No nitrates

McLovin70 · Nov 19, 2017

I turned off my skimmer last night for a few weeks test. I've been struggling to get coral to grow(zoas) or not slowly starve (torches etc)

My water parameters always come in very close to the same readings i take every month.

75 gal main display..38 gal refugium with Chato .. 20 gal sump with bio balls (temoved filter floss 3 weeks ago)

32 inch SB led and 4x4ft t5. Led grow lamp on alternate light cycle over fuge.

SG 1.025 (calibrated refract)
NO3 -0 (Salifert)
PO 0 to 1 (ULR Hanna)
Alk 153 or 8.57 (Hanna)
CA 476 (Hana)
MG 1350 (Salifert)

Ive been feeding pellets 4x a day in addition to occasion frozen mysis or Cyclopeze. I dose 100ml of phyto spread out over night and day.

Hope this works. Tank is 1 year old.... started with dry rock.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 19, 2017

I'd say you're on the right track.

Myself I'd get the fish a treat. Some kind of frozen food. Good for the fish. Good for the poop. Good for the tank.

Mack85 · Nov 26, 2017

You are on fair steps, You only have to wait for results.

Rakie · Nov 26, 2017

Everything said above is fine advice. I would say if you aren't afraid, and would like to increase nutrients a little faster look into dosing nitrates (KN03 -- Potassium Nitrate).

I personally had a ridiculous bio filter -- No amount of feeding would raise my nutrients at first, after about a month of overfeeding I just dosed nitrates, and everything was great from then on.

Slow and steady keeps the tank not-dead. SO keep at what you're doing -- BUT, if after a month of feeding you still are undetectable, you may want to start considering other options.

cwk84 · Dec 5, 2017

If you provide enough food for your corals you don't need to dose No3. Corals in Zeovit systems don't starve, do they? In the ocean, you have undetectable nitrates with a standard test kit. How come the corals don't look like crap in natural reefs? Maybe that's because there is a constant supply of food in the water column. Have you thought about that? You could hook up a couple dosing pumps and dose a mixture of reed roidz or whatever food you prefer along with some vitamins etc. This would make more sense than dosing No3. That said, if you dump a couple dead shrimp in your sump, I bet you'll see a rise in No3 and that's way cheaper than a bottle of Kno3. And the decaying matter will be food for your corals.

BlueMoods · Dec 5, 2017

Try coral food, like coral frenzy - that works.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 5, 2017

cwk84 said:
If you provide enough food for your corals you don't need to dose No3. Corals in Zeovit systems don't starve, do they? .

You can buy more expensive sources of N than nitrate (such as dosing amino acids in the Zeovit method). But is that necessarily more desirable?

It might be, but I've not seen evidence that it is.

cwk84 · Dec 5, 2017

I personally think most of the Zeovit stuff is a bunch of snake oil. If you keep your nitrates close to 0 you can feed your corals excessively with whatever food you prefer (BRS reef flakes, Reef roidz) and achieve the same pastel-like coloration. Anyways, my intention was to point out that your corals will benefit more from more feeding. Why should I dose nitrates when I could feed more and kill two birds with one stone so to say? I'll raise my nitrates and get good coloration and growth out of my corals.

sde1500 · Dec 6, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You can buy more expensive sources of N than nitrate (such as dosing amino acids in the Zeovit method). But is that necessarily more desirable?

It might be, but I've not seen evidence that it is.

It is certainly desirable for Zeovit's bottom line.

Phyto really isn't much of a coral food though. I'd get some specific coral foods like reef roids or chilli to really feed them. Or if you are culturing that phyto yourself, look into culturing rotifers too. Then feed the tank that.

mattgsa · Dec 6, 2017

you don have to do all the zeovit, you can get get some of thier coral food. Possible some of their other additives. IMO the system was not worth all the cost.