Increasing nitrates

[Tangina20]

I currently have two fish in a 40b And have been struggling to get nitrates above 0. I have tuned off the protein skimmer, turned the refugium light on for 3 hr a day, and started feeding almost a whole cube of brine every day and feed corals every other day and still no luck.

I started all of this about 2 weeks ago,l and haven’t seen a difference, I have seen online you can dose nitrates with stump remover but that doesn’t seem too appealing to me. Should I feed even more or look for other options??

I have another fish currently in the qt which will hopefully help when I get it in the dt in a couple months.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Are you having coral issues or odd algaes?


There are off the shelf products you can dose too.

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/m...MIgdP1gb-g4AIVV_7jBx31mg2aEAkYCSABEgKVrfD_BwE

 

[Tangina20]

My sps is turning white and I have a weird clear slimy algae growing on the rock.

Are you having coral issues or odd algaes?


There are off the shelf products you can dose too.

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/m...MIgdP1gb-g4AIVV_7jBx31mg2aEAkYCSABEgKVrfD_BwE

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My sps is turning white and I have a weird clear slimy algae growing on the rock.

Gotcha. Yea you can use that and def check your Po4. Most issues like that white stuff (chrystophytes?maybe?) come from Po4 issues not generally no3 , reduced no3 is just a side effect of having it.

 

[jtl]

NeoNitro works for me to raise NO3

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I currently have two fish in a 40b And have been struggling to get nitrates above 0. I have tuned off the protein skimmer, turned the refugium light on for 3 hr a day, and started feeding almost a whole cube of brine every day and feed corals every other day and still no luck.

I started all of this about 2 weeks ago,l and haven’t seen a difference, I have seen online you can dose nitrates with stump remover but that doesn’t seem too appealing to me. Should I feed even more or look for other options??

I have another fish currently in the qt which will hopefully help when I get it in the dt in a couple months.

There's no reason to use stump remover, or an overpriced hobby product. Buy food grade sodium or potassium nitrate, such a from Loudwolf brand:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/222604...MI-oSz-tig4AIVhMDICh2vbAJbEAkYBSABEgLXQ_D_BwE

 

[JMM744]

There's no reason to use stump remover, or an overpriced hobby product. Buy food grade sodium or potassium nitrate, such a from Loudwolf brand:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/222604...MI-oSz-tig4AIVhMDICh2vbAJbEAkYBSABEgLXQ_D_BwE

Hope you don’t mind adding a question... I have been dosing stump remover for a couple weeks now. My tank is using about 10 ml. per day. Is it not safe? I have encountered no negative impact, at least nothing I can see.
Thank you very much.
Jim

 

[Tangina20]

Gotcha. Yea you can use that and def check your Po4. Most issues like that white stuff (?maybe?) come from Po4 issues not generally no3 , reduced no3 is just a side effect of having it.

There's no reason to use stump remover, or an overpriced hobby product. Buy food grade sodium or potassium nitrate, such a from Loudwolf brand:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/222604...MI-oSz-tig4AIVhMDICh2vbAJbEAkYBSABEgLXQ_D_BwE

Is there a difference between sodium and potassium?
Also, does any one know how long it takes food-> nitrate? If it take more than a couple weeks maybe I should just wait until my increase in feeding kicks in.

 

[PatW]

Is there a difference between sodium and potassium?
Also, does any one know how long it takes food-> nitrate? If it take more than a couple weeks maybe I should just wait until my increase in feeding kicks in.

Sodium exists in abundance in sea water. Whatever you add by dosing sodium nitrate will not get noticed. So I go with that.

As far as how long does it take food to show up as nitrate, there are several steps.

1. The fish eats it, digests it, breaks down the proteins and excretes ammonia.

2. The ammonia converts to nitrite then nitrates.

3. Fish miss the food and it has to be taken care of by clean up crew and undergo the same digestion and excretion as fish.

In a well cycled tank, the ammonia is converted to nitrate really quickly. For food to get turned into ammonia by fish or clean up crew, probably takes a couple of days.

 

[JDtimk]

This is what I started using instead of potassium nitrate. Unfortunately I haven't been using it long enough to give any feedback other than it elevates NO3 effectively and it hasn't killed my sps so far.
https://www.amazon.com/Calcium-Hydr...1O/?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid={creative}&hvpos={adposition}&hvnetw=o&hvrand={random}&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl={devicemodel}&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583451662968084&psc=1

 

[itscraigsworld]

This video is a simple yet good message about nitrates.