who tries to keep some nitrate level?

[codydemmel4]

My coral have seemed to be getting more pale in my new setup, not sure why because I feed more and still can never get my nitrate or phosphates off 0.

I took the GFO offline three days ago and still have 0 phosphates. just order the red sea pro nitrate kit to get a better reading of that.

However, I am thinking of dosing some potassium nitrate to try to get my nitrate to stay between 2-5 so I can get a darker color in my SPS and I have seen/read some great results on it.

 

[Pife]

I think besides colors nutrients strengthen your acros to help them get over any swings or changes. Basically they are stronger and healthier with some nutrients available In the water. I can't remember the specifics of your tank but I would start adding more fish. I probably have 30 some odd fish in my 80 gallon frag tank to keep nutrients up. I feed 6 times a day with the auto feeder and feed frozen once a night. Granted I have a large sump and water volume though.

 

[Geeray]

I target a nitrate level of between 2-5ppm. If I have trouble maintaining that I would add fish and feed more like suggested above.

 

[Hentz]

Don't rush it! Only 3 days off GFO isn't long. Just continue what you're doing or add more fish like Pife was saying.

I read about dosing Nitrates also, seems like a solid idea if your tank is just too damn clean!

Running the ZEOvit method, I've definitely found that just a touch of Nitrates really does the trick with my Acropora. Not only in my current tank, but I noticed the same in my last. While ZEOvit is built to make a system ULNS, my corals just don't look as great when my tank is in true ZEOvit form.

I've actually slowed the reactor flow and keep it on a constant 3 hours on/off which is used for when you've added fresh ZEOlites to keep the parameters from stripping.

 

[codydemmel4]

I think besides colors nutrients strengthen your acros to help them get over any swings or changes. Basically they are stronger and healthier with some nutrients available In the water. I can't remember the specifics of your tank but I would start adding more fish. I probably have 30 some odd fish in my 80 gallon frag tank to keep nutrients up. I feed 6 times a day with the auto feeder and feed frozen once a night. Granted I have a large sump and water volume though.

i dont know what other fish i could add besides a couple wrasses, i will look into that.

I already have 1 purple tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 blue eye kole tang, 1 power blue tang, 1 regal angelfish, 1 emporer angelfish, 6 lyretail anthias, 1 blue chromis, 1 yellow cori wrasse and 1 yellow diamond goby.

I was thinking of adding a couple wrasses that people suggest help keep AEFW out of the system, well keep them low in your tank to not have a seeable impact (if the devil ever did hit me)

But yeah I am going to possibly look into adding a couple more wrasse

 

[codydemmel4]

Don't rush it! Only 3 days off GFO isn't long. Just continue what you're doing or add more fish like Pife was saying.

I read about dosing Nitrates also, seems like a solid idea if your tank is just too damn clean!

Running the ZEOvit method, I've definitely found that just a touch of Nitrates really does the trick with my Acropora. Not only in my current tank, but I noticed the same in my last. While ZEOvit is built to make a system ULNS, my corals just don't look as great when my tank is in true ZEOvit form.

I've actually slowed the reactor flow and keep it on a constant 3 hours on/off which is used for when you've added fresh ZEOlites to keep the parameters from stripping.

Yup right now my tank is is having the pale colors that a lot have said with the ULNS which is why i am going to add some pottassium nitrate if nitrates still dont show by next week. only cost $6 to get the stump remover everyone uses so honestly nothing to lose as long as I take a good course of action and add it slowly.

 

[Scorpius]

I've been recently running gfo again to deal with some weird turf/end of the world algae. My nitrates are alway 0 or near zero and I have my phosphates near .01-.009 ppm. Some of my Acropora are lighter in color so I stopped running gfo in my reactor and only run it in a media bag in the sump. I still get phosphate reduction, but not as efficiently as run in a reactor.

I would also look into lowering the intensity of your lighting every so slightly if you are running low on nutrients. Bright light and low nutrients don't go well together.

 

[eder10986]

Yup right now my tank is is having the pale colors that a lot have said with the ULNS which is why i am going to add some pottassium nitrate if nitrates still dont show by next week. only cost $6 to get the stump remover everyone uses so honestly nothing to lose as long as I take a good course of action and add it slowly.

I'm curious about this stump remover. Can anyone elaborate. Looking to raise my nitrates a tad as well.


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[jda]

I like less than .5 N and .01 P. Some, but not too much.

You need a hannah ultra low to measure either - they are both clear on Salifert.

 

[Jettareefer]

I run 5-10 ppm nitrate in my cube but my 58 gallon used to sit at 25ppm (corals were better). I'm currently having trouble raising my Po4 above zero my corals are lacking the rich colors I got with .10-.25 (Hanna po4 tester) on the 58 gallon. I feed my fish all the time, dose amino acids and zooplankton. It's difficult to get the nutrients just right but once you do it's fairly easy to maintain. I'm in the waiting game to.

 

[Dealseer]

I thought it was generally accepted that everyone needs to maintain some nitrate level

 

[Reefer40b]

I would say just a little nitrate is good, dont test with an API kit though to me its useless, just don't trust it.

I dose 1ppm per week of Kno3 I notice more chaeto growth and coral growth and color just from that little bit. without it my chaeto turns white dies. My phosphate are always really low too checked with a ULR hanna.

 

[kevlow]

I try to keep nitrate at 5-10. My absolute best colors I have had have been up at 20-25. That was with dosing nitrate. When I have done this I pushed my phosphate down a little too far, too fast.

Dosing nitrate has also caused a growth spurt and dropped the alk. I am glad I was testing to catch that. For me the sudden alk drop was worse then an alk spike.

Trying to maintain a stable 5-10 nitrate has proved a little difficult. Just feeding more tends to raise the phos as well [ so I added more snails]. Just adding more fish would be the best solution but my current fish have decided that one one else is allowed in the tank.