Nitrates on a slow rise

[Backreefing]

I’m experiencing nitrates slowly building over a couple weeks . Dispite conservative feedings of the fish . Also a little history. The aquarium was full of Dino’s with zero phosphate and zero nitrates. First I dosed nitrates killing the Dino’s. “ Yay “ Then I stopped doseing nitrates as they were 10ish then started doseing phosphate. Into the rabbit hole I went . Tank crashed during this time . Sps dominate tank . I’ve been doseing to maintain 25 ppb through the ato . But nitrates that we’re zero with Dino’s are now going higher every week . Now they are going up to. 16-20 ( Red Sea kit ). I haven’t had high nitrates in years. But I’m considering doseing carbon ( vodka) . The only thing I’ve done to combat rising nitrates is to add macro algae to the aquarium along the gravel . Two interesting things are the algae isn’t bad at all , the glass has to be magnet swiped every day or two . And there is no skimmer.

 

[GoVols]

Are you dino free at this point?
If so, wondering if the dinos were sucking in your nitrates?

And 16 to 20ppm really is not all that bad. In the ReefMasters articles, some of those guys run as high as 40ppm

 

[Backreefing]

I’m Dino free . 100% . I wondered if the Dino’s were useing up all the nitrates.
during my time with the dinos I would get 2-3 fish put them in wait - no rise in nutrients. Get 2-3 more fish wait. On and on . I got up to 21 small fish ( demsels, cromis , cardinals, ect ) and still had zero algae, zero nutrients. No phosphate, no nitrates. Dieing corals . And no skimmer to . So I stated doseing.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Steadily rising nitrate is a common problem and one I've recently encountered in my 12 year old nano (typically ran 0.5 to 1 ppm for 11 years). One major component is an overabundance of food, but there may be more to it in some situations (possible bacterial species imbalances resulting in an incomplete nitrogen cycle, perhaps). My nitrate rise started after adding too many fish/feeding too much and the removal of a relatively large live rock from the system (double whammy there!).

From 50+ ppm NO3 I've managed to stabilize at 10-14 ppm in a few months by:

1. Removing a fish or two and only daily feeding what the resident fish requires (removing any excess food within a few minutes)

2. Cutting coral feeding from 2x/wk to 1x/wk

3. Using a filter sock to remove kicked up detritus during my weekly water change

4. Low dose vinegar carbon dosing (only 0.5 ml daily added to Kalkwasser/10 gal. water volume). I don't run a skimmer.

I'd like to eventually get down to ~5 ppm, so may slowly increase the daily quantity of vinegar.

As in nearly all things reef related, go slow when manipulating substances as the corals need time to adjust to different parameters.

Hope that helps somewhat

 

[Backreefing]

Thx for replying. I was also considering removing a couple fish . But it’s like catching mice in a junky old room lol . And I may start a small carbon doseing . . The macro algae isn’t doing much.