im nitrate limited

[brob22]

what should i do. my nitrates are below detectable readings and when i dosed nitrates my system sucked um all up with in hours.
would dosing zeo supps help.

i want ot add nitate withought raising the organics and phosphates at all

thanks for thge help in advanced and happy holidays

 

[pwoller]

Would amino acids do that?

 

[brob22]

im not sure hopfully others will chime in

 

[Reefer1225]

Just curious why you want to add nitrates, most people wish to have your problem. I can't seem to get mine down lower than 5 ppm. I don't know how to raise just nitrates w/o raising organics / phosphates. However, I can tell you that when I doses aminos (aquavitro Fuel), my nitrates went up. I run GFO, so my phosphates always read 0.

 

[allsps40]

My corals pale when my no3 goes below 5pmm and then they will green if it gets over 15ppm. OP are you running a ULNS, dosing vodka, bio pellets ect?? If so stopping will help increase no3. Are you have an issue?? And AA's will increase coral color and growth without impacting no3.

 

[nvdiz]

if you really want to add nitrate/phosphate to your system, then simply feed more.

like others said, the point is to keep it low.

 

[brob22]

Just curious why you want to add nitrates, most people wish to have your problem. I can't seem to get mine down lower than 5 ppm. I don't know how to raise just nitrates w/o raising organics / phosphates. However, I can tell you that when I doses aminos (aquavitro Fuel), my nitrates went up. I run GFO, so my phosphates always read 0.

i want to add nitrate so my corals have atleast alittle bit of a constant food source. it funny i would love to have 5 pm of nitrate. also with out any nitrates cyano and dynos become issues.

thanks for the response

 

[brob22]

My corals pale when my no3 goes below 5pmm and then they will green if it gets over 15ppm. OP are you running a ULNS, dosing vodka, bio pellets ect?? If so stopping will help increase no3. Are you have an issue?? And AA's will increase coral color and growth without impacting no3.

thanks for your reply
i read ur sps thread and im pretty much in the same boat as you were.
i run gfo and vodka. im kinda in a bit of a pickle, if i dose more vodka my nitrates stay low and corals stay pale but if i back off the dosage i start to get alittle hair algae and phoaphate begines to rise. it seems like to me i need to add some sort of supplement to put back into the tank.

also i have 4 semi agressive fish in my 50 gallon so i dont feel comfortable stocking more

thanks for the help guys and i hope everyone had a nice holiday

 

[dvanacker]

nitrate isnt a food source for the corals...the zoo-x yes but in a healthy system the are fine with very little nitrate. Besides most people dont want to grow the zoox population in a coral because that equals brown.

I think the idea of a little bit of nitrate to get nice colors is really putting the chicken before the egg....the actual thing helping is the food and if your filtration is strong nitrate will still remain low....however a little bit of nitrate doesnt seem to hurt untill it gets in the 10ppm range or so.

My preference is plenty feeding....strong filtration... low low (.02ppm) nitrate. Im getting great colors.

 

[MammothReefer]

Lately I keep hearing people say "nitrate = food". I'm not sure why this rumour keeps perpetuating. Food = Food. Nitrate = bi-product. The corals aren't consuming "nitrate". They are tolerating small amounts of nitrate. If you can feed your tank heavy and keep your nitrates at 0 you'd be doing just fine.

 

[brob22]

nitrate isnt a food source for the corals...the zoo-x yes but in a healthy system the are fine with very little nitrate. Besides most people dont want to grow the zoox population in a coral because that equals brown.

I think the idea of a little bit of nitrate to get nice colors is really putting the chicken before the egg....the actual thing helping is the food and if your filtration is strong nitrate will still remain low....however a little bit of nitrate doesnt seem to hurt untill it gets in the 10ppm range or so.

My preference is plenty feeding....strong filtration... low low (.02ppm) nitrate. Im getting great colors.

i understand ur logic, but mine might be below .02
having to low of nitrates can cause cyano and dynoflagellates. im already starting to get the dynos, its the only algae that will grow in my tank. ideally i would like nitrates o be around 2 or 5 pm but i cant get even the slightest detectable reading.

