Question about Spectracide Stump Remover dosing

TheSaint216 · Sep 15, 2015

Few starting shots. can post pics in a month and see what happens. Trying to keep my nitrates between 2 and 5 with a salifert kit. Figuring 75 gallons with tank and sump. Sump has undersized skimmer, Tunze 9004. Chaeto, Ulva and Blue Ochtodes in sump.

Pete polyp · Sep 15, 2015

By looking at the pictures I really don't see the need to increase nitrates. The colors look fine and it seems like you're getting good growth.

Pete polyp · Sep 15, 2015

This acro was kept under 0 nitrate

Same one the only difference was 0.5 nitrate for 2 weeks

carloriv · Sep 15, 2015

I had to dose 200 ml to see a 1 ppm of nitrate in my system.

bneufelder · Sep 15, 2015

That is an insane difference in color for two weeks. I have dosed flourish nitrogen in my frag tank for the last few days at very low levels and just changed to this method. I'm excited to see the results. My main tank is a bit starved like the pictures above and most new acros bleach out and then slowly recover. My frag tank almost all acros are very, very pale.

Never thought a method would drive nutrients so slow we would have to dose.

reef_junkie · Sep 15, 2015

Isn't there an easier way to retain nitrates. I have the same issue with softies. I decreased my daily skimming time from 20hrs/daily to 10 hrs/daily and that seemed to do the trick.

Pete polyp · Sep 15, 2015

reef_junkie said:
Isn't there an easier way to retain nitrates. I have the same issue with softies. I decreased my daily skimming time from 20hrs/daily to 10 hrs/daily and that seemed to do the trick.

I wish mine was that easy. I was not skimming at all, fed 6 times a day with rods, fed twice a night with either reef roids or coral frenzy and had 14 fish in a 40 breeder. Even with all that going on my tank still had no nitrate

sfg · Sep 15, 2015

^dang

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 16, 2015

reef_junkie said:
Isn't there an easier way to retain nitrates. I have the same issue with softies. I decreased my daily skimming time from 20hrs/daily to 10 hrs/daily and that seemed to do the trick.

That impacts more than nitrate, however.

Pete polyp · Sep 16, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That impacts more than nitrate, however.

Ain't that the truth. After feeding a 6oz flat pack of frozen food a month in my 40 gallon the only thing that happened was phosphates going through the roof.

veselym · Sep 16, 2015

IMO dosing potassium Nitrate is safer than throwing an insane amount of fish food in your tank/overstocking...I would think food and adding more fish could potentially harm your tank in so many more ways than adding a little potassium

I have had 5 different SW tanks in the past 2 years and have never been able to register N03 until now, I notice a difference immediately...The coral that benefits the most is my candy cane, as soon as I dosed the feeders came out and it puffed up 3X its size

hawkinsrgk · Sep 17, 2015

Following along. My nitrate has been .2 for the last couple of weeks. May try this to get it up to .5 to see if I can get some of the benefits that were explained earlier.

Thank you for this post
Randy

Pete polyp · Sep 17, 2015

I don't think you will see any difference at all between 0.2 and 0.5

twilliard · Sep 17, 2015

@Russ265 any thoughts
I would agree not much change from .2 to .5
Is best to maintain Redfield ratio?

Russ265 · Sep 17, 2015

twilliard said:
@Russ265 any thoughts
I would agree not much change from .2 to .5
Is best to maintain Redfield ratio?

nah. i see paling occur below 2ppm and once you start dropping below 1.... it goes downhill within days depending on how strong your lights are.
.2 and .5 is way too small for no3. po4 is different because photosynthesis is needed 16 times less and makes a bigger difference.

no sps will die between 2-5ppm no3. if your lights are too weak... go to 2. if they are strong go 5. if you happen to have the actual sun hanging over your aquarium go 20.

its all a balancing thread.

-as a note my advice is just that. mine.

jpines · Sep 17, 2015

Going to pick some of this up today. Thanks to SFG for pointing me in direction of this thread. My nitrates have dropped from 4-5ppm last month to undetectable. My sps have have started looking bad as well as losing PE. Hoping to see a drastic change after dosing

veselym · Sep 17, 2015

So maybe we should be shooting for around 3ppm? I know sea water is around that number

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 17, 2015

twilliard said:
@Russ265 any thoughts
I would agree not much change from .2 to .5
Is best to maintain Redfield ratio?

IMO, the ratio in the water does not relate to the Redfield Ratio.

In other words, the ratio of things an organism takes up should not be reflected in the concentrations in the water.

For example, corals take up way more calcium than magnesium, and roughly the same calcium as "carbonate" and yet there's way more magnesium and way less carbonate relative to calcium in seawater.