Nitrate Question

[9501gle]

What is the optimal nitrate range for great sps tanks. Mine is at 3ppm right now with red sea pro test. Po4 is 0 with hanna checker. Tank is 1 month old.

 

[downbeach]

Patience, I'd give your tank more time to mature and stabilize.

 

[Nanook]

Nitrate of 0-5 is acceptable, IME.

 

[Paul B]

My nitrates are about 35 and the SPS and LPS have been growing for years. No problem
with nitrates at 3.

 

[Nanook]

Paul, I thought you always ran 0-5 nitrate? There was a nitrate thread a while back that you started and I was impressed that your tank always ran 0-5 and it was so old.

 

[Allmost]

alot of yellow and white spots on the Stag paul. perhaps they are just showing that way from the light ?

I like to keep my nutritions low, so have no3 and po4 of undetectable.

 

[CHSUB]

mine are a 2 ppm right now, and i have noticed less PE and "browning" of several arcos including a caroliniana and a gemmifera. i'm trying to lower no3 to .2 were it was previously when color and PE was much better!!!

 

[9501gle]

What methods are u using to lower nitrates?

 

[Paul B]

Paul, I thought you always ran 0-5 nitrate?

My nitrates were about 5 for decades, then I went to Germany for a trip and left someone in charge of the tank. The water level went down 7" and all of the corals above the water, croaked. From then on, the nitrates have been very high. They were over 40 for a month or so and now are about 25. I want them at about 15 and no lower.
For some reason, the corals are crowing faster now then they have ever been even when I kept them at 5.

alot of yellow and white spots on the Stag paul

There are no yellow and white spots on that stag, that is the light. That stag is one of the corals that was mostly above the water line after my trip and 90% of it died.
The small frag I had left from it from February is now more than half as large as the original piece and in 6 months it should be larger then the original colony.
I have some monti's that also went from a piece as large as a dime to about
5" across in a few months. The LPS such as frogspawn also have grown considerable as did a giant mushroom that trippled in size.
I am not saying to let nitrates get crazy and this is an experiment but so far it is surprising me. That is why I don't want the nitrates in "my" tank to get to low until I figure out why this is happening.

What methods are u using to lower nitrates?

I have an algae trough but there is very little algae in it now for some reason, I also built a de-nitrification chamber which is also an experiment.
Everything I do is an experiment and my tank is not just here to see if I can keep things alive. That is easy, the hard part is figuring out why they are living when the conditions, through popular opinion dictate, that they should not.

This montipora in the center was a sliver of a piece when I got it about 6 months ago. The hammar coral below it is not fully expanded in this picture because the lights just came on but that hammar keeps growing and killing the monti which keeps growing up the rock. A piece of it about 4" wide is dead under it from making contact with the hammar. I can't move it because it is growing on a rock but it can take care of itself and keeps growing away from the coral that keeps overtaking it, just like in the sea.
You can see also the 2" frag of acropora that was saved is now on the left of the picture and is about 6" across.
The two bubble corals in the picture I got for free when a large LFS around the corner went out of business. They only had a tiny bit of tissue left and I took them just for rock, but they are re-growing. I doubt they will ever get back to their original size, but for free, why cares?

This is that hammar (on the right of the large picture) a couple of years ago.
It is now about 10" across

 

[REEF SMAC]

Anything below 10 seems to be fine IME as far as NO3.

Its PO4 that seems to be more of an issue.