Nitrate level (No3) high in pico

[lopez4163]

so I started my 2 Gal pico tank a while ago, it cycled properly and all got a scarlet hermit, snail and now a Duncan and candy cane coral. Did my tests last two weeks and my No3 nitrate has sky rocketed, I did a 20% water change and nothing helped so the following week I did a 40%. Now I checked again and that nitrate has gone up higher in color(using master test kit API). I jus purchased a pristine waste removal liquid to see if that helps, let me know if you guys have any other tips Ik pico reefs are tough that’s why I’m doing it. Rest of my parameters are good except that nitrate.

 

[brandon429]

Dont bother to test for, or respond to nitrate in a pico

source: oldest pico on earth doesnt test for any param, its just fed well and kept clean for 14 yrs

nitrate and all params will handle themselves fine in a pico, all we do is actively feed it and assertively change the water sometimes, including total disassembly cleaning to remove waste (then you set it all back up skip cycle, it lives decades this way)

the key to making a pico grow coral vs sit there stagnant is to let params balance as they will, and you run clean food through the system in creative ways

its not about light daily feeding, thats what large tanks do and it stores up waste which leaks into nitrate.

if you've been feeding it that way we should consider a catch-up cleaning.

the right way is to only feed it right before your water changes, that way wastes and accumulation are removed with the outflow of new water vs sinking down into sand and rocks.


nitrate wont hurt your setup, it prevents coral bleaching, but will bring on algae soon/ battle it by cleaning, not ever by dosing things.

a balanced pico is very low on clouding: if you put a stick inside and disturb sand and not much clouding happens, thats a good inflow/outflow balance.

if you disturb rocks or sand though in the tank and a massive cloud can form, thats pre nitrate


and we should disassembly clean the system. a balanced pico isn't ran hands off its ran actively compared to larger tanks with more work, then it lives for good until an errant nerf ball wipes the whole effort out

*if you did want to lower nitrates, no harm for testing and response. you would actively clean the system to be cloud free, thats the safest lowest nitrate you can impart to a pico. mess with nitrate via additives you'll have the system accumulated with more waste + compounded on old waste very fast.

deep cleaning is the exact way to optimize a pico, its not with a doser.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

^^^

This is exactly what I was thinking.... if you are worried about the nitrates being so high, you could do a 100% water change and a little cleaning in the pico and enjoy the tank....

 

[Tokash23]

Dont bother to test for, or respond to nitrate in a pico

source: oldest pico on earth doesnt test for any param, its just fed well and kept clean for 14 yrs

nitrate and all params will handle themselves fine in a pico, all we do is actively feed it and assertively change the water sometimes, including total disassembly cleaning to remove waste (then you set it all back up skip cycle, it lives decades this way)

the key to making a pico grow coral vs sit there stagnant is to let params balance as they will, and you run clean food through the system in creative ways

its not about light daily feeding, thats what large tanks do and it stores up waste which leaks into nitrate.

if you've been feeding it that way we should consider a catch-up cleaning.

the right way is to only feed it right before your water changes, that way wastes and accumulation are removed with the outflow of new water vs sinking down into sand and rocks.


nitrate wont hurt your setup, it prevents coral bleaching, but will bring on algae soon/ battle it by cleaning, not ever by dosing things.

a balanced pico is very low on clouding: if you put a stick inside and disturb sand and not much clouding happens, thats a good inflow/outflow balance.

if you disturb rocks or sand though in the tank and a massive cloud can form, thats pre nitrate


and we should disassembly clean the system. a balanced pico isn't ran hands off its ran actively compared to larger tanks with more work, then it lives for good until an errant nerf ball wipes the whole effort out

*if you did want to lower nitrates, no harm for testing and response. you would actively clean the system to be cloud free, thats the safest lowest nitrate you can impart to a pico. mess with nitrate via additives you'll have the system accumulated with more waste + compounded on old waste very fast.

deep cleaning is the exact way to optimize a pico, its not with a doser.