 

[brob22]

Lately I keep hearing people say "nitrate = food". I'm not sure why this rumour keeps perpetuating. Food = Food. Nitrate = bi-product. The corals aren't consuming "nitrate". They are tolerating small amounts of nitrate. If you can feed your tank heavy and keep your nitrates at 0 you'd be doing just fine.

do u think ill be able to feed heavy with an sro 1000 skimmer on a 50 gallon tank

 

[reefgeezer]

I don't post much on this forum 'cause I'm not an SPS corals guru. However, I've been in this delima.

I had a UNLS system and blamed a "too clean system" for lack of color. I tried AAs with little success and even gave up on carbon dosing out of frustration. A year later, I'm back to carbon dosing, have an almost ULNS system, and have good (not great yet) color in my SPS. I dose nothing to add nitrates to the system.

I think the difference is: 1) I have a lot more light now; 2) the tank is much more stable, particularly alkalinity; 3) I'm dosing much less carbon than before; and 4) I have additional phosphate control in place.

IMHO cyano and dino's are not "caused" by nitrates being too low. At the risk of inviting disaster... The nutrient levels in my tank are 0 (Salifert) with no cyano or dino's. I fought dino's on my first carbon dosing go-round. I think it was because I thought carbon dosing would control phosphates as well as nitrates. I didn't use GFO or cheato to reduce the phosphates the carbon dosing left. The build-up eventually lead to a dino outbreak that took forever to resolve.

I have an over-sized skimmer that runs 24/7. I don't believe you can over skim an SPS tank... within reason. However, again IMO, heavy feeding is required in a heavily skimmed ULNS system.

 

[brob22]

thanks

thats good solid advice

 

[MammothReefer]

do u think ill be able to feed heavy with an sro 1000 skimmer on a 50 gallon tank

That would depend on your definition of heavy feeding, but I'm running an SRO XP-2000 on my 65 gallon..and I have to be some what cautious with my feeding or I get nutrient spikes however I'm not doing any sort of carbon dosing at this time.

 

[herring_fish]

I have an algal turf scrubber in a very heavily fed mixed coral tank. When I added a 55 gallon sump with lots of porous coral rubble, my nitrates fell so low that the scrubber stopped growing algae. Then my phosphates went up.

I also would like to find a good source for nitrate that doesn't add phosphates. It would be to "œfeed" the algae. With more algal growth, the phosphates would drop again. If that were possible, I would rather supplement nitrates than to use GFO or lanthanum.

 

[brob22]

gotya

i got a 75 gallon sump full of liverock on my 50 gallon tank so i guess that could be my problem

 

[danil]

I'm in the same exact situation as OP. My corals are 'starving' that's what everyone says seeing them. I do have cyano and some dynos and my nitrate is undetectable. I know the way you can add 'nitrate only' to your tank (check for Potassium Nitrate) but I agree with dvanacker this is going to be putting the chicken before the egg. I believe the trick to fix our problem (without replacing our big skimmers, stopping carbon dosing etc) is to find optimal food source for our corals. Corals have to be fed more somehow. I tried feed my fish more - they are about to explode now, tried BW AA and currently I'm trying Red Sea Reef Energy A&B. So far being one week into dosing cant see any positive (or negative) result. My next try is going to be PS Oyster Feast. I also thinking to put few more fish but its PITA. Let us know if you find the solution!

 

[karsseboom]

Yeah me too. Been running bio pellets for 7 months and all my softies are closed up, my lps are slowly dying the olny thing growing still is my sps. Maybe I should cut my pellets in half?

 

[herring_fish]

I thought that I had a rather unique situation. I would like to keep my sump in the garage.

It has about 8 inches of coral sand in the bottom and like I said, the rest is filled to the brim with a very porous coral rubble. It is a bacteria powerhouse. Only 8 gallons go through the 55 gallon refugium per day.

By the way, I have no algae or cyno growing anywhere, in the display tank. The scrubber did grow something like cyno and then stopped.

Nitrate isn't a food except for algae. Are you saying that Potassium Nitrate will add nitrates without adding to the potassium load?