How to get nitrates up!!

[clown and friends]

I know it is a good problem to have but my nitrates won't climb above 0 and I think some corals are suffering as a result! I have an overstocked IM Lagoon 25 quite frankly and feed frozen 2x/day and dose Red Sea A and B and my nitrates are still 0. Filtration is chemipure blue and a refugium in the 2nd chamber with chaeto. Should I dose nitrates? If so what how do you do it? Shut down the fuge for good? Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Coastie Reefer]

I had the same problem on my system... couldn't get nitrates up to save my life and my coral were not doing well.

I bought these:

GLA Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) Aquarium Fertilizer - 1lb Bag

Green Leaf Aquariums Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) is a key macronutrient source supporting robust green growth in aquatic plants.

greenleafaquariums.com

500mL (16oz) Fertilizer Dispenser

Shop our Green Leaf Aquariums 500mL (16oz) Fertilizer Dispenser. Planted aquarium boutique since 2007 & 24/7 customer support, we ship fast!

greenleafaquariums.com

and used this calculator:

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

I try to keep nitrates around 10 and things have gotten much better.

 

[clown and friends]

I had the same problem on my system... couldn't get nitrates up to save my life and my coral were not doing well.

I bought these:

GLA Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) Aquarium Fertilizer - 1lb Bag

Green Leaf Aquariums Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) is a key macronutrient source supporting robust green growth in aquatic plants.

greenleafaquariums.com

500mL (16oz) Fertilizer Dispenser

Shop our Green Leaf Aquariums 500mL (16oz) Fertilizer Dispenser. Planted aquarium boutique since 2007 & 24/7 customer support, we ship fast!

greenleafaquariums.com

and used this calculator:

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

I try to keep nitrates around 10 and things have gotten much better.

Do you dose any phosphates or just nitrates? Did you keep all filtration the same? AKA should I keep the fuge running?

 

[Coastie Reefer]

Do you dose any phosphates or just nitrates? Did you keep all filtration the same? AKA should I keep the fuge running?

I don't dose phosphates, but I took my gfo reactor offline. I did have a fuge with cheato, but I don't anymore. Dosed vibrant to battle some bubble algae and it worked like a charm, but it worked too well and melted my chaeto. I don't have to dose as much as often without the macro algae, but I'll probably be adding it back at some point.

 

[bar|none]

have you seen the latest thread on N and P dosing?

Is Carbon, Nitrate, and Phosphate Dosing Bad For the Hobby?

Are you sure that is true? the Feldman article I just linked researched this and concluded 35% of TOC was the maximum a skimmer could remove which is the complete opposite of your claim? Could you please explain how a skimmer can behave as you suggest or provide links to support your claim, thx...

www.reef2reef.com

I have the same issue as you and I started dosing N with NeoNitro, but stopped after reading that thread. What did work for me was to feed heavy while removing the skimmer top for awhile after feeding, so basically stopping skimming while feeding so that food waste makes it to the fuge. Once the fuge has some organics to work on, it helped me get my N up to 1ppm and seems to be staying there now. But every system is different.

The fuge is actually a source of stability and buffer for me.

Oh and BTW, my corals did suffer when N and P were at 0. Once I got N and P up above 0 things improved dramatically.

 

[Coastie Reefer]

have you seen the latest thread on N and P dosing?

Is Carbon, Nitrate, and Phosphate Dosing Bad For the Hobby?

Are you sure that is true? the Feldman article I just linked researched this and concluded 35% of TOC was the maximum a skimmer could remove which is the complete opposite of your claim? Could you please explain how a skimmer can behave as you suggest or provide links to support your claim, thx...

www.reef2reef.com

I have the same issue as you and I started dosing N with NeoNitro, but stopped after reading that thread. What did work for me was to feed heavy while removing the skimmer top for awhile after feeding, so basically stopping skimming while feeding so that food waste makes it to the fuge. Once the fuge has some organics to work on, it helped me get my N up to 1ppm and seems to be staying there now. But every system is different.