I have been trying to find this post glad i did. I am having issues with corals in my pico having poor extension or not opening at all. You say feed right before water change presumable once a week. Feed what exactly? I have reef roids and was doing it this way for a bit but still have poor extension and a small frag of zoas that refuses to open more than just a little. Now i have moved to feeding small bits every day which you say is not the best way to do it and i would be happy to not do that anymore anyway. I had also started dosing reef fuel daily but that hasnt seemed to help anything. I have a build thread for it if youd like to take a look. Thanks in advance for any advice. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/jar-of-rocks.725333/page-3#post-8155243

 

[brandon429]

Hey thanks tons for posting good morning

in re reading my rail against nitrate above lol I think a shorter way to see it is that pico reefs are best dealt with as a whole and not in parts such as individual param levels.


yes I would add to the feeding that is a dry feed and not very diverse, like maybe a boxed health meal we might buy off the counter, diversify a little in my opinion


the number one feed that sustained my tank for about ten years was roti feast and oyster feast refrigerated feeds from ocean nutrition. Adding those just before water changes and some roids will work perfectly


if those can’t be sourced locally, sometimes I have to use rods food coral feed bc lfs doesn’t carry the ideal. This is a meaty fare, received well by corals...frozen rods. Lastly, reef energy a+b added very sparingly is coaxing out feeders in my system.


its time to rip clean the jar in my opinion. This lets you detail clean the rocks, rinse out all waste from the system which lends acidic characters into the water specifically in the form of brittle skeletons if it goes too long, won’t happen immediately. Polyps open up nicely two days after a rip clean, then with diversified food it will be perfect. Maritza vase reef doesn’t rip clean, but they aren’t reporting polyp issues and a fresh up clean addresses all causes for that.

after a rip clean the oxygen runs higher, orp runs tighter less shifting towards acidic issues, the system is hungry for new feed because waste plugs are removed, time to refill. its a reef storm simulant, nothing makes a pico reef live stronger and safer than a deep cleaning if sand is present.

natalie / pro pico reefer is leaving feed in her bowl four days before the water change, each is developing their own customized way.


a rip clean, total clean of sand + 100% water change isnt destabilizing it’s regenerating, see the last five pages here. Perked these reefs right up

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I am fairly worried about moving my freshwater setup as it is fairly overstocked (reduces aggression as no one fish gets singled out). I did fail to think about the toxicity of nitrite on top of ammonia toxicity... Here is my plan for the cichlid tank. I have gradually reduced my pH from 8.2 to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Tokash23]

Hey thanks tons for posting good morning

in re reading my rail against nitrate above lol I think a shorter way to see it is that pico reefs are best dealt with as a whole and not in parts such as individual param levels.


yes I would add to the feeding that is a dry feed and not very diverse, like maybe a boxed health meal we might buy off the counter, diversify a little in my opinion


the number one feed that sustained my tank for about ten years was roti feast and oyster feast refrigerated feeds from ocean nutrition. Adding those just before water changes and some roids will work perfectly


if those can’t be sourced locally, sometimes I have to use rods food coral feed bc lfs doesn’t carry the ideal. This is a meaty fare, received well by corals...frozen rods. Lastly, reef energy a+b added very sparingly is coaxing out feeders in my system.


its time to rip clean the jar in my opinion. This lets you detail clean the rocks, rinse out all waste from the system which lends acidic characters into the water specifically in the form of brittle skeletons if it goes too long, won’t happen immediately. Polyps open up nicely two days after a rip clean, then with diversified food it will be perfect. Maritza vase reef doesn’t rip clean, but they aren’t reporting polyp issues and a fresh up clean addresses all causes for that.

after a rip clean the oxygen runs higher, orp runs tighter less shifting towards acidic issues, the system is hungry for new feed because waste plugs are removed, time to refill. its a reef storm simulant, nothing makes a pico reef live stronger and safer than a deep cleaning if sand is present.

natalie / pro pico reefer is leaving feed in her bowl four days before the water change, each is developing their own customized way.


a rip clean, total clean of sand + 100% water change isnt destabilizing it’s regenerating, see the last five pages here. Perked these reefs right up

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I am fairly worried about moving my freshwater setup as it is fairly overstocked (reduces aggression as no one fish gets singled out). I did fail to think about the toxicity of nitrite on top of ammonia toxicity... Here is my plan for the cichlid tank. I have gradually reduced my pH from 8.2 to...

www.reef2reef.com

Perfect i have skimmed through the sand rinse thread before i had planned for a full rip clean either today or tomorrow its been about 7 days since last water change so i am due. Ill fully rinse sand and scrub everything down. When you feed do you mix all that together and target feed or just broadcast it since you do a water change shortly after anyway? Or do you switch it up every time you feed?

