.

It took probably a month, but those things combined brought my nutrients back down and they've remained fairly stable since then. I think the softies definitely appreciated the nutrients coming down. None of them showed any negative effects to the change and I noticed some GSP that I had written off started opening up again. The mushrooms, especially the hairy rhodactis, couldn't care less either way. They seem to handle a super-wide range of nutrient levels.

The hammer frag opens a bit fuller now and the blastos look about the same. I've since picked up some newer frags to test how things do. I've added a green sinularia, zoas, and yesterday I added a green slimer frag. It's open and starting to show some good polyp extension today.

All in all it really just came down to me getting back on track with my husbandry. I had lost a bit of interest over the summer and spent a lot time outside with my daughter and just neglected the tank. Now that the weather's turning I'm much more focused and in tune with the tank again.

 

[ZoWhat]

NO3 is a conjugate base of a nitric acid. Acids burn and iritate coral above 5ppm

 

[Dbichler]

On my tank my nitrates are between 75-100 but it’s only got soft corals. They don’t seem to mind. I feel some would grow better with lower levels but some are really growing fast. I don’t try to reduce just because I like my fish fat and love to feed them.