Question about nitrates!

leonk · Jul 21, 2024

Hello! I just had a question my tank has been up and running for about 4-5 months coral and live stock and my nitrates where at 0 afew weeks ago I brought them up to 8 dosing but it seems like it just falls if I don’t dose everyday neonitrate I don’t have much algae just abit of hair algae pretty small what can be consuming all the nitrates that fast it’s a 80 gallon I have a good amount of coral but I doubt they suck up the nutrients that fast! I’ve had my protein skimmer off three weeks already what do I do since I wanna keep it running but don’t want it to suck the nitrates out! Help please thank you!

twentyleagues · Jul 21, 2024

Well, lets first see what you are measuring the nitrates with?
How many fish do you have? Do you have a refugium with macro algaes?

I have a 80ish gallon cube tank with 7 fish I feed 2 times a day flake early and frozen later in the day a piece of nori on a clip daily. I have a decent amount of corals and a refugium with a lot of macro algae. I used Marco dry rock and caribsea sand. My nitrates hover around 15 and phosphate is around .06-.08. I keep seeing posts like this I am uncertain at how people cant get nitrate readings with any sort of feeding going on. I also have a large sump 75g and a skimmer rated for a 300g tank running 24/7 right now as I have stopped dosing phyto.

Screwgunner · Jul 21, 2024

leonk said:
Hello! I just had a question my tank has been up and running for about 4-5 months coral and live stock and my nitrates where at 0 afew weeks ago I brought them up to 8 dosing but it seems like it just falls if I don’t dose everyday neonitrate I don’t have much algae just abit of hair algae pretty small what can be consuming all the nitrates that fast it’s a 80 gallon I have a good amount of coral but I doubt they suck up the nutrients that fast! I’ve had my protein skimmer off three weeks already what do I do since I wanna keep it running but don’t want it to suck the nitrates out! Help please thank you!

That is a big skimmer for that tank if it is in the sump take off the top and let it flow over so you can keep oxygen up. That is what macro algea does . It is a battle to try to keep phosphates and nitrates in check . I would try a slow drip of the neonitro or add it to your make up water so you can keep it stable.

Screwgunner · Jul 21, 2024

I have the same problem but I have a algea scrubber so I just adjust my lighting period to my needs.

Spare time · Jul 21, 2024

You could just feed the fish more.

PotatoPig · Jul 21, 2024

Note that a much more economical way to add bioavailable nitrogen for your corals is via ammonia addition.

Randy has a post on here for it - the recipe using Ammonium Bicarbonate is cheap and doesn’t impact alk. It’ll be like $10 for all the supply you’ll need for a long while.

As to low nitrates - I’ve had a similar issue, no noticeable change in feeding and no algae in the tank but saw nitrates bottom out and stay barely above zero (without adding ammonia) for a couple months. My suspicion is it was being consumed by microorganisms in the water column and then got removed by the skimmer.

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

leonk · Jul 21, 2024

twentyleagues said:
Well, lets first see what you are measuring the nitrates with?
How many fish do you have? Do you have a refugium with macro algaes?

I have a 80ish gallon cube tank with 7 fish I feed 2 times a day flake early and frozen later in the day a piece of nori on a clip daily. I have a decent amount of corals and a refugium with a lot of macro algae. I used Marco dry rock and caribsea sand. My nitrates hover around 15 and phosphate is around .06-.08. I keep seeing posts like this I am uncertain at how people cant get nitrate readings with any sort of feeding going on. I also have a large sump 75g and a skimmer rated for a 300g tank running 24/7 right now as I have stopped dosing phyto.

I measure with a Hanna checker trident np and salifert I’ve got afew fish 2 clowns 2 tangs and 1 royal gramma and afew inverts not much a shrimp and snails all I have in my Refugim is rocks sand and copepods nothing else I dose phyto I only run carbon and filter socks and the skimmer but it’s been off for a while because of nitrates plus I haven’t done a water change in like 3 weeks cause I don’t want nitrates to fall I dose alk and mag for now aswell not often all parameters are steady salinity phos cal mag alk temp I feed 2 times a day some times 1 time a day 1 cube of frozen mysis or brine and I feed nori 1-2 times a week they don’t eat much the tangs are small! Should I continue water changes weekly? 10 gallons a week out of the 85 gallon system? Should I continue to run the skimmer again and dose more neonitrate? Thanks for the response I saw a thread about dosing ammonia but I rather not got that route!

twentyleagues · Jul 22, 2024

leonk said:
I measure with a Hanna checker trident np and salifert I’ve got afew fish 2 clowns 2 tangs and 1 royal gramma and afew inverts not much a shrimp and snails all I have in my Refugim is rocks sand and copepods nothing else I dose phyto I only run carbon and filter socks and the skimmer but it’s been off for a while because of nitrates plus I haven’t done a water change in like 3 weeks cause I don’t want nitrates to fall I dose alk and mag for now aswell not often all parameters are steady salinity phos cal mag alk temp I feed 2 times a day some times 1 time a day 1 cube of frozen mysis or brine and I feed nori 1-2 times a week they don’t eat much the tangs are small! Should I continue water changes weekly? 10 gallons a week out of the 85 gallon system? Should I continue to run the skimmer again and dose more neonitrate? Thanks for the response I saw a thread about dosing ammonia but I rather not got that route!

I did an 18g water change on my system its about 120g, nitrates before the wc were 15.2 after were 14.6 so it changed the nitrate by .6. But if you are limited maybe you shouldnt. If you are dosing/checking other parameters and they are good maybe let it ride. I have not been doing water changes in recent months seems my weekly tests are always in the 15 nitrate range and .06-.08 po4. I was aggressively attacking some bubble algae. I dose afr daily to keep everything else stable. There has been some talk lately about ammonia dosing. Ammonia is easier for corals and plants to use than nitrate, they have to turn nitrate back in to ammonia to use it. I am not sure what that does to the nitrate levels though. If you dont have weird algae issues I wouldnt worry about the numbers overly much. If your corals and fish look happy and healthy stay the course.

Gumbies R Us · Jul 22, 2024

When I had nitrates that were over 80, I did water changes every other day. Now that everything is at a normal amount? I don't do as many water changes. I wouldn't focus so hard on numbers but more on whether your tank is happy.

Dan_P · Jul 22, 2024

leonk said:
Hello! I just had a question my tank has been up and running for about 4-5 months coral and live stock and my nitrates where at 0 afew weeks ago I brought them up to 8 dosing but it seems like it just falls if I don’t dose everyday neonitrate I don’t have much algae just abit of hair algae pretty small what can be consuming all the nitrates that fast it’s a 80 gallon I have a good amount of coral but I doubt they suck up the nutrients that fast! I’ve had my protein skimmer off three weeks already what do I do since I wanna keep it running but don’t want it to suck the nitrates out! Help please thank you!

The likely reason for low nitrate is that bacteria and micro algae are consuming the ammonia in your aquarium before it is converted to nitrate. This seems to be norm in new aquaria.

I would suggest you keep doing what you are doing, but get the skimmer back on line and if you wish, perform water changes. You will be dosing nitrate (or ammonium chloride) for some time. I suppose you can feed more but I would not turn the aquarium into a garbage disposal to ramp up nitrates.