Raising Nitrate

[FL_Reefer]

I think it maybe alittle harder to raise your nitrates with an established tank ie.. Good established colony of de-nitrifying bacteria. Just like what was said before, leave socks in longer, turn off skimmer and feed feed feed. That may do the trick to bring them up a bit. Overload the system for alittle bit.

 

[howaboutme]

I would not put feeding more on the list of how to raise NO3. You will also add PO4. Feed more because you want to and for other reasons but not to raise NO3.

 

[Pete polyp]

You can add more fish...

 

[beaslbob]

I agree w/ this but it's not as easy to get as KNO3 via Spectracide Stump Remover.

Probably.

I got mine from a feed and seed store. Only takes a very small amount like a teaspoon or so on my 55g to bump up to 5-10ppm. Small bag was like $5 for so.

I also noticed that calcium nitrate is part of the balling (or balling plus) system. So aparently very light dosing is consider helpful.

It would also seem that you would have to increase over time as the tank adjusted.

but that's just my speculation worth at most .02

 

[JOKER]

Ok so im going to go from every 2 days on socks to 4 days first. They don't get that dirty so 4 days wont be a biggy plus less work cleaning them. I will test again next Tuesday as always and see where we are. Been running the gfo for almost a week and phos still up a little (added a little more today). Did water change today of 10 gallons like usual, not planning anymore water changes till next week. Thought of lowering the flow in display a little but will wait till Tuesday and see where we are with the sock first. I am running 2 wp40 on w1 and 3 wp 10 on else , I alternate the 10 from else to w1 every few days different ones each time. I will leave these where they are during this week.. Don't really like the chemical approach unless it is a must. I dose 2 part brs around 40 ml a day.

 

[ETORRES477]

Related question, how can raising your nitrates to about 5 ppm help with coral coloration?

 

[Pete polyp]

Related question, how can raising your nitrates to about 5 ppm help with coral coloration?

Because this is what the difference is between 0 and 0.5

0

0.5

 

[Pete polyp]

And 6 months with battling to keep nitrate detectable

 

[JOKER]

That is a good question. I just know when mine are around 5 or so that the whole tank looks better plus phosphate is a little lower. When my nitrates are low have trouble with phosphate. I am no where near a chemist so maybe someone else will be able to help here. I see more pe when nitrates are around 5 also.

 

[JOKER]

Looking good pete. What do you do to raise yours?

 

[JOKER]

What kind of flow do you have pete

 

[Pete polyp]

Increased feedings by 10 fold haha. I was feeding a piece of rods about 1/8in² daily to about 1in² and started feeding reef roids or coral frenzy twice a night. I have a wp25 on w1 s3, seio superflow 620 and a 150gph hob on a 29 for flow.

 

[ETORRES477]

@ Pete Poly, Thanks. Ive done FOWLR exclusively, and I just started my reef build in January of this year. My nitrates are at 0.5 ppm, & I figured I would need to get closer to zero before I started adding some coral. Guess i'm good where I'm at. Thanks for the info.

 

[CastAway]

WOW Pete! Very nice! Amazing.

 

[JOKER]

Looking good pete. We will see how this goes for me. I plan to do just 1 thing at a time and see what has most effect on nitrate. Hope to be adding a fish or 2 in next few weeks.

 

[Pete polyp]

Sounds good. I actually stumbled into this by accident. I never had any nitrate, and I was never concerned. I just figured that is what the corals looked like. I moved the tank 50 miles and had a small nitrate spike (about 1 ppm). Within 10 days these corals started showing color like I hadn't seen before. The bonsai wasn't the most improved in this, but I didn't have any before pictures of the others.

 

[JOKER]

I tell ya what Is weird . I checked nitrite today with hanna and got like 16. Is there a way that could be possible??? I didn't have time for but one test so could have been a fluke.

 

[mcarroll]

Sounds good. I actually stumbled into this by accident. I never had any nitrate, and I was never concerned. I just figured that is what the corals looked like. I moved the tank 50 miles and had a small nitrate spike (about 1 ppm). Within 10 days these corals started showing color like I hadn't seen before. The bonsai wasn't the most improved in this, but I didn't have any before pictures of the others.

I've had a similar "color spike" from a massive calcium overdose - at least 700 ppm, IIRC. Would be interesting to know why.

FWIW, I've read that tissue on corals like Montipora can directly absorb nitrate....cannot remember or find the source currently, only lots of forum threads of people speculating about nitrates and corals. Dang brain/stupid internet! So I wouldn't be surprised at all if a very low level "spike" (that was a laughable spike, btw....hahah) was indeed beneficial to your coral.

I'd be pretty careful about throwing random chemical nitrates in the tank to boost animal health - some are surely better and worse than others, but it's hard to guess which or why.

If you want to experiment, here's what I would do: get some organic blood meal (lots of carbon atoms, 1/3 that amount of nitrogen, a very small amount of iron, good amino acids, vitamins, etc, but no phosphates), from the garden store and dose/feed a tiny amount into your tank, following up with nitrate testing and tank watching so you can observe any changes in the water column. If you don't get the change you are looking for, add more and re-test. Repeat until you register a change in nitrates

Fish will probably dig eating it, corals might eat it if you powder it down, bacteria will certainly digest what's left....in any event you wind up with higher nitrates and some bonuses - carbon dosing, an iron micro-supplement, etc) - while adding almost no phosphates or anything else. Can't emphasize enough to start small and go slow if you want to try this. I looked around a bit and this is probably a new idea - we'd be on the cutting edge in trying it. (This means it could turn out to be a terrible idea too, of course.) I have not tried it yet, but if I were a carbon doser I'd sure be considering it. It seems like an almost ideal solution. Working out some idea of a correct starting dose would require a bit of time to research, but could probably be done by working backward from blood meal's N:K number.

Food for thought!

-Matt

 

[Pete polyp]

I will agree that the "spike" was very minute, but this is the only thing that changed. Its the only reason for the color change. It has been 8 months since this has happened and the color is still there. The only thing I have done is increase feeding by 10x to keep a small bit of nitrate. I have battled to keep the nitrate and it is usually between 0.25 and 0.50. If I slack on feeding for a few days it will test 0.

My monti looks like absolute garbage, maybe its the low nutrients.

 

[mcarroll]

I will agree that the "spike" was very minute, but this is the only thing that changed. Its the only reason for the color change. It has been 8 months since this has happened and the color is still there. The only thing I have done is increase feeding by 10x to keep a small bit of nitrate. I have battled to keep the nitrate and it is usually between 0.25 and 0.50. If I slack on feeding for a few days it will test 0.

My monti looks like absolute garbage, maybe its the low nutrients.

Possible, but I've never had detectable nitrates in my tank and my montis would glow unless my alk was inconsistent or my halides were >6 months old. No halides anymore, so IME their color is anchored to alk consistency. I've always kept at least a minimal, sometimes agressive, water change schedule, FWIW. More (or at least more frequent) water changes is definiely better for color.

-Matt