Where should I keep Nitrates for the best SPS color?

[markalot]

Good stuff, thanks for the links. :beer:

I know some folks are using Seachem Nitrogen which "Provides nitrogen in both the nitrate form and the ammonium form." and "Derived from: potassium nitrate, urea (iminium salt)"

Too expensive for my taste but perhaps an interesting way to add more varied forms of nitrogen?

I see color increases in most corals, including acros, soon after dosing small amounts of CaNO3. If I dose too much I do see some browning but in either case my nitrate test (Salifert) has been coming back at near 0.

I think it was mentioned earlier in this thread that the important aspect of Nitrogen or Nitrate is that you have enough, not that you have a positive reading. So it's possible someone with a 0 reading has great color because they have just enough while someone else who also read 0 is struggling with color because in fact they don't have enough. Both read 0, both with very different results. :spin3: Having a positive Nitrate reading certainly means you have enough, and again for some tanks this equals amazing colors while for others it means browning.

 

[hbrochs]

Zero might not equal zero

Zero might not equal zero

In my old 200G my NO3 was 30 ppm and all my SPS was brown.

After some changes my NO3 was 0 ppm and all my corals became very colourful

So...each tank has your own mood

Best Regards

Hard corals consume nutrients. So a beautiful tank like Denadai has a huge nutrient sink in his mass of corals. His reading of zero nitrates may be different than another tank that reads zero with less coral and less nutrient. I have noticed that as my tanks corals have grown, that its been easier to keep nutrient levels manageable. I wonder if Denadai's tank doesnt have a good bit of nitrogen that just gets consumed by all his corals, so that nutrients are going in and out quickly. I've been slowly letting my nitrate rise(NO3 5-10), and I feel like my hard corals have been doing better.

Does that make any sense?

Howard

 

[Bpb]

I'm wondering why having low nitrates don't give people a license to feed the fish more? I know at some point that won't do the trick but feeding 2-3x the amount (you know they'll eat it) and several more times a day to keep the fish fatter and happier seems like a good plan of your tank has become a NO3 and PO4 sink


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[joshky]

I'm wondering why having low nitrates don't give people a license to feed the fish more? I know at some point that won't do the trick but feeding 2-3x the amount (you know they'll eat it) and several more times a day to keep the fish fatter and happier seems like a good plan of your tank has become a NO3 and PO4 sink


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It does to an extent, I believe the issue with fixing your NO3 by feeding is that it raises your PO4 as well. Dosing NO3 keeps your PO4 in check because in most cases NO3 is a limiting factor.

 

[Trevor40]

Is anyone still adding nitrated to their systems. Any updates from those who have been dosing nitrates since this thread began?

 

[markalot]

I do from time to time and get a positive response each time. Using CaNO3 because it was on sale at Amazon. I get the best color when Nitrates are 1 to 3 and if my colors go pale I know the Salifert test will be clear instead of a slight pink tint.

 

[SPS911]

Deeper darker colors, I struggled for years to keep certain corals from being pale and dull when I didn't do water changes weekly. I also had a lot of problems with mesenterial filaments and stress reactions during feeding. Things would get especially bad when I went on vacation and the fish weren't fed as much or as regularly as I fed them. Dosing a nitrogen source seemed to have solved this.

However, recently I've been having similar issues with keeping my PO4 levels detectable and having similar reactions from corals. Whether or not this relates to my dosing nitrates is yet to be determined, but I feel pretty strongly there is a link.

Great thread! After 15 years of SPS keeping, and recently having the exact experience as Peter above, I started dosing stump remover. Before dosing, not matter how much I fed my nitrates were 0 and PO4 was .03. My corals were pale, very little PE during the day, and many were RTNing.

I've only been dosing for a week now but was astonished how quickly some of the SPS responded positively in growth and color, to raising the nitrates to 2.5. The colors have deepened, RTN has ceased, and PE has increased a bit.

I haven't tested PO4 since dosing nitrate, but after reading the comments above, how are people who nitrate dose, increasing PO4? Feeding heavy flake food would be easiest for me. Teach me!

 

[markalot]

Lots of Flake food and Reef Roids means I'm never short of PO4.

 

[SPS911]

I do from time to time and get a positive response each time. Using CaNO3 because it was on sale at Amazon. I get the best color when Nitrates are 1 to 3 and if my colors go pale I know the Salifert test will be clear instead of a slight pink tint.

