Nitrate and phosphate both 0.00!

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This may a dumb question. Since this is pottassium nitrate. Will it raise my potassium too?

Yes, potassium nitrate raises potassium, which is why I prefer sodium nitrate. Potassium nitrate raises potassium by about 0.6 ppm for each 1 ppm of nitrate.

 

[Socalreefer4816]

Ok thanks. So I will test for potassium before adding any more stump remover to my system. I will also need to figure out a new formula for my potassium additive once everything is leveled out. Thanks you!!!

Ok so I got my nitrate to 1 ppm by adding 12 ml of solution that brew suggested. I was stoked. This morning I tested first thing. And it dropped to between 0 and .25 already!!

Is this normal?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It is common to have nitrate consumed fairly rapidly.

 

[Brew12]

What issues can high potassium cause?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What issues can high potassium cause?

I've seen people report many different things, but its hard to know for sure which, if any, are directly related to their elevated potassium. Burnt tips on SPS, coral color changes, less polyp extension, etc.

 

[Socalreefer4816]

Thank you!!! So I got it back to 1 ppm. And it went down to .75 about 4 hours later. Then checked two hours later and it was back to 1 So I'm happy with that for now. I want to raise it to 3 ppm slowly over the next couple days. Luckily my potassium was low so I'm not too worried about that. I have only one sps behaving strangly. Luckily it's the ugliest one I have lol. It has no pe. Idk if this is due to me raising my levels too fast?

Also in a side note I stopped using a filter sock. Hopefully this helps as well. Deff makes feeding easier! Lol. One less thing to do. Or have someone else do when I'm on vacation.

 

[Socalreefer4816]

Back to 0.00. Maybe I need to dose stump remover Daily.

What effect does stump remover has on phosphates?

 

[wattson]

Test NO3 daily and dose stump remover til your reading stays steady for a couple of days to week..your tank will consume your first couple doses fairly fast,,IMO thats normal.

 

[K100286]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is BRS tested the Hanna checker and it didn't show a reading until the phosphates were above .08. I had the same reading,0, but I knew I didn't have 0 phosphates so I bought the Hanna ULR phosphorus checker and sure enough I had a reading of .0392. In my experience and from reading other reefers experience I think it unlikely you don't have some phosphates. Of course I could be wrong.

 

[cracker]

hello Socal, I had & still have low nutrient issues. I recently started dosing the Potassium Nitrate ( stump remover). I added a tbls tested then another then again. The tank at 1st sucked it up. So I added more. After 2 weeks got a serious HA outbreak. I dosed too much However my corals did indeed color up ! My advice ,for what it's worth is to consider adding slowly & observe/test. Now I add 1 tbls every 2/ 3 days to see what I get. So far levels are still low,corals look OK and no Ha ...so far

 

[Socalreefer4816]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is BRS tested the Hanna checker and it didn't show a reading until the phosphates were above .08. I had the same reading,0, but I knew I didn't have 0 phosphates so I bought the Hanna ULR phosphorus checker and sure enough I had a reading of .0392. In my experience and from reading other reefers experience I think it unlikely you don't have some phosphates. Of course I could be wrong.

Hmm weird. I got a .02 reading just yesterday. Gonna do another phosphate test tomorrow

 

[Socalreefer4816]

Hey guys. Last question on this topic.

I have added stump remover solution to my doser. It is now staying steady between 2 and 4 ppmZ. I haven't ran my protein skimmer since we started this thread!!!! Or any type of filtration for that matter.

My phosphates are now at .04 as well.

The question is. Should I bump up my stump remover and turn on my skimmer. Or leave my skimmer off? Kind of scary having my skimmer not running for so long. And one month from now I go on a 11 day vacation. So kind of scary having no skimmer on that whole time. (I will train the person watching my tank to test the nitrates every day)

What should I do about my skimmer guys

 

[Brew12]

Hey guys. Last question on this topic.

