Nitrate Reduction 101 with sugar!!!
- Thread starter fishykid9212
- Start date
nelsonkearstin
New member
Can't disagree with that. my questions now is, bare with me,
So we put sugar in tank (same sugar we eat) what makes it become a bacteria? Is this bact living? Allowing it to consume nitrate...?
CStrickland
New member
Adding sugar is a form of carbon dosing. There's more info to be found on adding vodka, vinegar, NoPox, and bioballs because they are more common ways to carbon dose so they get written about more. Each has its own quirks but for getting your head around the basic biology you can google them.
nelsonkearstin
New member
My skim was same color too. Just filth I guess. Algae will dwindle in a couple weeks with wc. If it's GHA get some turbo snails
SantaMonica
Well-known member
The sugar has carbon, which is what the living bacteria are needing. So, the bacteria grow, and then they eat other things like nitrate. It's like if your goal was to reduce the gas in your car, but you did not have a driver's license. Once you got you license, you could start consuming the gas
There is no real reason why the food particles removed by the skimmer should be a different color. They are still food particles.
Point a powerhead near it.
This might help:
Phosphate flow out of rocks
Many people, when they get their nutrients low for the first time, get worried when more (not less) algae starts to grow on their rocks. It seems really strange, especially when nitrate and phosphate have gone lower than before. What is happening is that phosphate is coming out of the rocks. Remember, phosphate is invisible, so you can only see the effects of it, and it always "flows" from higher concentrations to lower concentrations (just like heat does).
Example: If your room is warm, and you put a cold object on the floor, heat from the air in the room will "flow" into the object until the object and the air are the same temperature. Example 2: If you put a hot object on the floor, heat will "flow" out of the object and go into the air in the room, again, until the air and the object are the same temperature. Now suppose you open your windows (in the winter). The warm air in your room will go out the windows, and it will get colder in the room. The object on the floor is now warmer than the air, so heat will flow out of the object and into the air, and then out the window.
Think of phosphate as the heat, and your rocks as the object, and your windows as the scrubber. As the scrubber pulls phosphate out of the water, the phosphate level in the water drops. Now, since the phosphate level in the water is lower than the phosphate level in the rocks, phosphate flows from the rocks into the water, and then from the water into the scrubber. This continues until the phosphate levels in the rocks and water are level again. And remember, you can't see this invisible flow.
This flow causes an interesting thing to happen. As the phosphate comes out of the rocks, it then becomes available to feed algae as soon as the phosphate reaches the surface of the rocks where there is light. So, since the surface of the rocks is rough and has light, it starts growing MORE algae there (not less) as the phosphate comes out of the rocks. This is a pretty amazing thing to see for the first time, because if you did not know what was happening you would probably think that the algae was mysteriously being added to your tank. Here are the signs of phosphate coming out of the rocks:
1. The rocks are older, and have slowly developed algae problems in the past year.
2. Your filters have recently started to work well, or you made them stronger.
3. Nitrate and phosphate measurements in the water are low, usually the lowest they have been in a long time.
4. Green hair algae (not brown) on the rocks has increased in certain spots, usually on corners and protrusions at the top.
5. The glass has not needed cleaning as much.
Many people have never seen the effects of large amounts of phosphate coming out of the rocks quickly. But sure enough it does if you keep nutrients low enough in the water. How long does it continue? For 2 months to a year, depending on how much phosphate is in the rocks, how much feeding you do, and how strong your filters are. But one day you will see patches of white rock that were covered in green hair the day before; this is a sure sign that the algae are losing their phosphate supply from the rocks and can no longer hold on. Now it's just a matter of days before the rocks are clear.
Sugar dosing
Sugar dosing
I have a 55 gallon tank with 1 coral and 2 bubble tip anemones in it and some snails and crabs and a lobster and my nitrates are at 50 and I got some fish that gotta come out of my quaritine tank but I want to get the nitrates down and I want to try the sugar dosing regimen but I don't know how much to dose but after reading a bunch of stuff on sugar dosing I think I gotta do 1/8 of a teaspoon every 2 days cause of the coral and I got a coralife super skimmer 65 but no sump so can I put the sugar right in my tank and how much should I put in and how often
Sugar dosing
I have a 55 gallon tank with 1 coral and 2 bubble tip anemones in it and some snails and crabs and a lobster and my nitrates are at 50 and I got some fish that gotta come out of my quaritine tank but I want to get the nitrates down and I want to try the sugar dosing regimen but I don't know how much to dose but after reading a bunch of stuff on sugar dosing I think I gotta do 1/8 of a teaspoon every 2 days cause of the coral and I got a coralife super skimmer 65 but no sump so can I put the sugar right in my tank and how much should I put in and how often
Dkuhlmann
New member
I dosed 1/8 teaspoon every other day for about 10 days, I had a total water volume of around 40ish gals. Yes I put the sugar right into the main tank in a high flow area and just sprinkled it around.My nitrates were in the 80's and after the dosing I was less than 10
CStrickland
New member
I think that people who come across this thread should keep in mind that it was started almost 10 years ago when we were just starting to figure out carbon dosing. Since then we have learned a lot, and most are using different forms of carbon these days like vodka, vinegar, biopellets, or commercial blends like nopox.
These forms of carbon are easier to measure, and have fewer side effects than sugar. It seems like some folks are reading this thread and cranking table sugar into their tanks without understanding what they are doing because sugar seems harmless, that's a good way to get in trouble IMHO
These forms of carbon are easier to measure, and have fewer side effects than sugar. It seems like some folks are reading this thread and cranking table sugar into their tanks without understanding what they are doing because sugar seems harmless, that's a good way to get in trouble IMHO
Dkuhlmann
New member
Well I found an article on it that was a clinical report and I dosed as I stated with no side effects at all. People can read the information that is out there and decide if they wish to do something or not.
I think you said it with easier to measure is liquids so many choose to use vinegar or vodka instead of sugar. Hey it worked for me.
I think you said it with easier to measure is liquids so many choose to use vinegar or vodka instead of sugar. Hey it worked for me.
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