Raising Nitrates in SPS barebottom

[Colgan10]

SG: 35ppm
Alk: 9
Cal:420
Phosphate:.05
Nitrate:0

Red Sea Reefer 300xl

So I use Hanna checkers for everything above except for nitrate I was using api. I didn’t trust api so I ordered the Red Sea nitrate pro kit and still got a zero reading. The tank is 6 month old now barebottom this is my first barebottom. I do have meal flakes in the back corner I created for the wrasse. I have two fish a white tail bristletooth tang and a melarnus wrasse and 6 snails. What should I do I’ve actually never had problems with not having nitrates.

 

[jda]

Just feed the fish. You will likely have more nitrate that you can handle soon.

If you even have algae growing, then you have enough.

 

[Jacked Reefer]

SG: 35ppm
Alk: 9
Cal:420
Phosphate:.05
Nitrate:0

Red Sea Reefer 300xl

So I use Hanna checkers for everything above except for nitrate I was using api. I didn’t trust api so I ordered the Red Sea nitrate pro kit and still got a zero reading. The tank is 6 month old now barebottom this is my first barebottom. I do have meal flakes in the back corner I created for the wrasse. I have two fish a white tail bristletooth tang and a melarnus wrasse and 6 snails. What should I do I’ve actually never had problems with not having nitrates.

Low nitrates is no issue. It is the amount of nutrients your corals are receiving. You could run zero nitrates and feed your coral every day and have a very successful tank. You just need to make sure corals get nutrients somehow. Nitrogen and phosphorus can be provided by feeding and aminos.

 

[jda]

I have almost given up teaching people that it is about availability, not residual numbers on a test kit. When the current fad subsides, then it might be worthwhile to post again to the masses. However, the coral will prefer to use ammonia/ammonium to get nitrogen and not nitrate, which costs way more energy to process. ...so feed your fish a good amount and you will be all set. Don't worry about what the nitrate reads on a test kit unless it is really high.

The only real reason to keep nitrate high is if you want to poison/kill some dinos or diatoms, which it does a good job of this.

 

[Salemsoul]

Using a skimmer or cheato?
0'ing out on a nitrate test could be within its margin of error, just very low. As stated above, available nutrients to your corals vs what your test kits show may not correlate. If you were viewing any negative side affects, like coral having an unhealthy appearance or losing color, then you could try and tackle the issue with supplements or increased feedings.

 

[Colgan10]

Low nitrates is no issue. It is the amount of nutrients your corals are receiving. You could run zero nitrates and feed your coral every day and have a very successful tank. You just need to make sure corals get nutrients somehow. Nitrogen and phosphorus can be provided by feeding and aminos.

Thanks that’s what I have been doing I’ve been using reef roids and feeding fish more.

 

[Colgan10]

I have almost given up teaching people that it is about availability, not residual numbers on a test kit. When the current fad subsides, then it might be worthwhile to post again to the masses. However, the coral will prefer to use ammonia/ammonium to get nitrogen and not nitrate, which costs way more energy to process. ...so feed your fish a good amount and you will be all set. Don't worry about what the nitrate reads on a test kit unless it is really high.

The only real reason to keep nitrate high is if you want to poison/kill some dinos or diatoms, which it does a good job of this.

Completely agree I have always had high bioload tanks and just fed fish and let the rest take care of itself. Ive just had some issues with corals losing color or looking brown, but some corals that were brown when I got them are coloring up so just trying to figure out what is going on. No coral loss or anything like that just figured some corals might be browning due to low nitrate.

Will say when I do add reef roids I will see alittle more algae growth on back wall. Floor of tank and back is beginning to fill with coraline.

As always thanks always appreciate your input! Still thinking of going back to metal halides lol I tested par with my three kessils and everything was 200+ in tank but I still think I might go back to halides.

 

[Colgan10]

Using a skimmer or cheato?
0'ing out on a nitrate test could be within its margin of error, just very low. As stated above, available nutrients to your corals vs what your test kits show may not correlate. If you were viewing any negative side affects, like coral having an unhealthy appearance or losing color, then you could try and tackle the issue with supplements or increased feedings.

Yes to skinner cheato no. And yes some corals have browned out alittle ans some that were brown when they arrived have colored up so that was main reason for post.

 

[Joedubyk]

I have almost given up teaching people that it is about availability, not residual numbers on a test kit. When the current fad subsides, then it might be worthwhile to post again to the masses. However, the coral will prefer to use ammonia/ammonium to get nitrogen and not nitrate, which costs way more energy to process. ...so feed your fish a good amount and you will be all set. Don't worry about what the nitrate reads on a test kit unless it is really high.

The only real reason to keep nitrate high is if you want to poison/kill some dinos or diatoms, which it does a good job of this.

Disagree. My acros seem to love nitrate dosing. Granted I have a ton of export . And if I just "feed" more I keep endding up with much higher phosphate.

