How much nitrate accumulates in your tank per week?

blaxsun · Feb 28, 2022

I have a Zeo reactor and a lot of MarinePure biomedia in my sump. It's actually really hard getting my nitrates over 5ppm...

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2022

Karen00 said:
Thanks for this! I have made a note about these. I'm going to give my tank some more time. It's only 8 months wet but I think I might need these. In all the years I've had freshwater tanks I was never able to get 0 nitrates. Now that I want them they have evaporated into thin air without even trying.

I think the key issue is tank time. Right around 7 or 8 months my tank seemed to be transitioning to a more stabil environment and that has continued now into 11 months with coral and fish thriving. Tank is not perfect at all with some GHA issues but I can see that slowly going away to and more coraline taking over the rocks. I resisted the urge to dump algae killing chemicals in and rely more on mother nature but do add PNS probio bacteria supplement which really seems to help but it is all natural too. I would suggest stay the course, dose neophos or neonitro if you need to for good parameters, diversify your cleaner crew, water changes, and focus on stability. I'll tell you a mistake I made around 7 or 8 months, I had a moderate amount of GHA but saw my powerheads covered in coralline and white specs all over my back wall and rocks. I thought coralline was taking over and would outcompete the GHA but I learned it takes months for coraline to really develop on rocks after you see it on plastic parts. This allowed the GHA to get better established and now I'm relying on more cleaners like urchins to clean the rocks along with manual removal. Coralline then moves in on the clean rocks so if you get to the GHA stage like me be proactive with your cleaner crew and removal. Get magnesium up to 1500 to weaken GHA to.

Karen00 · Feb 28, 2022

Lavey29 said:
I think the key issue is tank time. Right around 7 or 8 months my tank seemed to be transitioning to a more stabil environment and that has continued now into 11 months with coral and fish thriving. Tank is not perfect at all with some GHA issues but I can see that slowly going away to and more coraline taking over the rocks. I resisted the urge to dump algae killing chemicals in and rely more on mother nature but do add PNS probio bacteria supplement which really seems to help but it is all natural too. I would suggest stay the course, dose neophos or neonitro if you need to for good parameters, diversify your cleaner crew, water changes, and focus on stability. I'll tell you a mistake I made around 7 or 8 months, I had a moderate amount of GHA but saw my powerheads covered in coralline and white specs all over my back wall and rocks. I thought coralline was taking over and would outcompete the GHA but I learned it takes months for coraline to really develop on rocks after you see it on plastic parts. This allowed the GHA to get better established and now I'm relying on more cleaners like urchins to clean the rocks along with manual removal. Coralline then moves in on the clean rocks so if you get to the GHA stage like me be proactive with your cleaner crew and removal. Get magnesium up to 1500 to weaken GHA to.

Thank you so much for this! I have started to see some coralline so thank you for this warning. I started manual removal pretty much from when I first noticed it but admittedly I probably should have started three weeks sooner. I'm shocked at how quickly it took hold. I think where I made the mistake is that I panicked and started to do daily cleanings and with the cleaning and siphoning I kept adding fresh saltwater to replace what I siphoned out. I think this is what nuked my nitrates and possibly phosphates. I hadn't tested those two in a few months and the last time I tested, my nitrates were at 5 and phosphates 0 so I might've started getting phosphates after that but most likely all the water changes plus algae could've dumped both to 0. I'm still doing manual removal and siphoning but I'm running the water through a double filter to catch the algae, etc and then I'm putting that water back into the tank. I'm hoping this will start to boost my phosphates and nitrates. I have also been dosing bacteria (Microbacter) but I think I will grab a bottle of what you mentioned. Added to the GHA I think I also started to get either diatoms or dinos in the sand so I first siphon it up then I scoop out the sand and rip clean it with hydrogen peroxide then put it back in. I also boosted my cleanup crew but I'm going to dump in a bunch of pods to add to it. I think I'm starting to see a reduction of all the nasties so hopefully this is technique is working. My trochus snail is a workhorse on the GHA. I don't know how he hasn't exploded with how much he's eaten. LOL On a side note: I was going to try Vibrant if manual removal couldn't keep up but that other thread put a kibosh on that.

Jeffbear · Feb 28, 2022

jbholasingh said:
How much nitrate accumulates in your tank per week without water changes?

I've been rock steady at 5ppm

Acros · Feb 28, 2022

Zero with occasional nitrate dosing. So I gave up on nitrate dosing and started feeding 4x a day. Still zero.

homer1475 · Feb 28, 2022

I actually know this, just because I've been trying to figure it out for the last few weeks(wondering how effective my WC's are).

I accumulate/have an excess of 2ppm per week. With my 10G WC's on a 90G system takes them back to 0.

Now of course I don't keep my nitrates at 0, but rather between 15 and 20ppm. With my WC schedule, I keep them right at 16.

On sunday when I test they are typically around 18, test on wednesday after my weekly WC, and I'm right back to roughly 16.

