Question on dosing nitrate

Fishingandreefing · Jun 18, 2021

This is my second time dosing Neonitro as the tank is not doing good. Both nitrate and magnesium are low. Now I have increase my mag to 1250 but the nitrate is still at around 3-5. I want to increase a solid 5ppm to see if that makes a difference. (Salifert test kit)

according to Neonitro instruction, it would be better to dose with Microbacter. Isn’t microbacter7 supposedly lower nitrate or phosphate?

minus9 · Jun 18, 2021

What's your current PO4? Why 5ppm? What's your ultimate goal? Sorry with all the questions, but numbers are exactly that, numbers. You can raise magnesium without issue to your desired range.

Jekyl · Jun 18, 2021

Why dose anything? Just let your skimmer empty back into the sump or remove your socks.

Gtinnel · Jun 18, 2021

I manually dose some nitrate fairly often in my tank (not neonitro though) and I don't add anything other than the nitrate solution. IMO if your nitrate is at 3-5 then you probably don't need to increase it. I have to periodically dose to keep mine above 0, 2.5 has become my goal.

blasterman · Jun 18, 2021

If corals are doing bad at 3-5 nitrate something else is wrong. Ive had soft corals complain about nitrate being below 10 but 3-5 is perfect for LPS and softies.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2021

I agree, nitrate is not the problem (if there is a problem).

Fishingandreefing · Jun 21, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I agree, nitrate is not the problem (if there is a problem).

I am not it was a coincidence. I remember way back my Duncans were all closed up. I then realized my nitrate was really high then it opened right up after I lowered it to around 10

Fishingandreefing · Jun 21, 2021

Jekyl said:
Why dose anything? Just let your skimmer empty back into the sump or remove your socks.

I just feed more now

Fishingandreefing · Jun 21, 2021

minus9 said:
What's your current PO4? Why 5ppm? What's your ultimate goal? Sorry with all the questions, but numbers are exactly that, numbers. You can raise magnesium without issue to your desired range.

Yeah they’re just numbers but those are our reference points.

minus9 · Jun 21, 2021

I find that if you have any measurement of nitrate, you have plenty, but phosphates on the other hand are a more delicate issue. Ultra low readings can lead to starvation quickly, especially with acropora.