Started Dosing 2 Part and My Nitrates Are Crashing

[redstorm6]

Hey all,

I recently started dosing Reef Fusion 2 part into my 40 gallon mixed nano reef. The tank is roughly 4 months old. I first dosed Tuesday @ 4 mL per instructions and everything looked great until Thursday morning. Starting Thursday I noticed my pocillopora and duncan corals looking slightly "off." My Acans also haven't looked so hot lately. All other Softies, LPS and montis appear fine. Tank is also running @ 1.026 salinity @ 77.5 F.

I tested before my first dose and my alk was 9, after dosing it was 10. I haven't dosed since Tuesday so I decided to check it out before dosing again and it's now sitting at 6. I have noticed some growth over the last four days but it has seemingly stopped. I checked my nitrates and they are currently showing 0. The API kit is solid yellow. Before I dosed my nitrates were around 10-15 ppm. This kit has been fairly accurate in the past since I used it to complete the cycle and it tested nitrates as high as 60 before I added any fish.

My question is this: Did I dose 2 part, have a growth spurt, used up the KH and nitrate, and now a few of my indicator corals are looking a little poor due to this? How do I increase nitrate short of feeding more? The only fish in the tank are two small damsels and two ocellaris clownfish so i can't dump food in there. I'm also running a very small refugium with some Cheato but I haven't noticed much growth from it. My duncan coral is the first coral to act strange if something is off, salinity, etc so the fact it's been withdrawn almost two days in kind of concerning. I appreciate any advice.

Thanks all!

 

[Lucky Corals]

Hey all,

I recently started dosing Reef Fusion 2 part into my 40 gallon mixed nano reef. The tank is roughly 4 months old. I first dosed Tuesday @ 4 mL per instructions and everything looked great until Thursday morning. Starting Thursday I noticed my pocillopora and duncan corals looking slightly "off." My Acans also haven't looked so hot lately. All other Softies, LPS and montis appear fine. Tank is also running @ 1.026 salinity @ 77.5 F.

I tested before my first dose and my alk was 9, after dosing it was 10. I haven't dosed since Tuesday so I decided to check it out before dosing again and it's now sitting at 6. I have noticed some growth over the last four days but it has seemingly stopped. I checked my nitrates and they are currently showing 0. The API kit is solid yellow. Before I dosed my nitrates were around 10-15 ppm. This kit has been fairly accurate in the past since I used it to complete the cycle and it tested nitrates as high as 60 before I added any fish.

My question is this: Did I dose 2 part, have a growth spurt, used up the KH and nitrate, and now a few of my indicator corals are looking a little poor due to this? How do I increase nitrate short of feeding more? The only fish in the tank are two small damsels and two ocellaris clownfish so i can't dump food in there. I'm also running a very small refugium with some Cheato but I haven't noticed much growth from it. My duncan coral is the first coral to act strange if something is off, salinity, etc so the fact it's been withdrawn almost two days in kind of concerning. I appreciate any advice.

Thanks all!

I know you said you don’t have much cheato but I still think it’s more likely to have sucked up the nitrate than a growth spurt from dosing kh. I think your corals stressed appearance is being caused by the fluctuation in your Alk from 10 to 6 in 3-4 days I would first slowly bring your KH up no more than 0.5 a day. Until you’re closer to 8-9 and keep it stable in that range. You can dose sodium nitrate but you need to only add a little. I would just up my feedings a little bit each week and possibly remove some of the chaeto.

 

[W1ngz]

Corals don't really have 4 day growth spurts. 4 week maybe, but 4 days seems a little (lot) on the short side to me.
If your nitrates dropped from 10-15ish to below 10, it's entirely possible that you're at 5 but the API can't show it. It's more than likely the nitrates are being used by algae somewhere, which is being eaten. The reef fusion also includes trace elements which are used by plants like chaeto, so that's another likely place for your nitrates to have gone.

The duncan is a tell here, and probably reacting poorly because of the sudden changes in alk. If 4ml got you from 9 to 10 alk, and in 3 or 4 days you dropped by 4, then I assume you're using just under 1dkh per day. Keep dosing the 4ml per day at around the same time and testing daily, also at the same time. You can adjust your dose as you zero in on the sweet spot where the daily alk and cal are stable.

Like above, I would feed a little more and look into a more precises test kit for nitrate.

 

[redstorm6]

Ok cool. That makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I should remove the Chaeto for now until it becomes a problem in the future?

I'll slowly add the ALK 2 part and slowly bring it up. It's amazing to me how some corals can't stand it and some are acting like nothing is happening at all hah.

 

[redstorm6]

Corals don't really have 4 day growth spurts. 4 week maybe, but 4 days seems a little (lot) on the short side to me.
If your nitrates dropped from 10-15ish to below 10, it's entirely possible that you're at 5 but the API can't show it. It's more than likely the nitrates are being used by algae somewhere, which is being eaten. The reef fusion also includes trace elements which are used by plants like chaeto, so that's another likely place for your nitrates to have gone.

The duncan is a tell here, and probably reacting poorly because of the sudden changes in alk. If 4ml got you from 9 to 10 alk, and in 3 or 4 days you dropped by 4, then I assume you're using just under 1dkh per day. Keep dosing the 4ml per day at around the same time and testing daily, also at the same time. You can adjust your dose as you zero in on the sweet spot where the daily alk and cal are stable.

Like above, I would feed a little more and look into a more precises test kit for nitrate.

Yeah i worded that poorly with growth spurt. I had a few zoas add a few polyps. Nothing crazy. I do have some hair algae in the tank but nothing like an infestation. I'm going to follow your advice and raise the alk slowly and see what happens. I'll update in a few days. thanks!