How to raise nitrates with a refugium and high phosphates

[Tim Olson]

In my latest attempt to eliminate Dinos I'm trying to raise nitrates to detectable levels.

Nitrates have been at or near zero for at least a year (using Salifert kit), while phosphates have been high (0.15+ ppm using Hanna ULR). I've also been running a relatively large 10g fuge, which grows chaeto very quickly. Also, my corals are doing quite well, especially when I raised the phosphates from 0.03 to 0.15-0.25 ppm.

In the past, I've tried raising nitrates with NeoNitro, but was unsuccessful. My theory was the chaeto and hair algae were consuming all the extra nitrates I was dosing. Is that make sense?

So, I'm looking for advice on the most effective way to raise nitrates, given my current situation.

Specs/parameters:
- 60 gallon system with 40g display tank, 10g sump and 10g refugium
- Run Core7, which keeps Calcium and Magnesium at appropriate levels
- Skimmer
- Large UV reactor
- No GFO or carbon
- Nitrates - 0.0 to 0.2 ppm
- Phosphates - 0.15 to 0.25 ppm
- pH - 8.5 to 8.6 - using C02 scrubber
- Salinity - 1.0245 sg
- Alkalinity - 8.0-9.0 dKh

 

[Hallowhead]

I would suggest dosing sodium nitrate to attempt at bringing your nitrates up. Id imagine your fuge is sucking all your nitrates bottoming out the tank causing the nuisance algae to grow

 

[zapbap99]

Hey, do you feed heavy or just moderate it? I would suggest doing some extra feeding maybe and dosing nitrates on top of that possibly could work.

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

I find I need to dose 1-2ppm of nitrate daily in the form of potassium nitrate (stump remover). My phosphates stay steady 0.08-1.0, but without dosing nitrates they will drop over time. I feed about the same amount every day so dosing of nitrates is able to remain steady day to day. I check once every week or two in case I need to make a correction dose, but rarely need to make any adjustments.

I have had dinos, but having higher nitrates (15-20ppm) alone has not kept them away. does seem to help, but I haven't found any magic bullet yet to get rid of them in my system.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

In my latest attempt to eliminate Dinos I'm trying to raise nitrates to detectable levels.

Nitrates have been at or near zero for at least a year (using Salifert kit), while phosphates have been high (0.15+ ppm using Hanna ULR). I've also been running a relatively large 10g fuge, which grows chaeto very quickly. Also, my corals are doing quite well, especially when I raised the phosphates from 0.03 to 0.15-0.25 ppm.

In the past, I've tried raising nitrates with NeoNitro, but was unsuccessful. My theory was the chaeto and hair algae were consuming all the extra nitrates I was dosing. Is that make sense?

So, I'm looking for advice on the most effective way to raise nitrates, given my current situation.

Specs/parameters:
- 60 gallon system with 40g display tank, 10g sump and 10g refugium
- Run Core7, which keeps Calcium and Magnesium at appropriate levels
- Skimmer
- Large UV reactor
- No GFO or carbon
- Nitrates - 0.0 to 0.2 ppm
- Phosphates - 0.15 to 0.25 ppm
- pH - 8.5 to 8.6 - using C02 scrubber
- Salinity - 1.0245 sg
- Alkalinity - 8.0-9.0 dKh

I have the same issue but mine is a little more severe. My PO4 was at .85 and nitrate at 0. So I’ve been leaving my skimmer off(most effective at keeping nitrates in check due to organic waste getting broken down into nitrate by nitrifying bacteria, so if the skimmer is off, the bacteria in your tank can nitrify waste in the tank) and also leaving the refugium light on but rotating the algae 2wice a day so that it doesn’t burn(mine doesn’t rotate on its own). Macro algae is really good at removing phosphates from the water.

-Skimmer OFF
-refugium on 24/7(if you like your phosphate level tho then just keep your light schedule as normal)
-neo nitro dosed at night(enough for .5ppm a day)
-MicrōBacter7 dosed at night
I have zero nitrate when tested, then followed above regimen and the next night I tested and had .05 NO3. The next day the phosphate went down to .76(NeoNitro dosed together with MicrōBacter7 plus refugium 24/7 helps bring phosphate down too)
Yesterday when I tested phosphate it got down to .56 and nitrate was still looking about .05 after the second dose. So I dosed again for another .05ppm rise, so tonight if it is still the same I’ll increase the amount of neo nitro to offset whatever is consuming the nitrate(probably the Cyano I’m battling which is probably the reason for my imbalance) to get it up to 1ppm. Slow and steady is best when bringing up or down nutrients anyway. I’m shooting for 5ppm NO3 and .05 PO4 as I’ve had a coral brown out on me from the high phosphate.

