Nitrate dosing long term log

The corals are showing the best polyp extension I've seen so far. Nitrates are at 4 ppm phosphates .05 ppm.
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Corals are looking good!

Are you also spot feeding, or are they purely filter needing from the nutrients dosed?
 
So I checked my nitrates and phosphates today and they are both 0.00. Yesterday my nitrates were 4 and I dosed phosphate up to 0.05.
The only thing I can think of is that the 0.00 I had for phosphates before I started dosing them was keeping the nitrates from being consumed (I hope that makes sense). I dosed my nitrates manually to .8 ppm and phosphates to 0.05. I have my doser set up to do this daily now. I'll check this weekend to see if it bottoms out again.
 
After dosing. 05 phosphates and .8 nitrates 2 days in a row at the end of the day I'm still showing 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate. I'm convinced since I'm dosing a 16:1 ratio my refugium is soaking up all my nutrients at night. My zoas I've had for 2 years that haven't gained a single polyp are starting to reproduce so I'm thinking trace amounts are staying in my system. So basically I'm constantly importing and exporting nutrients.
 
Okay, I think you've found a reasonable dose for the tank. Congratulations! It's interesting seeing how this unfolds.
 
Toby_Kourtney said:
From a cost point I think if I can get to a stable point where I know how much potassium nitrate and vinegar to add to maintain nitrates at 4 pmm while slowly lowering phosphates I'll be much better off. Maybe it's just me but gfo is expensive and if I can do the same thing for practically nothing then why not.
Click to expand...
Any reason you use vinegar? Is it just a cost thing or is it better than say vodka

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Some tanks seem to do a bit better with vodka; some seem to do a bit better with vinegar. I don't know exactly why, but the issue usually is microbial blooms.
 
I'm pretty convinced through observation and testing that the key to lowering nitrates with a refugium is to raise phosphates and lowering phosphates by raising nitrates. I did this with my high tech planted tank for years. My phosphate level were dosed to 1 ppm and nitrates were dosed to 10 ppm everyday and I had no algae because the plants were out competing it for nutrients. I think balancing nutrients is more effective than having both undetectable.
 
So Here's an update. I was dosing .08 ppm of po4 and .64 ppm of no3 daily for about 10 days I was getting good growth out of corals and much better color then in the past. But for some reason I thought I'd try out some pohls xtra I had lying around. I dosed 1 ml a day and after 2 days cyano started to show up everywhere. I'm not knocking pohls because I've used it other tanks I've had with good results but for some reason it threw my nutrients way out of whack. Who knows what in the pohls caused it because they don't advertise their ingredients.
 
scar79 said:
Keep this thread going Toby! I did some experimenting with nitrate dosing and definitely noticed immediate improvements in the richness of color in my corals. I eventually stopped dosing and took a 2 month water change hiatus and my hair algae (present before I started dosing nitrate) got out of hand. Experimenting with a chaeto reactor now, and may revisit nitrate dosing once the hair algae is gone.
Click to expand...



Replying to my own post and kudos for continuing to update this thread!

Feb 12 - Reactor set up, nitrate undetectable, phosphate 0.10
190daf9aae82b4678c45562f6d0fef25.jpg


Feb 18 - Major progress (with the help of a PB and Yellow/Scopas tang). Nitrate up to 1ppm, PO4 down to .05
177e81eff033282814b65fd78523012a.jpg


March 1 - Nitrate continually maintained at 1-2ppm
30a418ed9b65d420ee35e20cc96efb34.jpg


March 24 - still 1-2ppm
deb076eb1097f4fcaa3c05826c03b6d2.jpg


This piece (Myagi Tort) hasn't reacted as well to nitrate dosing in terms of color, but this photo series shows just how quickly and effectively my hair algae was dispatched while actively dosing nutrients. I haven't tested phosphate since Feb 18th.. maybe I should do that!
 
Last edited:
scar79 said:
Replying to my own post and kudos for continuing to update this thread!

Feb 12 - Reactor set up, nitrate undetectable, phosphate 0.10
190daf9aae82b4678c45562f6d0fef25.jpg


Feb 18 - Major progress (with the help of a PB and Yellow/Scopas tang). Nitrate up to 1ppm, PO4 down to .05
177e81eff033282814b65fd78523012a.jpg


March 1 - Nitrate continually maintained at 1-2ppm
30a418ed9b65d420ee35e20cc96efb34.jpg


March 24 - still 1-2ppm
deb076eb1097f4fcaa3c05826c03b6d2.jpg


This piece (Myagi Tort) hasn't reacted as well to nitrate dosing in terms of color, but this photo series shows just how quickly and effectively my hair algae was dispatched while actively dosing nutrients. I haven't tested phosphate since Feb 18th.. maybe I should do that!
Click to expand...

I had the same results when dosing .08 phosphates and .64 ppm nitrate my hair algae vanished. I think algae has more to do with a nutrient imbalance then having excess. I guess when I dosed pohls it threw off my tanks natural balance. I started a 3 day black out today and will start over with the dosing as soon as Sunday rolls around. I did get a few new sps so we'll see how they react to the dosing.
 
I think i may have dinos and id'd it improperly as cyano. The 3 day blackout did nothing and chemiclean also didnt work. I tested my nitrates and phosphates today and got 4 ppm nitrates and 0.00 phosphates. Is it possible that having unbalanced nutrients is causing the dinos? I raised my phosphates to .1 to see if it changes anything.
 
I don't think unbalanced nutrients technically makes sense, but adding nutrients can change the organisms that do well in the environment. Adding a bit of phosphate might help, and it should be easy to try. Food-grade sodium triphosphate is cheap on Amazon.
 
It's worth a shot. Or maybe I just have wait it out. I'm starting peroxide also just at 1 ml per 10 gallons just to cover all my bases.
 
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