No3 problems

[Juliano]

I have zero no3 in ny aquarium an it's starving my sps I been over feeding but still see no raise its been about 5 days now I test everyday should I wait longer or what can I do to raise no3 just a little here's the last reading I got at my lfs
Cal=500
Alk=9.3
Mag1410
Nh3=0
No3=0
No2=0
Po4=.09
I currently have 4 fish in the tank 80 gallon rr deep blue aquarium with some cyano I dosed vibrant a few times once a week after water change could it be the vibrant or what I'm trying to way out my options

 

[BlueCursor]

You can dose potassium nitrate. Don't worry about how much potassium you are adding, it's a few ppm and bacteria will consume that much anyway.

If you want to dose, purchase Spectracide stump remover at Home Depot and add 2 level tablespoons in 2 cups of RODI water. I have a 100 gal tank. 10 ml raised my nitrates about 2 ppm if I remember correctly. Start small, test, adjust.

If you have algae, macro algae, lots of bacteria consuming lots of nitrate you will have to does every day. If you are dosing carbon, slow down and slowly stop dosing until your nitrates start to naturally rise. If you have a refugium trim back macro algae.

Your phosphates will drop if you get nitrates higher (1-2 ppm). Mine always do. If I let my nitrates go to 0 then my system is nitrate limited and phosphates rise.

Good luck.

 

[AcroNem]

All of my systems sit at 0 N03 all the time, have you tried feeding your corals instead of just trying to overfeed your fish? While fish waste will play a small role, if you aren't feeding any small particle foods (phytoplankton, rotifers, oyster eggs etc.) to your reef then yes you are essentially starving it. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you have zero nitrates/phosphates as long as they are getting other foods to compensate.

 

[Juliano]

You can dose potassium nitrate. Don't worry about how much potassium you are adding, it's a few ppm and bacteria will consume that much anyway.

If you want to dose, purchase Spectracide stump remover at Home Depot and add 2 level tablespoons in 2 cups of RODI water. I have a 100 gal tank. 10 ml raised my nitrates about 2 ppm if I remember correctly. Start small, test, adjust.

If you have algae, macro algae, lots of bacteria consuming lots of nitrate you will have to does every day. If you are dosing carbon, slow down and slowly stop dosing until your nitrates start to naturally rise. If you have a refugium trim back macro algae.

Your phosphates will drop if you get nitrates higher (1-2 ppm). Mine always do. If I let my nitrates go to 0 then my system is nitrate limited and phosphates rise.

Good luck.

Once I raise nitrates to good level do I stop dosing spectracide?

 

[Juliano]

All of my systems sit at 0 N03 all the time, have you tried feeding your corals instead of just trying to overfeed your fish? While fish waste will play a small role, if you aren't feeding any small particle foods (phytoplankton, rotifers, oyster eggs etc.) to your reef then yes you are essentially starving it. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you have zero nitrates/phosphates as long as they are getting other foods to compensate.

I feed reef roids directly an still nothing pellets for fish an occasional brine but since algae bloom I was only feeding pellets an stopped reef roids but since no3 are at 0 I started feeding again just to raise no3 back up

 

[SDReefer]

Have you tried dosing amino acids? They're better nutrients than nitrates and phosphates.

 

[BlueCursor]

What do you know, R2R has a big NO3 dosing thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

 

[Juliano]

Have you tried dosing amino acids? They're better nutrients than nitrates and phosphates.

No never heard of it or how to dose

 

[BlueCursor]

Amino acids are a poor nitrogen source. They are a good protein source, and coals use it that way. NO3 is a nitrogen source. If the coral doesn't get enough nitrogen from NO3 it has to use a lower quality source such as organic compounds and stripping out nitrogen from them.

 

[Juliano]

So what is my best option

 

[morpheas]

You can dose pottasium nitrate (stump remover) per above thread. I also have a calculator to know exactly how much to dose, I can give you the link if you're interested.

It's good to raise the nitrates to detectable levels but here are a couple of points I'd like to make:
- Are you seeing any symptoms of starvation on the corals (faint coloration, polyp recession, flesh damage etc) or you just want to raise the number?
- Before you go ahead and start dosing, are you running a skimmer? Any carbon dosing (biopellets or liquid)? How does you water change schedule look like? If the answer to any of that is yes then cutting down on any of that might give a little boost you might need. But...
- To play with nitrates I would actually purchase a test kit for my self, a reputable one like the red sea nitrate pro. The LFS usually uses API's to cut costs which are not very good at the low levels.

I hope I gave some help in the matter.

 

[Juliano]

You can dose pottasium nitrate (stump remover) per above thread. I also have a calculator to know exactly how much to dose, I can give you the link if you're interested.

It's good to raise the nitrates to detectable levels but here are a couple of points I'd like to make:
- Are you seeing any symptoms of starvation on the corals (faint coloration, polyp recession, flesh damage etc) or you just want to raise the number?
- Before you go ahead and start dosing, are you running a skimmer? Any carbon dosing (biopellets or liquid)? How does you water change schedule look like? If the answer to any of that is yes then cutting down on any of that might give a little boost you might need. But...
- To play with nitrates I would actually purchase a test kit for my self, a reputable one like the red sea nitrate pro. The LFS usually uses API's to cut costs which are not very good at the low levels.

I hope I gave some help in the matter.

Yea let me get the link I lost color some bleach an no pe

 

[Juliano]

I run a skimmer no carbon wright not got phosgaurd in sump I change water once a week

 

[morpheas]

Maybe you can put the skimmer on a timer, say run it 12 hours a day rather than full time (if you're not already doing that). On the bleaching, did you do any light changes lately?

 

[Juliano]

Maybe you can put the skimmer on a timer, say run it 12 hours a day rather than full time (if you're not already doing that). On the bleaching, did you do any light changes lately?

No light changes at all