Nitrates vs Feeding : How do you balance it? or do you?

[Glenner’sreef]

I visited an 2017 post here this morning on feeding your fish. It was interesting and all over the place. I’m sure no fish “starved” in the making of that post, lol, but I was curious about these reefers No3 levels.

1. What is your consistent nitrate number.
2. And what, how much and how frequently do you feed your fish?

 

[blaxsun]

1. 5-10ppm (Nyos test).
2. My fish get fed 2x frozen (about 3 cubes equivalent) and 4x pellets daily. Plus SeaVeggies for the herbivores.

 

[Uncle99]

10-15ppm nitrate, 0.07ppm phosphate.
180g, twice daily, 4 cubes and a sheet of nori on clip.
6 fish, 4 tangs and a mandarin.
5 years now, no change.

 

[fish farmer]

My nitrates and phosphates have been very low for a while, N barely detectable on salifert, phos would sometime register a low reading or be zero on LR Hanna.

I was feeding a cube of frozen daily to my 29 gallon with three fish, sometimes just pellets. Not much of a change. I added reef roids a month ago about 1/8 tsp every other day with the frozen. It started to jump up the nitrates every week....last tests this week were 25 on salifert. I've stopped for the time being. I think the phos moved up a bit but haven't used the Hanna to check.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Residual Nitrates are not a big deal this days my 25g gets 4 cubes a day and and 3ppm of nitrogen daily. In today’s advancements In the hobby I get to be lucky enough to decide at what residual I want my nitrates and phosphates to be stable. Currently I keep them at 10 just because I feel the number gives me enough time to adjust nutrients if it starts to lower.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

My nitrates and phosphates have been very low for a while, N barely detectable on salifert, phos would sometime register a low reading or be zero on LR Hanna.

I was feeding a cube of frozen daily to my 29 gallon with three fish, sometimes just pellets. Not much of a change. I added reef roids a month ago about 1/8 tsp every other day with the frozen. It started to jump up the nitrates every week....last tests this week were 25 on salifert. I've stopped for the time being. I think the phos moved up a bit but haven't used the Hanna to check.

My nitrates jumped as well. I’m going to test it by cutting their food to half. Phosphates are a bit elevated but I use Phosphate Rx to keep things down.

 

[Miami Reef]

My range is 3-10ppm nitrates. I control it by feeding to the amount that won’t contribute to a constant rise and I just started dosing vinegar to help maintain it at my range.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I feed heavy and often.
at least 4 meals of frozen foods per day. Sometimes more.
I also dose amino acids 24/7 via doser. I hand dose coral foods like fuel and AB+ a few times a week too.
Balancing for me is trying not to let nutrients bottom out.

 

[GobyGuy]

I feed heavy and often.
at least 4 meals of frozen foods per day. Sometimes more.
I also dose amino acids 24/7 via doser. I hand dose coral foods like fuel and AB+ a few times a week too.
Balancing for me is trying not to let nutrients bottom out.

do you mind sharing your tank set up? I really hope to be that involved and not screwing my parameters eventually

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

My range is 3-10ppm nitrates. I control it by feeding to the amount that won’t contribute to a constant rise and I just started dosing vinegar to help maintain it at my range.

I saw your carbon dosing thread. Good luck with that! Don't be afraid to ask questions!

 

[Miami Reef]

I saw your carbon dosing thread. Good luck with that! Don't be afraid to ask questions!

Thank you very much!

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I don't have a consistent nitrate number yet as I just started vinegar dosing 3 weeks ago. My goal will be to keep nitrate at 10ppm and phosphate at 0.06-0.08ppm. Great thing about carbon dosing is I can increase how much I feed if I observe the corals need more food and just increase the vinegar dosage with it.

 

[kenchilada]

Vodka… 1 shot for my tank… 2 shots for me. If nitrate is really high, 3 shots for me.

 

[wculver]

I feed 8 cubes a day of Spirulina and mysis and also some pellets and when I remember algae flakes. I also feed the coral/clams daily.

This combo of course introducces phosphate but I also run GFO as needed. The nitrates are kept down naturally with chaeto and a bio pellet reactor.

Numbers are as follows:
Nitrate: 1-3 PPM
Phosphate: 0.06 - 0.12 (Yes phosphate gets too high sometimes)

 

[Spare time]

0-2ppm (hanna hr reads about 1ish). I dose a lot of reef energy and feed 2-3 times a day, sometimes more

 

[Reefahholic]

I feel like feeding heavy dirties up my system. I personally prefer to dose NO3 back. I can also control the level much easier by dosing.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

0-2ppm (hanna hr reads about 1ish). I dose a lot of reef energy and feed 2-3 times a day, sometimes more

In your case, Do you believe it’s the reef energy that’s keeping the numbers down?

 

[Reefahholic]

0-2ppm (hanna hr reads about 1ish). I dose a lot of reef energy and feed 2-3 times a day, sometimes more

Some reefs just need to be dosed depending on biomass and consumption. You can feed heavy, but that doesn’t always work so well in my experience. Dosing is much easier, corals can uptake it quicker, and it’s easily controlled.

 

[Reefahholic]

Careful with the Hanna Nitrate HR checker. I did already reach out to Hanna.

 

[Spare time]

Some reefs just need to be dosed depending on biomass and consumption. You can feed heavy, but that doesn’t always work so well in my experience. Dosing is much easier, corals can uptake it quicker, and it’s easily controlled.

That is the reason I use the aminos. Its basically dosing nitrogen in the tank in a form that I think is preferable to the corals (compared to nitrate)