 

[brandon429]

any way you like is ok. you will notice its sitting in the tank too long when your upper glass cleaning increases near the light level or starts to form little GHA sprigs stuck to the glass

I really just let my reefbowl go very uncleaned lately and food was staying in days lol, being lazy and traveling a lot in new mexico. it was yellow glass and for sure gha, lots of it but not a shred lands on the rocks or frags those are too aged and full of coralline to take on invasions now, but the glass gets it all.

had recently rip cleaned my vase in July so the sand was ok, but not changing water very assertively simply lead to all this unused protein breaking down inside and algae took hold, but we can cheat lol and that's awesome.


if a large tanker does this, they'll be dealing with invasions until 2022 its literally not fair to be able to part-clean these systems and reset them over, and over, and over until you've exported so much coral a large tanker must take notice.


some people starve out the systems with barely any feed out of concern for the algae, in their rule set the rip clean is not permitted. that is fine

I tried not rip cleaning and it made my 16 year old blastomussa colony break in half from weak skeleton, these lazy events finally took a measurable toll in my system but the fix is easy: spurn mass new coral growth, better skeletons, diverse feed and no more skipping weekly water changes and no more letting it crud up. Ill have it back regenerated in 30 months lol, this is long term pico reefing.

Reef roids is very high energy low diversity feed it can make the algae really pop up, in my opinion it would be the equivalent to a high power salad in human meals/exercise program

a supplement but not the whole meal

 

[Tokash23]

Very informative thanks for the advice. Full rip clean is in motion ill see what i can find around for better feed selections. Hopefully itll bounce back.

 

[brandon429]

it even feels strange to this very day to be rinsing my sand for an hour in a bucket until its totally 1000% clear, final rinse in ro.

but those live rocks are only cleaned off in saltwater, they retain all bacteria, what happens to the sand wont matter as long as its zero cloud on the new setup. If you didnt put sand back, it wouldnt cause a recycle. If you input all new sand pre rinsed, no recycle. if you boiled your current sand, then froze it, then rinsed it to perfection no recycle

feels wierd, works like gold. After a rip clean we already know what your params will be without testing. they will be whatever your bag of salt mixes to, and all forms of salt mix are ok for reefing. I personally dont care what the lfs switches to in my tank, although lower alk brands seem to require consistent water changes to avoid acidification issues when Im lazy.

pls post pics we'd like the work example for pico reefers to see in our thread, tank surgery is no small deal

 

[Tokash23]

I hadnt even thought of using new sand. I have a bag of dry sand i think itll be easier to just pre rinse a batch and toss what i have in the tank when i do it thanks for mentioning that. I will post pics when i get it going.

 

[brandon429]

I replaced mine along the way a few times too, I like the nice super crisp look.

 

[brandon429]

hey did this rip clean go down

if corals look mad today tomorrow they wont

 

[Tokash23]

Rinsing the sand took way longer than anticipated and work got in the way but the new sand looks pretty good ill take care of swapping it all out tomorrow.

 

[brandon429]

That is why I'm literally shocked when they say not to pre rinse, milk for days if we skipped it

Hobby sales idea: someone sell truly rinseless pre prepped sand. Not one maker sells truly pre rinsed grains

 

[Tokash23]

So changed my mind n took care of it now. Went easy enough. Now what? Wait a week or so feed then 100% change right?

 

[brandon429]

no theyre nice n hungry, feed a little bit into the system in the morning and just leave it, a very tiny bit of something. just to have some protein in the water. not like a full feeding but they'll really appreciate a little feed in very, very clean water now with no acidic organics melting down in the tank.


that system is going to run clean a very long time now. they'll be mad today, open tomorrow.

 

[brandon429]

**I can tell by your top water line, having no suds or water bubbling, that has been 1000% rinsed clean. skip cycle accomplished.

sudsing would be from organics welled up, stuck to the walls etc

that rascal is surgically clean.

Until a better way is found, this method is guaranteed to reset your tank into old age as many times as you want to run it. no matter how many rip cleans, same outcome over and over until we find a better way.

you darn sure have no nitrate issues now, regardless of what the test says. Your params now match the brand of water used.

 

[Tokash23]

Yea there were certainly alot suds on top this afternoon. Thanks for your help!

 

[brandon429]

Ok can’t wait to see tomorrow’s polyp health about mid day after lights on a while, should be mighty sharp looking

 

[Tokash23]

Ill be sure to post pics. Do you think it's worth it to keep using fuel? I was only doing a drop per day before this. Obviously it wasnt really doing much at the time since i was having issues.