Ideas on getting nitrates up
 

Just about crashed my tank a few weeks ago. Right as someone warned me about my nutrients being too low I had a massive RTN event. Bleached LPS too. More to it than that, I had just changed back to Halides, my Alk channel pooped out a couple weeks prior. The usual one thing after another. Oh ya, skimmer died the week after.

So, things are on the mend now and I'm trying to get my Nitrates and Phosphates back up. They have been undetectable for the last year or so, and things have been slow growing and not great colors.
-I've been feeding small amounts several times a day (Was feeding roughly half cube/day. Now I'm putting in 2-3/day.)
-Pulled my filter socks.
-Stopped using Prodibio (I've since started the BioDigest again but am still holding off on Bioptim)

Problem is my nitrates are slowly rising, but phosphates rise very quickly. I have to run gfo with very low flow to keep on top of it.

Is this a bacteria imbalance that will eventually find equilibrium?

My routine is 15% water changes every 2 weeks. Vacum the sand and blow off the rocks with a MJ everytime. Using H20cean salt. About to switch to Aqua forest.

This also encouraged me to find a better way of tracking my parameters than a pencil and paper:

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/...psktj9bguh.jpg
http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/...psxr0y3w9p.jpg

As you can see, I'm having a difficult time balancing the flow through my gfo to stay on top of the phosphates. Also, after the RTN I should have shut off the doser so ALK/CA got a little out of control.

Have you thought about using a product like Foz down for phoshate control works awesome and predictable and you can dose it by mixing it in Ro water, after its all set up and running you can just adjust the dose and your P04 will follow . Its More predictable, easier and WAYYY cheaper then GFO, once you switch you never go back.

The PO4 readings look ok to me. I'm happy anywhere between 0.01 - 0.1 ppm, preferably around 0.06 ppm. Most tanks need to use a little bit of GFO or some other phosphate reducer. The NO3 is definitely low, but not undetectable. Set skimmer to dry skim so it doesn't pull so much out.

What's your fish list? Maybe you just need more fish poop. Also, that alkalinity line graph gives me heart palpitations... :eek:

I've thought lots about it. I really don't like the idea of the precipitate hiding everywhere and building up over time... But I might give it a try.


Yeah... The nitrate test has always been absolutely clear. All this feeding feels so weird, but now the numbers are slowly increasing and showing on the tests. When I shut off GFO, the PO4 shoots skyhigh.

For fish I have the following:
2 Ocellaris
1 Hippo tang (4-5")
1 Yellow Tang
1 Royal Gramma
1 Firefish
2 Lyretail Anthias
1 Bengai Cardinal
1 Yellowtail Wrasse
1 Harlequin Tusk (Juvenile)

And the usual BTA, Clam, pepermint shrimp, astrea snails, cerith snails, nassarius snails.

If more fish is the solution, what about dosing Nitrate until we add a couple more fish. Potassium Nitrate? Calcium Nitrate? I've heard carbon dosing with nitrate dosing can potentially reduce phosphates.


My Alk/CA has been driving me crazy. It's always been so stable, but after this event I should have shut off my doser then ramped it up slowly. I'll be testing Alk and PO4 every second day until things settle down.

Grrr... I forgot to check the spelling now I can't edit... Banggai cardinal!

Sounds like Sodium Nitrate might be the way to go.

I've read several reefers that use it to balance Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphates.

I have a whack of it if you want some.

Sodium Nitrate? Yeah that would be great.

I'll send ya a text later.

Ok, thanks to Mindy I have Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3)

She has a post kicking around on the mixing instructions, with some assistance from RHF.

So, I mixed 30g NaNO3 with 500mL of RODI water.

10mL adds 440mg NO3 (based on molecular weight, NaNO3 is 73% nitrate by weight)

My combined volume is roughly 511L (135gal)
440mg/511L = .86mg/L (ppm)

.86ppm/10mL = .086ppm/mL
1ppm/.086ppm/mL = 11.62mL

So, in theory, I need 11.62mL solution to raise nitrate by 1ppm.


This should be interesting.

Wow math....

Having bit of phosphates is not a bad thing especially when you mentioned that your corals were pale, I guess if you have algae in your system that wouldn't help. I have almost the same fish load as you and feed the crap out of my tank, corals have definately darkened up abit lately but I'd rather have healthy corals than pale ones. I guess the prodibio method was working a little too efficient for you. I am currently waiting for the brightwells brick to see if that makes a difference.

Did you get your skimmer fixed yet?

I know by experience that ripping out phosphates too fast can have really bad effects on your tank, I am starting to dose reef bio fuel which is suppose to decrease nitrates and phosphates, just started today so cant really see if it works yet or not.

Keep us posted and hopefully your corals will bounce back soon!