I broke down and picked up a salifert nitrate test kit and found out my trates are at 0.2. I have a 125 gal tank feed every other day 3 cubes frozen food. I have a 4 in sailfin tang, a pair of skunk clowns 2 in, 2 chaulk bass 2 in, sunburst anthias 2 1/2 in, a yellow headed sleeper goby3 in, and a manderin about 2 in. What is the sweet spot for trates? How would I up them to it or best way to do it? I runn gfo 1 cup and change every 2 weeks in a modded brs reacter. Ca is 470salifert, kh 9.3 dkh salifert, mg 1380 salifert, sg 1.026 refractometer, phosphate 0.03 hanna pocket checker. I am tring to get better color out of sps. I only get color at the tips. Any help would be great. And I run 3 250 w radiums for 7 hr a day in lumenbright mini's with reefflux cube ballasts(m80). Thanks in advance.
Nitrate?
- Thread starter tinkerman
- Start date
What kind of skimmer are you running? Ideally you would like your nitrates as low as possible, same with phosphates... I would either increase the frequency of your water changes or the volume... Also consider feeding a lesser amount daily instead of so much at one time...
Sisterlimonpot
Premium Member
agreed. I wouldn't sweat that reading. Is there a problem with the colors of your corals?
I am running a sro xp 2000 skimmer. I do 8 gal wc a week. I'm not sweating the reading, I thought I remember reading that you don't want trates to be 0 as they need some to grow and color. The acro's only have color at the tips and base, the middle is brown. Just replaced the radium's last night. Growth isn't the greatest but would be happier with better coloration over growth.
M007
Acro Whore
fishguy597
Member
At what point are nitrates. getting out of hand .5 or higher?
I only ask cause I just switched.from API to salifert . I always measured at less then 5. Now with the salifert. its saying 10. I've been doing 2 20% wc a week and grated are still hanging around 10.
I only ask cause I just switched.from API to salifert . I always measured at less then 5. Now with the salifert. its saying 10. I've been doing 2 20% wc a week and grated are still hanging around 10.
iriejp1
New member
If you are saying .2 as in almost zero...then either you have some other issue or your test kit is wrong.
Now if you are saying that its actually 20ppm...then that is getting up there and I could see that as being a little bit of an issue. You want your NO3 to be around 5-10ppm IMO. Keeping it at zero to me is tricky as you can actually starve your corals. But considering your feeding regiment, I would highly doubt that whats happening here.
Personally I think you may either be misreading the results or the kit is bad. I would take some water to your LFS and have them check it with their kit to be sure.
If you do find that you are actually that close to zero I would say you probably have a pest issue. I personally had brown corals for about a year before I finally just dipped a coral for the heck of it (not expecting to find anything) and figured out I had AEFW. They are that hard to see. Incidentally, once I eradicated the worms my colors were better than ever.
Good luck! :beer:
Now if you are saying that its actually 20ppm...then that is getting up there and I could see that as being a little bit of an issue. You want your NO3 to be around 5-10ppm IMO. Keeping it at zero to me is tricky as you can actually starve your corals. But considering your feeding regiment, I would highly doubt that whats happening here.
Personally I think you may either be misreading the results or the kit is bad. I would take some water to your LFS and have them check it with their kit to be sure.
If you do find that you are actually that close to zero I would say you probably have a pest issue. I personally had brown corals for about a year before I finally just dipped a coral for the heck of it (not expecting to find anything) and figured out I had AEFW. They are that hard to see. Incidentally, once I eradicated the worms my colors were better than ever.
Good luck! :beer:
iriejp1
New member
If you are at 10 and your P04 is .05 or lower you are money. I have seen crazy colors at those thresholds.
(I wouldnt go any higher than 10 though...lol)
fishguy597
Member
My fault stupid phone its at .10 on the low end of the.salifert. scale. I've been having some things die off and trying to figure out what's going on. thx
I have an api kit and it always reads less than 5 I got the salifert kit to find out how much below 5 I am. I just re did the test to make sure it wasn't user error and got same reading of 0.2 or 2 on the low scale if I'm not moving the decimal piont the right way. I have dealt with red bugs in the last yr and have seen great improvments since treating with intercepter. Corals have show'd signs of growth but the tips are the only part that keep color. I would not rule out aefw but don't seen any bite marks on the corals. When I got red bugs everything got dipped in revive, intercepter, flatworm exit at 5x recomended dose, and have tried dipping a few in Bayer pest stuff to see if any flatworms would come off and nothing.
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