Theres a lot of thing science suggests and what reality pl ays out in our fish tanks. For example, most will say SPS won't eat phyto either, but my PE has never been better when dosing phyto....

 

[jda]

Ive just had some issues with corals losing color or looking brown, but some corals that were brown when I got them are coloring up so just trying to figure out what is going on.

I am sure that you know that Kessils alone have let people down with acropora and other types of SPS. Nearly all have ended up adding T5s to them to get decent results. I would look here before you look anywhere else since there is a distinct pattern with Kessils alone not cutting it for acropora.

 

[Salemsoul]

Yes to skinner cheato no. And yes some corals have browned out alittle ans some that were brown when they arrived have colored up so that was main reason for post.

you could have the skimmer timed On or Off certain days/hours, I personally don't like that but other do have theirs set up that way. How often are you doing a water change? the browning could obviously be from a lack of nutrients but it could also be related to trace elements although unlikely. Have you recently done an ICP test? The browning can also be due to lighting the par not being enough or the spectrum of color not being sufficient for your coral

 

[Colgan10]

you could have the skimmer timed On or Off certain days/hours, I personally don't like that but other do have theirs set up that way. How often are you doing a water change? the browning could obviously be from a lack of nutrients but it could also be related to trace elements although unlikely. Have you recently done an ICP test? The browning can also be due to lighting the par not being enough or the spectrum of color not being sufficient for your coral

I do 20 percent every two weeks for water changes. No I’ve never sent anything off to icp before.

I have to agree with you I don’t think my kessil leds are doing it for me. I’ve had wall to wall sps tanks but were always under radium metal halides. I got out of the hobby while living in Hawaii and when I was reef keeping back in 2012 leds were just coming out. I watched all these BRS videos and though in a 3 foot tank three kessils would do the trick because I wanted shimmer and reminded me of a halide look but I mean leds look so unnatural to me a 20k MH looks like a 10 k bulb compared to this amount of blue leds put out it’s just so unnatural to me and corals from my experience have just been tougher and not look as good as when I was doing it 8 years ago

 

[blasterman]

Oh no....were blaming those LEDs again and T5s will solve everything including coronavirus. /sarcasm

A BB tank is lousy at fixing nitrate, so it's either a young tank or it's being consumed by softies. A stalk of Xenia can eat gobs of nitrate.

I've played with adding nitrate to ULN tanks ( potassium nitrate ) with slow growth and didn't get much of a response. Softies like it...hard corals dont seem to respond. IMO, nitrate needs to be supplemented with proper phosphate testing or you just make fertilizer for nuisance algae.

Personally I would just feed more.

 

[Colgan10]

Oh no....were blaming those LEDs again and T5s will solve everything including coronavirus. /sarcasm

A BB tank is lousy at fixing nitrate, so it's either a young tank or it's being consumed by softies. A stalk of Xenia can eat gobs of nitrate.

I've played with adding nitrate to ULN tanks ( potassium nitrate ) with slow growth and didn't get much of a response. Softies like it...hard corals dont seem to respond. IMO, nitrate needs to be supplemented with proper phosphate testing or you just make fertilizer for nuisance algae.

Personally I would just feed more.

It’s not that I’m blaming leds I just think they suck compared to my past experience with metal halides. I love the way they look on the tank which is why I haven’t bought a metal halide fixture yet.

Yea I’m just going to increase feeding and prob get more fish. I can’t see myself dosing nitrates.

 

[C. Eymann]

From what I have seen increased 20ppm vs 5ppm of NO3 can benefit coloration in some species of acropora, but some show no changes at all.

For home aquariums I would recommend staying away from dosing NO3 as much as you can as it should be fairly easy by decreasing skimmer run time, adding more fish and /or feeding heavier. However, in aquaculture, its hard to avoid due to large mass of coral as welk as a large amount of lit surface area =algae stripping it.

 

[92Miata]

Don't worry about what the nitrate reads on a test kit unless it is really high.

The only real reason to keep nitrate high is if you want to poison/kill some dinos or diatoms, which it does a good job of this.

What's really high?
My barebottom was at .10 ppm phosphate, 15-20ppm nitrate the other day (hate color scale tests).

Its relatively new, so I'm not sure if those levels are a problem, or a 'meh'

 

[X-37B]

My 120 runs po4 .02-.04
No3 <2.
Tank is bare bottom and levels have been this way for 11 of the 12 months its been running.

I believe its a balance of fish, feeding, type of nutrient export, good cleanup crew, and starting with 50% live rock.

I test both maybe once a month with almost no variation. I feed fish 3-4 times a day.

I have some green and red hair algae that is kept at bay by my sea hare.

2 urchins have almost eliminated most of the red turf algae I had that was growing over the coralline on the back wall.

So far it has worked for me.