I have added stump remover solution to my doser. It is now staying steady between 2 and 4 ppmZ. I haven't ran my protein skimmer since we started this thread!!!! Or any type of filtration for that matter.

My phosphates are now at .04 as well.

The question is. Should I bump up my stump remover and turn on my skimmer. Or leave my skimmer off? Kind of scary having my skimmer not running for so long. And one month from now I go on a 11 day vacation. So kind of scary having no skimmer on that whole time. (I will train the person watching my tank to test the nitrates every day)

What should I do about my skimmer guys

I would run the skimmer at least 8 hrs a day but wait to see what happens to your nitrates before increasing dosing. Skimmers remove more from the water than compounds that increase nitrates.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I use reef-roids or coral frenzy to raise PO4. When testing PO4 with hanna checker, it really helps to do a quick 180 deg tilt @ 15sec left on the timer. I get better more consistent results that way. Lately I've been having issues keeping NO3 up. I have been dosing 2.5ml every other day to keep 3ppm. However, @Randy Holmes-Farley made an interesting statement about excessive potassium. I am experiencing some PE loss since having to dose. It's causing me to chase even more numbers. So I just ordered a potassium test kit. What are the acceptable ranges? At which range would K effect PE? And while considering sodium nitrate, is there a local store I can purchase that? Thanks

P.S. not trying to hijack

 

[jwshiver]

I use http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/neonitro-balanced-nitrogen-supplement-brightwell-aquatics.html to keep my nitrates up. I read or heard somewhere that the stump remover is industrial grade not pharmaceutical grade and can contain high levels of heavy metals. Don't know if that is verifiable but makes sense for a mass produced product to keep the cost down. Why use pharmaceutical grade for a stump remover product? I would rather buy a product specifically made for our hobby, but that's just me. I don't know what Brightwell Aquatics use. Their info says it is proprietary nitrogen salts. http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/neonitrot.php I rather take my chances with this.
I noticed you keep your alk at 8.4 that may be too high for ULN maybe 7.5 would be better. I'm sure more experienced reefers can give their thoughts on this.

 

[oneilwiz]

hello everyone,

Very informative thread here, I myself going through the same issue of 0 nitrates and 0 Phosphate even though I am using the API Test kit for Nitrate and Hanna checker for Phosphate. I got to this point because I had very high nitrates over 150. Started using the Red Sea NoPox since January. I have stop dosing this. My question to both @Socalreefer4816 and @Diesel . How is your tank doing with Nitrate now?

Little history about my tank:
75G with mix of mostly soft corals and little amount of SPS. I notice my corals with softies are off.
Skimmer: SKimz160
GFO: None
Carbon: Chemipure regular
Dosing color ABCD one a week.

 

[Socalreefer4816]

So I dosed stump remover for about a month straight and didn't run my skimmer for about 12 days!!! The reading kept going from 1-4 ppm nitrate. But my colors looked so much better! But since I wasn't skimming anymore ( which was a mistake) a lot of other things built up and caused the phosphates to get too high. I went out of town for 14 days and came back to an algae outbreak (Green hair, and Dino's). I have since stopped using stump remover and my algae is bacj under control. Id suggest stopping the nopox and only dose unless you actually need it. To get your nitrates up try feeding your coral a little heavier than normal, or leave your filter sock in an extra day than usual, or at the last resort try out potassium nitrate (stump remover). I love the colors I get with high nutrients. But i hate what it can do to your algae

 

[oneilwiz]

Thank you for your tip I stopped dosing nopox and I will continue to feed my corals heavy while test for two weeks if anything doesn't change then I will try stopping the skimmer for s day or two. I will try one solution then see if any results then move on to another. Thank you again

 

[Socalreefer4816]

Also keep in mind. If your still getting a 0.00 phosphate reading but seeing nuisance algae. Then the algae is causing your "false reading". In my opinion I think your eye is just as good for judging phospahte in your tank (not water column) as your Hanna checker is. So if you see excess algae slow down the feeding and change out gfo