Nitrates Suddenly Bottoming out

[anthonymckay]

Tested my nitrates/phosphates today (I usually test every 2-3 days), phosphate was 0.03 which is fine, but was surprised to find out that my Nitrates are nearly bottomed out... 1st Hanna test gave me 0.6, 2nd test this afternoon gave me 0.8. Then tested with Red Sea for verification and it was solidly in the <2ppm color range on the chart. I feed frozen food pretty heavily morning and evening so I was a kind of shocked as my nitrates are usually a consistent 6-8ppm. I've been running a bag of chemi pure blue, and a bag of purigen to keep my phosphates in check and remove any contaminates/smells. I pulled both of those out, and also shut down the skimmer. I've also been dosing microbacter7 regularly in an attempt to beat the light cyano outbreak I've had on the sandbed for the past month. I ordered some Focustronic equipment earlier this week (Mastertronic+Alkatronic) that will be arriving today. Once I get that setup I'll be able to keep a closer eye on parameters with more frequent/regular testing. Hopefully removing that filter media and turning the skimmer off for a few days will get my nitrates back up to the window I'd like them in?

 

[fishface NJ]

I tried pure nitrate but I was getting cyano. Why I don’t know. Maybe I have an imbalance of p & n. I recently tried Plus Np by Tropic Marin and have been having no cyano while dosing.

 

[fishface NJ]

I would leave your skimmer on

 

[anthonymckay]

I would leave your skimmer on

Any particular reason? Typically the primary objective of skimmers are to reduce nutrient levels. I see no need to skim organics from the water if my nutrients are already running below desired levels?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I tried pure nitrate but I was getting cyano. Why I don’t know. Maybe I have an imbalance of p & n. I recently tried Plus Np by Tropic Marin and have been having no cyano while dosing.

What were you dosing and what was the phosphate level?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any particular reason? Typically the primary objective of skimmers are to reduce nutrient levels. I see no need to skim organics from the water if my nutrients are already running below desired levels?

Aeration and organic export are prime benefits of a skimmer, unrelated to nutrient control.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Tested my nitrates/phosphates today (I usually test every 2-3 days), phosphate was 0.03 which is fine, but was surprised to find out that my Nitrates are nearly bottomed out... 1st Hanna test gave me 0.6, 2nd test this afternoon gave me 0.8. Then tested with Red Sea for verification and it was solidly in the <2ppm color range on the chart. I feed frozen food pretty heavily morning and evening so I was a kind of shocked as my nitrates are usually a consistent 6-8ppm. I've been running a bag of chemi pure blue, and a bag of purigen to keep my phosphates in check and remove any contaminates/smells. I pulled both of those out, and also shut down the skimmer. I've also been dosing microbacter7 regularly in an attempt to beat the light cyano outbreak I've had on the sandbed for the past month. I ordered some Focustronic equipment earlier this week (Mastertronic+Alkatronic) that will be arriving today. Once I get that setup I'll be able to keep a closer eye on parameters with more frequent/regular testing. Hopefully removing that filter media and turning the skimmer off for a few days will get my nitrates back up to the window I'd like them in?

Dosing nitrate is cheap and easy, but if you also need phosphate, just feeding more is a good option.

 

[anthonymckay]

Aeration and organic export are prime benefits of a skimmer, unrelated to nutrient control.

Aeration sure, but isn't a the main purpose of organic export itself to control nutrient levels? ie: removing organics before then break down in the nitrogen cycle? Therefore wouldn't it be beneficial in this case to NOT remove organics from the water and allow them to break down and go through the cycle to raise nitrate levels?

 

[xabo]

Tested my nitrates/phosphates today (I usually test every 2-3 days), phosphate was 0.03 which is fine, but was surprised to find out that my Nitrates are nearly bottomed out... 1st Hanna test gave me 0.6, 2nd test this afternoon gave me 0.8. Then tested with Red Sea for verification and it was solidly in the <2ppm color range on the chart. I feed frozen food pretty heavily morning and evening so I was a kind of shocked as my nitrates are usually a consistent 6-8ppm. I've been running a bag of chemi pure blue, and a bag of purigen to keep my phosphates in check and remove any contaminates/smells. I pulled both of those out, and also shut down the skimmer. I've also been dosing microbacter7 regularly in an attempt to beat the light cyano outbreak I've had on the sandbed for the past month. I ordered some Focustronic equipment earlier this week (Mastertronic+Alkatronic) that will be arriving today. Once I get that setup I'll be able to keep a closer eye on parameters with more frequent/regular testing. Hopefully removing that filter media and turning the skimmer off for a few days will get my nitrates back up to the window I'd like them in?

