Nitrate Dosing and Chaeto Trimming

[cjpitt80]

Hello,
Over the past week I've begun dosing KNO3 in an attempt to keep a stable 3-5ish ppm level. From my testing, 5mL of my solution will bring the nitrates up to 2ppm from undetectable an hour after dosing. Checking 48hrs later (Red Sea Marine Care) I'm back at 0ppm. So tank is consuming about 1ppm/day. My chaeto has gotten so large in the 'fuge, that it no longer rotates. If I trim some of the chaeto, would I expect to see an increase in the nitrate uptake as it grows more? Should I leave the chaeto in place until I can get the nitrates up to about 5ppm? Obviously I'd like to be able to keep some detectable nitrate levels while dosing as little as possible. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Also, I'm running Triton other methods and do as few WCs as needed

(Incidentally, dosing KNO3 seems to be the ONLY thing that drives my PO4 levels down under 0.12ppm)

 

[cjpitt80]

Anyone?

 

[mcgyvr]

The greater the amount of chaeto the greater contribution it makes towards nitrate reduction up to the point it becomes nutrient limited and or energy limited by lack of light energy,etc.. and its growth suffers some..

Personally I would simply reduce the amount of chaeto I maintained on a continual basis and attempt to eliminate the need for nitrate dosing.. Thats where I would start with what you have stated so far..

 

[cjpitt80]

The greater the amount of chaeto the greater contribution it makes towards nitrate reduction up to the point it becomes nutrient limited and or energy limited by lack of light energy,etc.. and its growth suffers some..

Personally I would simply reduce the amount of chaeto I maintained on a continual basis and attempt to eliminate the need for nitrate dosing.. Thats where I would start with what you have stated so far..

Yeah the nitrates seem to have stabilized at 2-3ppm over the past week or so. I did end up getting rid of about 1/4 of it just to keep flow moving thru it and keep the slime algae off the top.