Any guess as to why denitrification is not keeping up? Do you think that the AF products are contributing in anyway to the continued rise in Nitrates? Its going to be interesting to see how your corals respond to the decrease.
Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
- Start date
Any guess as to why denitrification is not keeping up? Do you think that the AF products are contributing in anyway to the continued rise in Nitrates? Its going to be interesting to see how your corals respond to the decrease.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
My only guess would be that I have almost no biological filtration in the SPS tank. Perhaps if I had a much higher turnover rate(Which I don't want) the water from the SPS tank would get to the Flubber tank more regularly and could be processed by the liverock. In any event, the positives of the Plastic rock outweigh the negatives. I've tested the AF products that could be contributing and didn't find any that add Nitrate, and there are plenty of AF tanks with low Nitrate, so I don't think that has anything to do with it.
plyle02
Active member
Looking over the cross side pic, with all those contrasting beautiful colors, it amazes me that the nitrates are as high as you tested. Very strange in deed, the tissue of the corals shows no browning effects from elevated nutrients. Matt, simply stated, your tank looks amazing! Keep the updates coming!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks very much Perry! It seems clear to me that the nutrient numbers don't really matter as much coloration-wise with the right levels of trace elements. There is interference with the reproduction of algae in this system, otherwise there would be hair algae and what not everywhere. What will be very interesting is what will happen when I get Nitrate down to the sweet spot:thumbsup:
Thanks Matt! I spend a lot of time staring at the tank and don't have to re-fill air tanks
milsaltnewbie07
New member
Wow Matt thats freaking insane dude. Im beginning to think that the reason why nitrates hasn't affected sps , is due to AF. Maybe there is something that either drivea them up, or puts them to good use . Because those colors couldn't look better .... wow
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks! Nitrate doesn't seem to be a problem but I'm reducing it anyway. I might be able to get even better color
Tank reading this afternoon, still high:
Coming out of the Sulfur denitrator:
Since it is flat out zero I increased the flow through the denitrator.
Diesel3443
AEFW Distructor
Wow, that was quick.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Really ?
Where did you read that ? Or is that your personal experience ?
To quote RHF, "Fish, it seems, are not very sensitive to nitrate."
slavetonet
New member
That is incredible turn around for the NO3.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
The zero value is what is coming out of the reactor - not the value in the tank. The reactor processes about 16mL/minute, so it will take some time to reduce the tank concentration significantly.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
There are scientific studies that show that short term exposure to high Nitrate does not affect fish, but not long term studies. Its not my area of expertise, frankly - I remembered reading that high nitrate was a physiological drain on fish, but after searching the web this evening, there is nothing concrete out there. Randy even alludes to this in the paper you cited:
Still, many hobbyists report that their fish appear less healthy when they have allowed nitrate levels to get excessively high (over 50 ppm). Whether that is actually due to nitrate or something else about the water that is coincident with the nitrate rise is unknown.
Of course the majority of articles about Nitrate senitivity I read said that high nitrates were very bad for for invertebrates, especially corals and anemones. I think there is more to the story on that if this is what corals look like with nitrates between 50 and 100:
Matt do you continued to believe that the higher ratio Mn/Fe or Zn/Fe, interfere with photosynthesis , so you don't have algae and cyanobacteria and on the other hand brilliant coral colours? If so, how can you explain, that john by dosing also Mn and
Fe, can grow chaeto in Arid reactor and also has some cyano problems lately?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I really can't, as I don't know conclusively that macroalgae will or won't grow. I know that microalgae is pretty well absent on the rocks, and what I get on the glass is never green, only brown, and comes in very slowly. With the level of nitrates and phosphates(0.06-0.1 last I checked) that I have there should be algae in abundance. Cyano is only present in a couple very small patches on top of detritus that gathers in a couple spots.
I do run a carbon dosing system, unlike Joe. I also do use zeolites, which leach a few elements, including iron and manganese. Perhaps my levels of some of these elements are higher than in his system.
glaukos
New member
From your writing i can tell that you know quite well your way around reefing gregkn73
It would be awesome to see your tank and get some more info
Thanks:thumbsup:
Which was really my point, it's conjecture. As Randy says, hobbyists report... but there's no definitive research that anyone can point to.
You've been in the hobby long enough that you probably remember the days before phosphates were even discussed, much less measured. There were many wonderful reef tanks that had high phosphates but nobody knew so it wasn't a concern.
Now some AF users with Salifert test kits are reporting sudden high levels of nitrates and are bewildered by it.
I believe I saw you post in the thread where the owner of Salifert notes that there may have been a problem with the most recently printed color charts for the nitrate test kit. So there are at least 2 potential reasons that some experience the raised nitrates while not all AF users do, an error in testing or an actual influence from the AF products.
You're having great success and far be it from me to suggest you change your methods but have you considered just letting nitrates be a little higher than the numbers most target ?
And have you read Thales thread ?
Most recent nitrates measured at 62 and everything is thriving.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I don't worry much about Nitrates, perhaps I could have been clearer about that. I prefer keeping Nitrates closer to 5ppm because I had excellent color and growth at that level. I figure that even though the tank currently looks great I may be able to get even better color and growth with Nitrates at ideal levels-it's a sickness, really:wildone:
Since the corals were thriving at these levels, I didn't think that using "Nitrates are bad for corals" as a reason for lowering nitrates was valid. My memory was that fish didn't do well in high nitrate tanks either, but I didn't research it or anything.
The Salifert test kit thing isn't applicable here. The solution is darker than it was 6 months ago by a lot. Plus this week I started using the fourth Nitrate test kit I've had since starting Aquaforest. All the cards match anyhow.
Beware of Thales as a model as well. I was impressed by the weird kind of mojo he had brewing in his tank but as you can see in that post, it eventually caught up with him in a round of serious RTN and then he had a total wipeout of all his acros. He is trying to clean his tank up now with automatic daily water changes.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Hi Matt,
What is the coral growth in your tank in these days? How does it compare to the days before starting to use AF products? Brown patches you get on your glass are likely to be diatoms.
Thanks
What is the coral growth in your tank in these days? How does it compare to the days before starting to use AF products? Brown patches you get on your glass are likely to be diatoms.
Thanks
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