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2022

Karen00 said:
Thank you so much for this! I have started to see some coralline so thank you for this warning. I started manual removal pretty much from when I first noticed it but admittedly I probably should have started three weeks sooner. I'm shocked at how quickly it took hold. I think where I made the mistake is that I panicked and started to do daily cleanings and with the cleaning and siphoning I kept adding fresh saltwater to replace what I siphoned out. I think this is what nuked my nitrates and possibly phosphates. I hadn't tested those two in a few months and the last time I tested, my nitrates were at 5 and phosphates 0 so I might've started getting phosphates after that but most likely all the water changes plus algae could've dumped both to 0. I'm still doing manual removal and siphoning but I'm running the water through a double filter to catch the algae, etc and then I'm putting that water back into the tank. I'm hoping this will start to boost my phosphates and nitrates. I have also been dosing bacteria (Microbacter) but I think I will grab a bottle of what you mentioned. Added to the GHA I think I also started to get either diatoms or dinos in the sand so I first siphon it up then I scoop out the sand and rip clean it with hydrogen peroxide then put it back in. I also boosted my cleanup crew but I'm going to dump in a bunch of pods to add to it. I think I'm starting to see a reduction of all the nasties so hopefully this is technique is working. My trochus snail is a workhorse on the GHA. I don't know how he hasn't exploded with how much he's eaten. LOL On a side note: I was going to try Vibrant if manual removal couldn't keep up but that other thread put a kibosh on that.

Microbacter lowers phosphate and nitrate also so you might be competing against yourself. Increasing microfauna is good. Cut your lights to 8 hours with blues and UV, no whites. It will stop the algae spread and give you time to get ahead of it. 1500 magnesium or even 1600 will weaken GHA so it comes off rocks easily with a toothbrush and won't hurt your corals or fish. I've got mine over 1500 now and the GHA comes off in clumps and I hope the bare spots get taken over by coraline.

Karen00 · Feb 28, 2022

homer1475 said:
I actually know this, just because I've been trying to figure it out for the last few weeks(wondering how effective my WC's are).

I accumulate/have an excess of 2ppm per week. With my 10G WC's on a 90G system takes them back to 0.

Now of course I don't keep my nitrates at 0, but rather between 15 and 20ppm. With my WC schedule, I keep them right at 16.

On sunday when I test they are typically around 18, test on wednesday after my weekly WC, and I'm right back to roughly 16.

This is very interesting that you have such good consistency with nitrates. That's like magic.

14 foot reef · Feb 28, 2022

Sorry if I missed this in the thread, what test kit are you using to test Nitrate ?

Karen00 · Feb 28, 2022

Lavey29 said:
Microbacter lowers phosphate and nitrate also so you might be competing against yourself. Increasing microfauna is good. Cut your lights to 8 hours with blues and UV, no whites. It will stop the algae spread and give you time to get ahead of it. 1500 magnesium or even 1600 will weaken GHA so it comes off rocks easily with a toothbrush and won't hurt your corals or fish. I've got mine over 1500 now and the GHA comes off in clumps and I hope the bare spots get taken over by coraline.

Geez, I'm glad I mentioned the microbactor. Doh!! Totally self defeating adding that. LOL Thanks also for mentioning the blues, UV and whites. I took the whites right down but still have them at about 10% so I'll take them out of the mix. I was also running UV at about 50% (AI Prime HD). I thought maybe that was contributing to the algae proliferating given people run UV for their macroalgae so I put it to 0. So UV will help with this nuisance stuff or is it more to help coralline grow?

PeterEde · Feb 28, 2022

blaxsun said:
I have a Zeo reactor and a lot of MarinePure biomedia in my sump. It's actually really hard getting my nitrates over 5ppm...

What reactor and media? I'll see if I can find this in Australia.

blaxsun · Feb 28, 2022

PeterEde said:
What reactor and media? I'll see if I can find this in Australia.

I use a Nyos Torq reactor with the new 2.0L G2 body (upgraded) and Nyos Zeo rocks that I change out every 2-4 months).

PeterEde · Feb 28, 2022

blaxsun said:
I use a Nyos Torq reactor with the new 2.0L G2 body (upgraded) and Nyos Zeo rocks that I change out every 2-4 months).

Thanks. I should be able to find this locally. My No3 is 35 as of yesterday. Coming down slowly

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2022

Karen00 said:
Geez, I'm glad I mentioned the microbactor. Doh!! Totally self defeating adding that. LOL Thanks also for mentioning the blues, UV and whites. I took the whites right down but still have them at about 10% so I'll take them out of the mix. I was also running UV at about 50% (AI Prime HD). I thought maybe that was contributing to the algae proliferating given people run UV for their macroalgae so I put it to 0. So UV will help with this nuisance stuff or is it more to help coralline grow?

Whites are ok at that level for viewing. Blues and UV won't impact algae that much but corals need it. Cutting duration will help too. Yes coraline needs proper lighting and stable parameters especially calcium because it uses up calcium while forming.