Where should I keep Nitrates for the best SPS color?

So a few more pics from today. These are all at 30, 40+ nitrates.


za2Iss.jpg


SSC
kRR44y.jpg


But here is the UC Rainbow Milli. In this case rainbow is purple and brown.
tBpKGa.jpg


I'm guessing that lower nitrates would color some of these lighter, maybe faster, and maybe some simply won't show full colors until nitrate is lower?

Very nice colours. :beer:
 
I'm confused...what is a moler? I'm not a scientist or biologist, can you explain the ratio to make a solution for dosing? In easy terms please :-)...I am highly interested in using this, just want to make sure I do it right! Thx

Mole is a unit, think dozen but 6.02 x 10^23, molar is moles per litter; its a way of measuring concentration. I am tagging along my SPS are looking quite pale and I am running fallow due to velvet, I may try to dose some Nitrates...
 
Shouldn't alkalinity or alkalinity relative to nutrients be considered when looking at the various levels being maintained in different systems? Low alk to high nutrient vs low alk to low nutrient, high alk to low nutrient vs high alk to high nutrient? It seems that nutrient levels and alkalinity influence color, growth and overall coral health.

Maybe the OP could add some type of poll to this thread. Respondents could also post parameters with a pic of what they feel represents the majority of their corals appearance and health. This would still only have value an anecdotal cause and effect, but it's a base to work from.

I feel that this is the area least understood and most influential to how corals grow and how the color. Lighting, though very important, is not only more easily addressed, I think most have that base covered and often has too much emphasis placed on it vs. this subject.
 
Has anyone noticed a change in alk since dosing KNO3? It doesn't make sense that my alk has gone UP by 1.4 dKH over the 5 day dose. No change to my 2 part dosing schedule.
 
I feed frozen, pellets, etc.. have decent bioload, large skimmer but I cannot seem to get my nitrates above 0... I do not dose KNO3. I'm going to start feeding coral food into my system, and as well can't get PO4 above .00... My SPS are growing, but color is, not always as good as it could be, so I'm sure it is the cause of my problems. I am dosing Acropower which has helped a little bit, but trying to figure out without dosing, how do people control Nitrates?
 
I feed frozen, pellets, etc.. have decent bioload, large skimmer but I cannot seem to get my nitrates above 0... I do not dose KNO3. I'm going to start feeding coral food into my system, and as well can't get PO4 above .00... My SPS are growing, but color is, not always as good as it could be, so I'm sure it is the cause of my problems. I am dosing Acropower which has helped a little bit, but trying to figure out without dosing, how do people control Nitrates?

remove all macros from your fuge.
 
remove all macros from your fuge.

I try... the damn fern caulerpa just keeps growing like a weed! Literally, it's a weed. I'd have to dismantle the entire fuge, clean it out, get rock out, sand, etc to get rid of it... I'm going to start feeding my corals actually and see what happens.

I have a couple tufts of cotton candy algae in the display, but my mexicans generally keep it under control, so I know that I have to have some PO4.
 
Where should I keep Nitrates for the best SPS color?

http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/potassium-nitrate.html

There you go. High purity powder KNO3. Good stuff. Clean. And a little goes a long way

One teaspoon mixed with 500 mL RODI will raise nitrate 4-5 ppm in 100 gallons of tank water


Does it matter what the ratio here is or just the amount of KNO3 added per day? I'm at 0.25 nitrates and trying to get around 2-3. Was thinking to add the teaspoon of the pure kno3 (just received 5 jars today lol) into my 5g top off bucket and call it a day.

Edit -- I have about 240g of total volume
 
Does it matter what the ratio here is or just the amount of KNO3 added per day? I'm at 0.25 nitrates and trying to get around 2-3. Was thinking to add the teaspoon of the pure kno3 (just received 5 jars today lol) into my 5g top off bucket and call it a day.

Edit -- I have about 240g of total volume

I wouldn't add a nitrogen source to pure water top off, as it could promote bacterial growth in the top-off water.
 
I wouldn't add a nitrogen source to pure water top off, as it could promote bacterial growth in the top-off water.

Could happen, but if the water is pure and the top off reservoir empties within couple of weeks then bacterial bloom should not be an issue because bacteria growth will be limited by lack of other nutrients.

P.S. Greetings from Rancho Bernardo :)
 
I would just make sure to clean it thoroughly between fills, then you should be fine. I used to dissolve Calcium Nitrate in pure vinegar for the dosing pump, with the acidity of the vinegar it could stay in place without contamination for months. I'll be driving past RB Saturday on my way to AquaSD!😀
 
I am trying some of the Spectracide Stump remover, been adding about 4ml each day to a 90 gal net volume system. Now it may be coincidence, but I am getting better color on some of my corals that had almost none. The two showing the new color are a cali tort and ponape birdsnest. I will keep an eye on them and may even increase the dose some.
 
IME Alk should ne below 8DKH if NO3 is very low. When I had it up around 9.5-10 I had burnt tips. For the past year at 7.5 DKH, no issues. I have started dosing 1g KNO3 every other day to have 1 ppm NO3. So far things looking good.
 
I thought I would share my results in this thread. I began simultaneously feeding pappone and dosing potassium nitrate a few weeks ago. During the first week I saw what I thought to be positive results and better colors. However soon after all of my acropora begin sending out mesenteric filaments constantly and never pulling them back in. Shortly after that they all turned gray and brown. Within one week of this happening I had and alkalinity spike up three dkh in a few days time and that was all she wrote. I haven't changed any other properties of the tank, done any water changes, or change my 2-part dosing or lighting at all. Only changed these two food and dosing items. At this point about 3/4 of my total acropora are completely dead and covered and algae, including all of my oldest and largest colonies.

While I can't pinpoint specifically what went wrong, I can say that I follow standard dosing practices and tested regularly through the entire process and noticed nothing strange on paper with NO3 or PO4. My only possible explanations Are perhaps I had some contaminated shellfish when I made the pappone, or perhaps the purity of my potassium nitrate had been compromised somewhere along the way. Those are just rough guesses.

I figured these would be safe experiments to perform because they are fairly well documented and have yielded great results from dozens of people. My experience wasn't exactly positive, and now I am having to recover from yet another tank crash
 
I also discontinued the calcium nitrate dosing as though it wasn't as bad as yours, things began "not quite looking right". So before something went really, really wrong, i just stopped..
 
so what people are saying on here, to try to summarize to what i read is that while striving to keep nitrates levels down, you want your tank to consume them, not have them low because of the absence of bio-load.
 
I'm getting the same feeling Anthony. It's Almost like nitrates have a shelf life. In my crazy theory, If they are consumed in a relatively short amount of time they are beneficial (within reasonable parameters). After that time, they turn into a more toxic version of nitrate. Kinda like milk that expires in your fridge....

Yes, I realize how stupid I sound but I can't help my thought process.
 
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