? on nitrates

[kimba]

I have been reading posts and have come across the idea that some corals need nitrates to thrive. I thought you ALWAYS wanted 0 nitrates.

is there an article or something that can explain this more to me?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It has become trendy to keep nitrate above 0 ppm (some even say up to 5 ppm or more), but that's still not very clear as to what the level is since most kits cannot read in the 0-1 ppm range very well. The ocean is well below 1 ppm, but corals have other foods there that supply nitrogen. In the absence of such foods, you can add them (such as amino acids) or you can allow nitrate to rise a bit. What is best to do may depend on many other factors, such as whether you have an algae issue and what types of corals you keep. Bear in midn that if you allow nutrients to rise, something besides them will have to limit algae growth.

If you do not have an algae problem, 1-2 ppm may be fine. If you do, keeping it lower may be desirable.


I discuss nitrate here:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
http://www.reefedition.com/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium/

 

[Pete polyp]

I don't like the current trend of people boosting nitrates while they already have some. There are some cases where I do feel it's necessary when there's no detectable nitrates at all (>0.2ppm). I have a tank that had no detectable nitrate at all and experienced a spike (if you will) up to 0.5ppm. When that happened I saw an amazing transition in my sps in color and growth. In my opinion if nitrates are detectable then leave them alone. If sps go from colored up frags top dead in a month with no detectable nitrate then action is necessary.