Nitrate export/media options (does not reduce phosphates)?

[Greg P]

@living_tribunal what are your N&P @ right now and where do you want both?

I had large colonies in my tank and was able to lower one by raising the other, and kept both where I wanted them with continual testing/dosing

@ScottB try raising P and test both daily for a bit. With your mature tank you should see N consumption

 

[jda]

Sulfur denitrator is your best bet at something proven to work.

I am sure that you know that organic carbon will remove them en masse, but it will lower P a bit too... not much, IME, but it does some. I guess that you don't cannot spare a square of P?

 

[Deep]

I used the Orca Nitra-guard Titanium product to reduce only NItrates without affecting phospates. Nothing else seemed to work well. This worked great.

 

[ScottB]

@living_tribunal what are your N&P @ right now and where do you want both?

I had large colonies in my tank and was able to lower one by raising the other, and kept both where I wanted them with continual testing/dosing

@ScottB try raising P and test both daily for a bit. With your mature tank you should see N consumption

Sulfur denitrator is your best bet at something proven to work.

I am sure that you know that organic carbon will remove them en masse, but it will lower P a bit too... not much, IME, but it does some. I guess that you don't cannot spare a square of P?

I am dosing vinegar & MB7 to bring down nitrates. It is working, but has also brought down PO4 (from .15 to .03) so I am starting to dose PO4 again. Carbon dosing has brought NO3 down from 40ish to 20ish but is kinda holding there while PO4 kept falling.

I'll look into the denitrator, and in the mean time will keep going with dosing trisodium phosphate and carbon.

 

[living_tribunal]

@living_tribunal what are your N&P @ right now and where do you want both?

I had large colonies in my tank and was able to lower one by raising the other, and kept both where I wanted them with continual testing/dosing

@ScottB try raising P and test both daily for a bit. With your mature tank you should see N consumption

After creating this post a while back, I've really dialed in N/P with a steady and predictable system.

I've maintained nitrate at 0.5 and phosphate at .15 for about 9 months at this point without much variation +- .5N/.02PO4. Very happy with the results and system.

 

[living_tribunal]

Curious to learn if/how you managed to lower nitrates without lowering PO4. Having a similar issue, e.g. 20 / .04

Vinegar dosing. I use it in combination with my fuge. Vinegar dosing has worked incredibly well however. The only minor thing is the white/blue gunk that gets left in your fuge. I never noticed any material impact on PO4 levels while dosing vinegar, I was able to raise it no problem.

 

[ScottB]

Vinegar dosing. I use it in combination with my fuge. Vinegar dosing has worked incredibly well however. The only minor thing is the white/blue gunk that gets left in your fuge. I never noticed any material impact on PO4 levels while dosing vinegar, I was able to raise it no problem.

Interesting. So I run a fuge (now 22 hrs) and I dose vinegar and MB7 bacteria. So maybe it is the MB7 pulling down phosphates. Not a big issue as I have a bottle of trisodium already hooked to a doser.

I'll admit I've been going slow on the vinegar, only up to 15ml on a 300G frag system. It is working on NO3 as I have dropped 20+ or so already, but my PO4 was disappearing faster.

 

[living_tribunal]

Interesting. So I run a fuge (now 22 hrs) and I dose vinegar and MB7 bacteria. So maybe it is the MB7 pulling down phosphates. Not a big issue as I have a bottle of trisodium already hooked to a doser.

I'll admit I've been going slow on the vinegar, only up to 15ml on a 300G frag system. It is working on NO3 as I have dropped 20+ or so already, but my PO4 was disappearing faster.

Microbacter in my experience definitely pulls phosphate, as does a fuge.

If we're looking only at vinegar dosing, PO4 should definitely not export faster than nitrate. If that's the case for you, I'd look at whatever else you're doing that can export phosphate.

You can increase the vinegar dosing. I know it's a little nerve wrecking at first but it's very hard to mess up. I often go from dosing no vinegar to 30ml immediately on a 100G system. For me, I've found the average break even with feeding two cubes of mysis, one cube of cyclops, and maybe some flakes every day to be 20-25ml of vinegar. With a 300G system, I can guarantee your break-even is north of 30ml.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

i tried everything carbon dosing algea scrubbers feeding less raising po4 i even did 50 percent water changes every week nothing would lower my nitrates. i thought it was my test kits so bought new ones lol i finaly set up sulfer denitrator within a month i was down to a 0 reading now i know its not 0 but my tank looks better than it ever did and i am able to keep torches now that was 6 months ago and everything still looks good and has a 0 reading on the red sea kits

 

[ScottB]

Microbacter in my experience definitely pulls phosphate, as does a fuge.

If we're looking only at vinegar dosing, PO4 should definitely not export faster than nitrate. If that's the case for you, I'd look at whatever else you're doing that can export phosphate.

You can increase the vinegar dosing. I know it's a little nerve wrecking at first but it's very hard to mess up. I often go from dosing no vinegar to 30ml immediately on a 100G system. For me, I've found the average break even with feeding two cubes of mysis, one cube of cyclops, and maybe some flakes every day to be 20-25ml of vinegar. With a 300G system, I can guarantee your break-even is north of 30ml.

Got it, thank you on the MB7 effectiveness on PO4 and the gentle nature of vinegar. I have some room to get tougher on NO3.

That said, if you have been through dinos as many times as I have, you tend to go slow with nutrient reduction. Anybody know what I am saying?

 

[living_tribunal]

Got it, thank you on the MB7 effectiveness on PO4 and the gentle nature of vinegar. I have some room to get tougher on NO3.

That said, if you have been through dinos as many times as I have, you tend to go slow with nutrient reduction. Anybody know what I am saying?

As long as your po4 remains stable and the nitrate declines slowly, you’ll be good. People forget that dino is not just trigged by a reduction in phosphates, it’s caused by a rapid reduction in phosphates.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

how old is the tank usually dino is newer tanks ive had it a few times and was always before the 1 year mark of the tank

 

[living_tribunal]

how old is the tank usually dino is newer tanks ive had it a few times and was always before the 1 year mark of the tank

Eh, dino can hit any tank at any time. Any time there is a rapid reduction in PO4.

 

[ScottB]

I am stepping up on carbon dosing but slow. Now at 20ml from 10ml on 300G. The last couple weeks or so, I have seen some BJD appearing (microscope confirmed) here and there. This is very new on an established frag system. As mostly an SPS system it is only a nuisance & not a mess. Nitrate holding steady around 15-20. Phosphates being kept around .1 via dosing. Other basic elements nominal.

Anybody have a strong opinion (or better yet data) to link carbon dosing to BJD?

 

[living_tribunal]

I am stepping up on carbon dosing but slow. Now at 20ml from 10ml on 300G. The last couple weeks or so, I have seen some BJD appearing (microscope confirmed) here and there. This is very new on an established frag system. As mostly an SPS system it is only a nuisance & not a mess. Nitrate holding steady around 15-20. Phosphates being kept around .1 via dosing. Other basic elements nominal.

Anybody have a strong opinion (or better yet data) to link carbon dosing to BJD?

I seriously doubt there is any connection. Did something happen that damaged the coral?

 

[ScottB]

I seriously doubt there is any connection. Did something happen that damaged the coral?

Yes. It pops up on tissue that was damaged by warring corals and some darn aiptasia.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

whenever i used to carbon dose i tried several methods i always would get cyano and most corals would get irritated mushrooms coming off rocks and torch coral loss. thats even going with very low doses