The fuge is actually a source of stability and buffer for me.

Oh and BTW, my corals did suffer when N and P were at 0. Once I got N and P up above 0 things improved dramatically.

The majority consensus is that it's not bad... IMO, dosing N04 and Po4 to get to desired levels is no different than dosing Alk, which is basically dumping dissolved baking soda into a your tank for all intents and purposes.

 

[landlubber]

whomever told you zero nitrates are a good thing doesn't understand how it works. PO4 and NO3 are what your corals feed on. zero of either just opens the door to light sensitivity and dinos.

 

[clown and friends]

whomever told you zero nitrates are a good thing doesn't understand how it works. PO4 and NO3 are what your corals feed on. zero of either just opens the door to light sensitivity and dinos.

Sorry you must have misunderstood my point, I think having the need to raise nitrates is a better problem to have than have nitrates that are like 80+ppm. I am well aware they are bad since I had a dino outbreak 2 months ago which is now gone thanks to a UV sterilizer. I have been trying so hard to raise the nitrates these last two months to no avail hence the post. I just ordered KNO3 to start dosing it at the suggestion of the other poster!

 

[bar|none]

I ended up with Dinos as well and I still have them. I was hoping the algae would start out competing them but it may be wishful thinking. May I ask which UV sterilizer you used?

 

[ReeferReefer]

I would start by reducing the photo period on the fuge and increasing feeding portions.

 

[clown and friends]

I ended up with Dinos as well and I still have them. I was hoping the algae would start out competing them but it may be wishful thinking. May I ask which UV sterilizer you used?

I got the 9w sterilizer made my innovative marine. It fits right in one of the overflows which is super cool. When I put it on I did a 36hr blackout to force them in the water column and they were mostly gone after that. I also dosed microbacter 7 for about a week after but I don't know if it helped or not.

I would start by reducing the photo period on the fuge and increasing feeding portions.

I hadn't thought to do that! I will give it a try!

 

[Coastie Reefer]

I ended up with Dinos as well and I still have them. I was hoping the algae would start out competing them but it may be wishful thinking. May I ask which UV sterilizer you used?

Some dinos can be wiped out with a couple days of lights out. If your tank is in a place that gets a decent amount of ambient light, you might want to tape cardboard or trash bags around the tank to keep as much light out as you can.

 

[Goodair]

Cut back on your filtration.

 

[HB AL]

Aside from dosing, you could get more fish and feed them a lot, your nitrates will naturally go up.

 

[Kyl]

I am convinced that heavy refugium use, especially early on with a tank that does not need it, is nothing but trouble. For all the good some of the media and series like the BRS160 do, some of that also has to explain the rapid uptake in tanks with refugiums, especially from day one, and heavy photo periods. Detectable nitrate crashes, people still believe that 'the corals and algae are consuming it before you can measure it', but SPS suffer. Unless you're on a ULNS product system and doing it intentionally, it's playing with fire that your tank won't succumb to dinos or cyano issues.

 

[bar|none]

One issue I had when levels got low was not having a test kit that could read below 1ppm Nitrate. I ordered the Red Sea PRO kit and after I got it, it was reading dead 0, so I feel like the NeoNitrate was a good emergency measure to bump things up fast after I realized I was really at 0, but now i am figuring out a path without dosing. Thing is, bumping off 0 N and P (0 ppb per Hanna Ultra Low Phos) definitely was the Dino trigger. So much to learn in this hobby...

I do like the refugium though. I like it a lot actually.

 

[PatW]

I dose nitrates to maintain 2 ppm. I use an analytical grade reagent of sodium nitrate from amazon rather than stump killer which is potassium nitrate. I am thinking of switching to food grade sodium nitrate. Apparently food grade has stringent standards on toxic trace metals that analytical does not have.

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

You can have some of my Nitrates, mine are always high!