Nitrate Reduction 101 with sugar!!!

[Sparkss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11570616#post11570616 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zoom
Sparkss can you give me any feedback on sugar dosing you been using this for six months now..
You think sugar dosing will take care some of the bad Algae i get in my tank .
Like Dinos , Green Hair algae, Cyno.

Sugar dosing will help take care of the excess nutrients... that may take care of the nuisance algae. The 3 days w/o lights suggested by thriceanangel is not a bad idea either (there is a thread on the subject almost as long as the sugar/vodka dosing thread, maybe longer now ).

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1078532

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11573914#post11573914 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Leopard Man
Cheers sparks.

I'm currently dosing vodka and sugar and my bta doesn't mind it at all.

Cheers back at ya . Our tank water is never so clear as the day after we dose the sugar. We have throttled back to dosing a couple of times a week, so avoid stripping too much nutrients out of the water (we like a little color in our corals w/o having to add a bunch of supplements back into our tank).

 

[Leopard Man]

Sparks,

I misid my anemone. Its actually a h magnifica I think. It doesn't mind sugar at all.

Here is a pic:

 

[fishfanatic06]

does the sugar lower phophates too?

 

[useskaforevil]

alright, after reading this thread and a fair amount of other threads i decided to give this a shot before i build my own sulfur denitrator. my nitrates are testing at around 140-170ppm but all my corals are doing great, except for a birds nest frag i just got pretty much died in about 2 days, the sps that was already in my tankis doing fine but this pretty much convinced me to do something. i just dosed a half teaspoon (for a 100 gallon system) tonight and i'll let you know how things go

 

[vito is hooked]

IM GOING IN!! Battling Nitrates for some time now. I should change my occupation to laborer in a nitrate factory! OK, now, got a 125 gal, should I start dosing at 1/2 teaspoon every other day? Trates are between 10, 20 useing API test kit

 

[PastorKDS]

I just built a tube/fuge (talking reef episode 88) but as it will take a bit to start up, I'm going to dose with sugar tonight. My nitrates are at least 160 as that is as high as my test goes

 

[murraycamp]

I'm in. Dosed 1/4 teaspoon on my 40 monti dom. tank. Will post updates as they occur.

Peace.

 

[useskaforevil]

its starting to work in my tank, i've been adding 1/4 teaspoon every other day for 2 weeks and the test kit still is really high, but it doesent turn bright red quite as fast, haha i may step up my dosage if i don't notice any imporvment in a week

 

[jennmac415]

GO SLOW

 

[useskaforevil]

define slow

 

[miwoodar]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11995370#post11995370 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jennmac415
GO SLOW

+1. Go slow. If you think your nitrates are already going down, you're already dosing enough to be effective. Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. Don't get overly excited and bomb the tank with extra sugar. Many people have crashed their tanks by dosing too much, too quick.

 

[jennmac415]

Mike... thanks for the help explaining.

 

[useskaforevil]

oh yea definatly, i just said if they don't go down any further after a week i will start dosing higher

 

[miwoodar]

Are you taking pictures as you go?

 

[murraycamp]

update

update

30 monti tank:

3/2 (6:00 pm) - NO3 = 3 ppm, dosed 1/4 teaspoon

3/3 (6:00 am) - NO3 = 1 ppm
(6:00 pm) - NO3 = .5 ppm


55 sps tank:

3/3 (6:00 am) - NO3 = 20 ppm - dosed 1/4 teaspoon
(6:00 pm) - NO3 = 9 ppm

NO3 tests - Salifert (brand new - expiration date 10/2009)

Phosphates have tested 0 on both tanks (Salifert) , although AWT tested 0.13 on the 30 on 2/29.

No noticeable problems with inhabitants. No bloom. Alk dropped about 1 dkh more than usual during time period.

Will update in 48 hours.

 

[miwoodar]

A word of caution...think of this analogy....

Imagine a train as it pulls into the station. What happens if you hit the brakes too late - a bad accident. It could take a long time to slow/stop a bacterial process when you have unused carbon in the queue. You won't be able to just turn off the lights or throttle back a valve. I've seen recommendations from people I trust that have urged to keep reductions to 10ppm/month. How aggressive versus conservative is this? I don't really know but it seems reasonable to believe that if you're driving a slower moving train you'll have a larger window to hit the brakes.

If you're getting that low it might be time to downshift to a 'maintenance' level of carbon dosing that is just enough to keep your nitrates and phosphates where they are rather than drop them even further. You can tweak it over time. You don't need to determine your final dosing levels here and now.

Of course, this is my humble opinion. Please keep us posted on your results! I'm sure it feels great to see your progress on your kits!

 

[murraycamp]

Mike:

Good points and exactly what I was thinking. I plan to reduce the dosage by half, with next dose tomorrow (24 hours) and then test, with possible reduction in dose and dosing interval from there.

 

[murraycamp]

sorry - 48 hours between 1st and 2nd dose.

 

[miwoodar]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12002427#post12002427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by murraycamp
Mike:

Good points and exactly what I was thinking. I plan to reduce the dosage by half, with next dose tomorrow (24 hours) and then test, with possible reduction in dose and dosing interval from there.

Happy reefing! I hope you get the results you are looking for.

 

[thriceanangel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12002153#post12002153 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by miwoodar
A word of caution...think of this analogy....

Imagine a train as it pulls into the station. What happens if you hit the brakes too late - a bad accident. It could take a long time to slow/stop a bacterial process when you have unused carbon in the queue. You won't be able to just turn off the lights or throttle back a valve. I've seen recommendations from people I trust that have urged to keep reductions to 10ppm/month. How aggressive versus conservative is this? I don't really know but it seems reasonable to believe that if you're driving a slower moving train you'll have a larger window to hit the brakes.

If you're getting that low it might be time to downshift to a 'maintenance' level of carbon dosing that is just enough to keep your nitrates and phosphates where they are rather than drop them even further. You can tweak it over time. You don't need to determine your final dosing levels here and now.

Of course, this is my humble opinion. Please keep us posted on your results! I'm sure it feels great to see your progress on your kits!

Almost... The bacterial cycle will slow down slowly like you say to a point, but if nitrogen is in effect limiting, then the bacterial metabolism will effectively stop on a dime... Problem is that for this to occur, there will be effectively NO nitrogen in the tank in any form, which may be OK for a short time (like hours) but is no good and will cause a bleaching event long term. Then the problem becomes something else. Masses of dead bacteria that won't have enough bacteria to metabolize them causing essentially a mini cycle. This will deplete your oxygen, and is the real risk to C dosing. But with a decent bioload and going slowly in ALL directions, both dosing and cutting back, then you're going to be OK, even if you do OD as I did when I first tried it...