Nitrate believer

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Ocelaris

Ocelaris

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I know it's been talked to death, but I wanted to share my success. Since starting dosing nitrates a month and a half ago my corals have perked up and colored up spectacularly. Slow growing corals like my Oregon tort are growing like gang busters (compared with what I had been used to). Film algae basically has disappeared unless I let nitrates fall. And I've tested this a few times. I'm really feeling comfortable with the tank these days, just wanted to say thanks to Randy, twillard et all for the threads.

I have kept alkalinity around 10, calcium around 440 and magnesium North of 1320. Phosphates seem stuck at. 04 no matter what. Even the day after adding new gfo to the reactor (with carbon) nothing really changes.

The challenges of a slightly increased nutrient load is some cyano and a small amount of algae on the rocks, but mostly cosmetic, nothing bothering the corals. My chaeto ball grows like mad. My tank's weaknesses start to show with the increase in nutrients, mainly flow and skimming. But I'm so happy with the growth after some were basically unchanged after 4 months that I'm a believer and will work on fixing the rest.
 
Nutramar Foods
Do you have any more info on dosing nitrates. I have an sps frag tank that's running alk 8.5-9, cal 450, mag 1250, P04 .04, and 0 nitrates. Some of my first frags are starting to fade and pale pretty bad. I'm almost starting to believe they may be starving for some nutrients as I don't does anything other than 2 part.
 
Tidal Gardens
Coastie Reefer said:
Do you have any more info on dosing nitrates. I have an sps frag tank that's running alk 8.5-9, cal 450, mag 1250, P04 .04, and 0 nitrates. Some of my first frags are starting to fade and pale pretty bad. I'm almost starting to believe they may be starving for some nutrients as I don't does anything other than 2 part.
Click to expand...

There are alot of better threads out there on the numbers, but I have a 110 with ~20-30 gallon sump, and I added 10 mL according to the nitrate dosing thread, tested every day and basically kept adding 10-20 mL until I got to about 4ppm and then it was every day or every other day. I did a lot of testing, but now it's every few days I'll add 10 mL. It's not an exact science for me, but I'm not good enough to know by sight where my nitrates are yet. Every system absorbs nitrates/nitrogen at a different rate, so you'll have to play around and test frequently for the first week or two.

Diesel said:
That Cyano might not be Cyano but Spirulina.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've been meaning to get it under a microscope or I think the other test is hydrogen peroxide? But haven't had time for those experiments yet; I've just written it off as too low of flow, but I am also hoping once it stabilizes I'll subside. I'm just so glad the diatom film on the glass is gone I'll tolerate some red slime on the rocks. I've thought about doing the red slime remover, but haven't pulled the trigger on that one.
 
I'm on the nitrate train (nitrain?) as well. Before dosing, all my SPS would pale out and die, lps wouldn't grow, and zoa's would shrivel away to nothing. I've got nitrates on my doser at 10ml per day just to keep nitrates around 1-2ppm.

I'm a firm believer that corals (of all kinds) need some nutrients to grow their best.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
I have some questions about this nitrate thing.

1. Why dose nitrates instead of manipulating the filter system to let it rise naturally?

2. Why doesn't the NSW I collect ever show any nitrates when tested, EVER?

3. Why after many years of (alledged) successful reef keeping, has very low, or zero nitrates become untrendy?
 
TbyZ said:
I have some questions about this nitrate thing.

1. Why dose nitrates instead of manipulating the filter system to let it rise naturally?

2. Why doesn't the NSW I collect ever show any nitrates when tested, EVER?

3. Why after many years of (alledged) successful reef keeping, has very low, or zero nitrates become untrendy?
Click to expand...

1) Cause it's easier to dose vs the alter the equipment every time, when skimmer goes nuts it's a indication you dosed too much.
And as always you need to dose No3 everyday to know if you need to dose.

2) It means it does still have nitrates in there but just undetectable, and the ocean moves over a coral reef about a few million gallons of water per hour, you can't compare that with our glass boxes.

3) it's proven that corals with the fake lighting and syntactic salt, and all the over skimming, even with nutrients reducing reactors we grow corals better if the nutrients level is higher than in the ocean.
Many tanks are starving cause they won't get these millions of gallons of water flushed over them every hour as on the reef.
 
Nutramar Foods
To add to that, most of our tanks don't use nitrates and phosphates in the same ratio, so you can't just add food which may or may not have the nitrates but not phosphates. Skimmers also mostly remove organic compounds, not inorganic nutrients which the zooxanthallae absorb directly. For whatever reason, we've found that nitrogen is the limiting factor most of the time and by selectively adding only nitrates we help the process along.

In our small tanks we can't reproduce all of the natural phytoplankton and zooplankton, so relying on inorganic nutrients in the water column can supplement.
 
I use KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) in my freshwater planted tank for plant growth....could this same dry fertilizer be used in my reef tank? I also have had undetectable nitrates for over a year and would like to bring them up a little bit.
 
Deltec
Ocelaris said:
I know it's been talked to death, but I wanted to share my success. Since starting dosing nitrates a month and a half ago my corals have perked up and colored up spectacularly. Slow growing corals like my Oregon tort are growing like gang busters (compared with what I had been used to). Film algae basically has disappeared unless I let nitrates fall. And I've tested this a few times. I'm really feeling comfortable with the tank these days, just wanted to say thanks to Randy, twillard et all for the threads.

I have kept alkalinity around 10, calcium around 440 and magnesium North of 1320. Phosphates seem stuck at. 04 no matter what. Even the day after adding new gfo to the reactor (with carbon) nothing really changes.

The challenges of a slightly increased nutrient load is some cyano and a small amount of algae on the rocks, but mostly cosmetic, nothing bothering the corals. My chaeto ball grows like mad. My tank's weaknesses start to show with the increase in nutrients, mainly flow and skimming. But I'm so happy with the growth after some were basically unchanged after 4 months that I'm a believer and will work on fixing the rest.
Click to expand...

I should sell you some of my tank water if you want nitates. Your corals will probably explode ;^)
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
radiata said:
What's the target ppm for nitrates in tanks when potassium nitrate is dosed?
Click to expand...
I'd check that thread linked to above, it's more of a ratio between that and phosphates, but I aim for 4ppm nitrates and .02 phosphates. But it's not that accurate with our kits, I think the key is that nitrogen becomes the limiting factor so keeping that above zero is mostly what you're looking for.
 
My phosphates and nitrates show 0 all of the time. I check them with Red Sea kit. Every sps coral I try dies with the exception of a mystic sunset and plating montipora. What would you suggest I do to try and correct that?
 

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