Need to raise nitrates. Suggestions?

[Jake_the_reefer]

So my reef tank always reads 0pmm for nitrates and I am planning in introducing a few more softies and mushrooms (bounce included) and from my understanding I should have nitrates be around 5ppm. I blame my low nitrates on my skimmer
(I'm running a seaclone 50 I know it's a poor choice but it works good in my case)
But my tank is 20g and the stocking is
2 onyx perc clowns
1 scooter blenny
3 astrea snails
1 turbo snail
1 nassarius with hundreds of babies
1 cleaner shrimp
2 emerald crabs
Bubble tip nem
4 lps frags
2 softies

I feed reef roids twice a week, one heavy feeding for fish and inverts per day and still no increase in nitrates, this has been a steady 0 for 4 months now I test with the api reef master kit (I should get a new one)

But how should I raise my nutrience? More fish? Set my skimmer on a timer? Increase feeding? Move water changes to every other week instead of weekly? Dose? Leave my filter media dirty longer?
Or is 0 or close to 0 nitrates acceptable I'm new to having to caring for coral.

 

[EmdeReef]

0 for either or both N and P is not good. As long as nitrates are detectable by a test kit I wouldn’t worry too much but yes most shoot for ~5 - which is probably fairly arbitrary.

Dosing works but you will have to do fine tune it.
My preferred way would be feeding more. You can also safely turn off your skimmer for a while...

 

[Ike]

Non detectable for nitrate can be just fine, so don't think that just because you're reading zero that there's an issue. 0, or close to it for PO4 can be a big problem. If your corals look good then don't worry about it. Feed the fish and buy yourself another fish you like if you think there's an issue with nutrients being too low and corals suffering.

 

[Ike]

0 for either or both N and P is not good. As long as nitrates are detectable by a test kit I wouldn’t worry too much but yes most shoot for ~5 - which is probably fairly arbitrary.

Dosing works but you will have to do fine tune it.
My preferred way would be feeding more. You can also safely turn off your skimmer for a while...

Dosing rarely works and it usually becomes a crazy balancing act.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

How many days a week should I turn my skimmer off to increase? Or should I just try feeding more and adding more fish? What kind of fish would you reccomend

 

[kireek]

Frozen food my friend.That's what I would do. Or wait a little longer between water changes like you were thinking.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Frozen food my friend.That's what I would do. Or wait a little longer between water changes like you were thinking.

Should I still try skimmerless for a few days at a time? My skimmer is rated for 50g and it's on a 20g

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Frozen food my friend.That's what I would do. Or wait a little longer between water changes like you were thinking.

Now that I think of it, are nitrates super important if I target feed reef roids 2-3x a week? Or is nutrience in the water column still important

 

[kireek]

Should I still try skimmerless for a few days at a time? My skimmer is rated for 50g and it's on a 20g

I would leave it on 24/7 for good gas exchange.Try reducing the frequency of water changes first.You may want to let your media dirty up a bit too.What type are you using?

Now that I think of it, are nitrates super important if I target feed reef roids 2-3x a week? Or is nutrience in the water column still important

I am not sure. If your corals look good then maybe you are okay for now.I would again recommend using some frozen foods.The fish will love it and keep the corals fed with their waste products.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

I would leave it on 24/7 for good gas exchange.Try reducing the frequency of water changes first.You may want to let your media dirty up a bit too.What type are you using?



I am not sure. If your corals look good then maybe you are okay for now.I would again recommend using some frozen foods.The fish will love it and keep the corals fed with their waste products.

Alrighty! And my filter media is a fine pored filter sponge and filter floss

 

[saltyhog]

Dosing sodium nitrate was easy and effective for me. It doesnt increase dissolved organics and doesn't fuel dinos or nuisance algae as much IME.

 

[kireek]

Alrighty! And my filter media is a fine pored filter sponge and filter floss

Well maybe you can let those get nasty and see if that helps.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Well maybe you can let those get nasty and see if that helps.

I think what my plan will be is let the sponge get super nasty and never replace it. Just maybe rince it in dirty tank water occasionally, but still replace the floss with water changes. I'm loving the aquaclear 70 on this tank also. It's going to be my nitrate factory and it's a breeding ground for pods

 

[kireek]

That might work.It's usually a good idea to rinse your media in dirty tank water.Maybe rinse the floss a couple of times before tossing it too. Someday you could grow some macro in there. If your Nitrates start to creep up.