So Maybe if you turn off your skimmer and dose neonitro and maybe combine it with MicrōBacter7 you’ll see better results. I would just increase the dose if you don’t see results with it. The other thing the bottle says tho, “if you don’t see the desired increase after dosing neonitro then YOUR TANK MIGHT BE CARBON LIMITED”
That might be something to look into

 

[Daddy-o]

You could start dosing aminos. Something like Acropower?

 

[Tim Olson]

Hey, do you feed heavy or just moderate it? I would suggest doing some extra feeding maybe and dosing nitrates on top of that possibly could work.

Yes, I feed very heavy with 1 cube Mysis, 1 cube Brine Shrimp, 1/4 teaspoon of Reef Roids, and a little pellet food. Also, I feed the tank about 4-5 times a day. I'm wondering, though, if dosing nitrates would affect the other parameters.

 

[zapbap99]

Yes, I feed very heavy with 1 cube Mysis, 1 cube Brine Shrimp, 1/4 teaspoon of Reef Roids, and a little pellet food. Also, I feed the tank about 4-5 times a day. I'm wondering, though, if dosing nitrates would affect the other parameters.

yea dang dosing nitrates shouldn't affect other params you could check bottle to see if there is any additives though.

 

[Tim Olson]

I find I need to dose 1-2ppm of nitrate daily in the form of potassium nitrate (stump remover). My phosphates stay steady 0.08-1.0, but without dosing nitrates they will drop over time. I feed about the same amount every day so dosing of nitrates is able to remain steady day to day. I check once every week or two in case I need to make a correction dose, but rarely need to make any adjustments.

I have had dinos, but having higher nitrates (15-20ppm) alone has not kept them away. does seem to help, but I haven't found any magic bullet yet to get rid of them in my system.

Thanks ... that's good to hear that your phosphates stay steady. On the dinos, I'm hoping raising nitrates will help, since they've been at or near zero for so long.

 

[Tim Olson]

I have the same issue but mine is a little more severe. My PO4 was at .85 and nitrate at 0. So I’ve been leaving my skimmer off(most effective at keeping nitrates in check due to organic waste getting broken down into nitrate by nitrifying bacteria, so if the skimmer is off, the bacteria in your tank can nitrify waste in the tank) and also leaving the refugium light on but rotating the algae 2wice a day so that it doesn’t burn(mine doesn’t rotate on its own). Macro algae is really good at removing phosphates from the water.

-Skimmer OFF
-refugium on 24/7(if you like your phosphate level tho then just keep your light schedule as normal)
-neo nitro dosed at night(enough for .5ppm a day)
-MicrōBacter7 dosed at night
I have zero nitrate when tested, then followed above regimen and the next night I tested and had .05 NO3. The next day the phosphate went down to .76(NeoNitro dosed together with MicrōBacter7 plus refugium 24/7 helps bring phosphate down too)
Yesterday when I tested phosphate it got down to .56 and nitrate was still looking about .05 after the second dose. So I dosed again for another .05ppm rise, so tonight if it is still the same I’ll increase the amount of neo nitro to offset whatever is consuming the nitrate(probably the Cyano I’m battling which is probably the reason for my imbalance) to get it up to 1ppm. Slow and steady is best when bringing up or down nutrients anyway. I’m shooting for 5ppm NO3 and .05 PO4 as I’ve had a coral brown out on me from the high phosphate.

So Maybe if you turn off your skimmer and dose neonitro and maybe combine it with MicrōBacter7 you’ll see better results. I would just increase the dose if you don’t see results with it. The other thing the bottle says tho, “if you don’t see the desired increase after dosing neonitro then YOUR TANK MIGHT BE CARBON LIMITED”
That might be something to look into

Great suggestions ... I'll try turning of the skimmer. I'm just worried my pH and oxygenation will go down. I have some MicroBacter7, so that sounds like a good idea to dose it with NeoNitro. Good luck on your efforts.

 

[Tim Olson]

You could start dosing aminos. Something like Acropower?

Good idea ... I currently dose a couple of drops of CoralAmino per day, but I have no idea if that's the right amount.

 

[Tim Olson]

yea dang dosing nitrates shouldn't affect other params you could check bottle to see if there is any additives though.

That's good news. I'll give the NeoNItro bottle a good read to see.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Great suggestions ... I'll try turning of the skimmer. I'm just worried my pH and oxygenation will go down. I have some MicroBacter7, so that sounds like a good idea to dose it with NeoNitro. Good luck on your efforts.

Thanks. You too. Raise your return lines high enough to create surface agitation for gas exchange. Should be ok. If not turn your skimmer back on lol

 

[Tim Olson]

Thanks. You too. Raise your return lines high enough to create surface agitation for gas exchange. Should be ok. If not turn your skimmer back on lol

Cool ... Thanks!