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Offline Nbehnken

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Nitrate Help
« on: December 10, 2017, 10:30:34 »
For the third week in a row I have measured zero nitrates in my system. After the first week, I started feeding heavily and haven’t done any water changes. I was thinking I would see some nitrates this week but still none. My next thought was to turn off my skimmer a couple hours a day and possibly start dosing nitrates.

I have been dosing Red Sea’s Reef Energy with the amino acids daily to try and give the corals some nutrients.

Does anyone have suggestions to get my nitrates back up other than what I’m doing? Does anyone dose nitrates and if so what are you dosing?   

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2017, 11:53:53 »
I can only tell you what happened in my ULNS. I have tried everything to raise nitrate and it just doesn’t go up. When I started dosing nitrate, I had massive algae blooms and some of the SPS did not like it and started receding. I quit dosing and everything came back to normal.

I have run 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates for over 8 months and the Corals were healthy and growing fast (until my lighting mistake). I personally wouldn’t push to get them up.

I do alternate mass quantities of reef chili and reef roids every day. I still don’t get a PHos or NO3 reading, but you can visibly see that some Corals are healthier looking.

Really, it’s a cursed blessing. I’d rather be on the ultra low end than not being able to get them down. IMHO

Offline lazylivin

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2017, 13:16:26 »
I have pharmaceutical grade nitrate and dose it in my system. If you have acros and some other corals dosing nitrates can significantly increase the color if they are undetectable. 5-15 range seems to be the sweet spot but nitrates in 30-40 range are just fine as long as you have tangs to keep the tank clean looking. The most famous acro tanks in the country run higher nitrates or phosphate. A lot of folks and retailers want you to believe that additives increase color. Take a look at any dry goods seller website or retail reef store and you will see pages and pages ir shelves of expensive liquids to put in your reef. The seasoned reefers know the truth. Having nitrate or phosphates in the tank bring out the colors and polyps. There are some corals that look better under ultra low nutrients though it is a much smaller list then those that look better. So go for it, dose the nitrates and enjoy a more colorful reef

Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2017, 13:21:31 »
This is a form of carbon dosing.  This consumes the Phosphate and nitrate.   The biggest problem with dosing and not being able to measure the phosphate and nitrate, is that you can drive the tank to ultra low nutrients......which will be ok, but a ULN tank is much more sensitive to Alk/lighting fluctuations than a tank with normal nutrients.

I personally would back off on the dosing, until you can measure the nitrate and phosphate.


Offline Nbehnken

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2017, 13:25:30 »
Brian -  What is the name of the nitrate you dose? I would like to order some.

Offline Nbehnken

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2017, 13:37:45 »
I can only tell you what happened in my ULNS. I have tried everything to raise nitrate and it just doesn’t go up. When I started dosing nitrate, I had massive algae blooms and some of the SPS did not like it and started receding. I quit dosing and everything came back to normal.

I have run 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates for over 8 months and the Corals were healthy and growing fast (until my lighting mistake). I personally wouldn’t push to get them up.

I do alternate mass quantities of reef chili and reef roids every day. I still don’t get a PHos or NO3 reading, but you can visibly see that some Corals are healthier looking.

Really, it’s a cursed blessing. I’d rather be on the ultra low end than not being able to get them down. IMHO

Are you running a mixed reef or SPS dominate tank? I ask because was under the impression that LPS did better in a more nutrient rich environment and was wondering how true that is.

Offline lazylivin

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2017, 13:45:35 »
You can purchase it here at Lazys Coral House. I don’t know of anywhere else to buy Pharmaceutical grade

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2017, 21:09:49 »
Sorry, I didn’t catch this question earlier.
I have an SPS dominate mixed reef. Just a few LPS, some Zoas and 1 Toadstool.

My Torch has grown from 1 head to 12 heads in the 7 months I’ve had him. Always full and very happy looking. Even my lighting mistake had no effect on him. Acans and Duncan’s have always done good and my Favia and Chalice are new but they seem to be doing well too. Before my lighting mistake, my SPS we’re doing good too. I will say that the only difference I seen in my SPS being in ULNS is that the colors are not quite as rich as Brian’s which is where about 70% of my Corals come from. Not that my colors are bad, just not as dark/rich.

Are you running a mixed reef or SPS dominate tank? I ask because was under the impression that LPS did better in a more nutrient rich environment and was wondering how true that is.

Offline erky

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Re: Nitrate Help
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2017, 08:21:19 »
Brian -  What is the name of the nitrate you dose? I would like to order some.

a quick google search gives you a few results.

 

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