Ok easy enough, I'll load up my eheim autofeeder with both

 

[markalot]

Ok easy enough, I'll load up my eheim autofeeder with both

Be careful and dose in the sump so it dissolves. Too much at once will shock the tank and possibly do great harm. Make sure you know how much you are dosing based on tank volume and if your not sure dose a very small amount and slowly work your way up until you see nitrates a few hours after dosing.

 

[domik]

By the way, guys. If you are dosing CaNO3, how you calculate the dosing amount?

 

[Flippers4pups]

i don't know of a calculator for calcium nitrate. Anyone?

 

[markalot]

Sorry, never answered the question.

I don't. I started with 1/4 teaspoon in the sump and measured nitrates two hours later. Ended up that 1/2 tsp was about right for a single does in my 150 gallons.

Start out slowly and see what happens. In my 40 gallon I dumped 1/2 tsp in to see what happened and everything looked better the next day except the acros ... so I removed the acros. Obviously with sensitive corals you need to go slowly with any change.

 

[Sand Dollar]

i don't know of a calculator for calcium nitrate. Anyone?

I just started dosing calcium nitrate today, as my skimmer seems to be way too efficient and the denitrification of the sand bed is keeping the tank at undetectable NO3 levels.

I made up a soln of Ca(NO3)2 by dissolving 50g into a 100ml volumetric flask in DI water. This will yield a NO3 concentration of 377850 ppm(mg/L) and a Ca concentration of 122720 ppm.

My tank volume is 135g or 511L. If I add 3mL of the above soln it will raise my NO3 level by 2.2 ppm.

m1v1=m2v2 or (377850ppm NO3)(0.003L)=X(511L), X=2.2 ppm

for Ca...(122720ppm Ca)(0.003L)=X(511L), X=0.7 ppm

Hope this helps. Just fyi, since my tank is mostly sps, I am very cautiously starting with only 1 drop of the above soln per day and monitoring NO3 levels and hoping for deeper coloration.

 

[jdamon]

Is there a consensus on best time of day to be dosing nitrate? I am also curious as to how long a few hours is for the follow up testing... I waited 2.5 hours after dosing and still got a zero result after adding 1/2tsp CaNO3 to ~140gal. My test kit is expired, so I am not confident in the results, but would still like to know how long everybody waits after dosing to test. I did order a new tester of course . Thanks!

 

[markalot]

Is there a consensus on best time of day to be dosing nitrate? I am also curious as to how long a few hours is for the follow up testing... I waited 2.5 hours after dosing and still got a zero result after adding 1/2tsp CaNO3 to ~140gal. My test kit is expired, so I am not confident in the results, but would still like to know how long everybody waits after dosing to test. I did order a new tester of course . Thanks!

If you dumped the pellets in you might want to wait a few hours, or it could very well be it wasn't enough of a dose to register.

I usually tested the next day and if the reading was still 0 I would dose the same amount again and test the next day. If after a few days there was still no reading I upped the dose a bit. Even with 140 gallons just a little dosing makes a big difference, even if you can't detect it with a hobby kit. IMO.

 

[jdamon]

Thanks Mark! What about time of day? Did you always dose at the same time?

 

[Pife]

Is there a consensus on best time of day to be dosing nitrate? I am also curious as to how long a few hours is for the follow up testing... I waited 2.5 hours after dosing and still got a zero result after adding 1/2tsp CaNO3 to ~140gal. My test kit is expired, so I am not confident in the results, but would still like to know how long everybody waits after dosing to test. I did order a new tester of course . Thanks!

Test several times then? It takes a couple minutes. Maybe it didn't raise your trates. I tested every couple (2) hours one Saturday to try and see when they peeked.

 

[markalot]

Thanks Mark! What about time of day? Did you always dose at the same time?

I don't think it matters. I usually dose in the evening and test the next day. I would get a new test kit before trying again though, expired test kit might be missing the actual value.

 

[Sand Dollar]

Wow! I was being way too overly cautious with my dosage regime to raise the nitrates. It's still hard to get my head around adding nitrates to the system. My old tank I ran as a ULNS and it was fine. For what ever reason some of the corals are very pale...especially the Paletta pink tip.