From my experience dosing Microbacter7 lowers my nitrates

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Aeration sure, but isn't a the main purpose of organic export itself to control nutrient levels? ie: removing organics before then break down in the nitrogen cycle? Therefore wouldn't it be beneficial in this case to NOT remove organics from the water and allow them to break down and go through the cycle to raise nitrate levels?

Organics include natural toxins and compounds that yellow the water. Both are reasons to export organics.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I personally would never remove a skimmer due to low nutrients. There are better ways to raise them.

 

[94Rudolph]

The problem may lie in the carbon cycle. What type of frozen food is? Is it high in carbon? Because a high proportion of carbon in plant feed reduces nitrate by denitrification.Try changing the input completely to shrimp for a while. If it works, you'll see a change within a week.

 

[anthonymckay]

The problem may lie in the carbon cycle. What type of frozen food is? Is it high in carbon? Because a high proportion of carbon in plant feed reduces nitrate by denitrification.Try changing the input completely to shrimp for a while. If it works, you'll see a change within a week.

I feed Rod’s Orignal as wel as PE mysis for my copper and butterfly

 

[fryman]

Is this really a problem? You still have measurable nitrates. Can't you just feed more and keep an eye on it. 0.5 to 1ppm nitrate doesn't seem like a problem at all to me.

In my 16 gal nitrates bottom out but everything looks great. I just feed lots, and started dosing aminos.

Caveat is I feed 4 to 5 liters of home-made phyto + copepod nauplii per week which is atypical. This does not increase nitrates and the past few months I measure 0.0 ppm nitrate using hanna HR.

So maybe just listen to Randy. But IME when I add fish nitrates go up, at least in short term. I think low nitrates indicate you and under stocked on fish. You could get more fish maybe?

 

[anthonymckay]

Is this really a problem? You still have measurable nitrates. Can't you just feed more and keep an eye on it. 0.5 to 1ppm nitrate doesn't seem like a problem at all to me.

In my 16 gal nitrates bottom out but everything looks great. I just feed lots, and started dosing aminos.

Caveat is I feed 4 to 5 liters of home-made phyto + copepod nauplii per week which is atypical. This does not increase nitrates and the past few months I measure 0.0 ppm nitrate using hanna HR.

So maybe just listen to Randy. But IME when I add fish nitrates go up, at least in short term. I think low nitrates indicate you can increase bio-load.

I’m personally not a fan of such low nitrates for various reasons. I’ll increase my feeding volume though I’m already feeding quite heavily which is why I was surprised started testing near zero.

 

[94Rudolph]

I feed Rod’s Orignal as wel as PE mysis for my copper and butterfly

By the way, do you add any liquid coral food? Because most liquid coral foods have carbon sources.

 

[anthonymckay]

By the way, do you add any liquid coral food? Because most liquid coral foods have carbon sources.

I use AB+ a few times each week

 

[94Rudolph]

I use AB+ a few times each week

Here's my advice: stop adding all coral foods, additives, and feed the fish only with raw shrimp/mysis. Check your potassium levels. Hope to hear your good news. And my five year old tank‍

 

[anthonymckay]

I've increased my feeding quite a bit this past week. Almost double the morning and evening amounts offered, and also throw in an extra cube mid-day. Tested last night and was still only 0.7ppm. I will be setting up my new Mastertronic this weekend, so I'll start collecting daily nitrate/phosphate readings and keep up the increased feeding for another week to monitor if its trending up. If not, I'll start dosing nitrates.

I still would like to understand why my nitrates suddenly dropped so low after being a stable 5-7ppm for so long. I don't have a refugium, and I don't really have any algae issues in my tank.

 

[Spare time]

Here's my advice: stop adding all coral foods, additives, and feed the fish only with raw shrimp/mysis. Check your potassium levels. Hope to hear your good news. And my five year old tank‍

I don't think reef energy would decrease nitrates since it's mostly nitrogen. It's an amino mix with carbs, fatty acids, and vitamins. Some of those vitamins could act as carbon dosing, but I'd imagine the impact of this would be tiny. I personally heavily dose reef energy to counter my low nitrates. Again, I can't say this for sure since red sea doesn't tell us the exact content list, but I'd imagine it's not a huge effect, especially given that it's also dosing nitrogen into the tank in large quantities.