Ideas on getting nitrates up

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Ryanerickson

This is interesting as I have the exact issue zero nitrate and phosphate always .03-.07 by the way Hanna is your best bet for nitrate test kit screw the color matching game.

Hanna doesn't make a checker or photometer that is seawater compatible. The instruments can't "see" through the high TDS of seawater.

[warriorcookie]

Originally Posted by Ryanerickson

Are you running rowa or something to absorb phosphate? or at this point just relying on the nitrate to help keep phosphate low .

I was previously running HCGFO, but have shut it off. The idea is to find a balance where the bacteria keep both nitrate and phosphate low. I hope to only have to dose carbon. I expect I will occasionally have to dose NaNO3 from time to time, but I'd like the tank's chemistry to keep everything in balance on its own.

Originally Posted by Myka

Hanna doesn't make a checker or photometer that is seawater compatible. The instruments can't "see" through the high TDS of seawater.

So, I couldn't find the info, but is the Hanna HI96728 freshwater only?

[Myka]

Originally Posted by warriorcookie

So, I couldn't find the info, but is the Hanna HI96728 freshwater only?

Yes, freshwater only. I'd have bought one long ago otherwise. That's why none of the reef stores carry it. With Hanna gadgets you can usually assume it's freshwater only unless it specifically says marine compatible.

[Ryanerickson]

Wow I assumed my buddies were using a Hanna guess not I've never invested much into nitrate because mine has always been non existent. I'm very interested in how this works in the long run sounds a lot cheaper then constantly buying rowa. I'm actually using phosphate minus by aquaforest right now and it's pretty week product vs rowa.

[warriorcookie]

So far so good.

I haven't dosed NO3 since tues. My Nitrates did rise as high as 4.0, but I think that was due to overfeeding as well as dosing.

Right now:
NO3: 2.5ppm
PO4: .042ppm

PO4 has been stable around .04-.05ppm. Hopefully by end of the week NO3 will be down to around 1ppm.


This has been interesting. I def won't be dosing NO3 on a regular basis. I'll have it ready though if NO3 and PO4 get out of balance again.

If my PO4 stays where it is, I'm thinking I can start using my GFO reactor for carbon instead....

[Myka]

Lookin good!

[warriorcookie]

Was away all week, came home to a kamikaze stylo had swan dived into a large sinulara. Most of the sinulara was black and falling apart.

Despite this, this were pretty good.

NO3: 0.2ppm
PO4: .037ppm

I had my wife dose 1ppm NO3 of the solution while i was gone and just dosed another 1ppm now.

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[Myka]

How are the corals looking? Any darkening of the sticks yet?

[warriorcookie]

Originally Posted by Myka

How are the corals looking? Any darkening of the sticks yet?

They had gone from white several weeks ago (beginning of thread), to weird random colors, to brown, and now seeing the pinks and blues coming back. Green came back the fastest. Wish I had tried this before the mini-crash. Would have had much better results by now since everything is coming back from near death experiences. Well.... the lucky ones are anyway.

[Myka]

Aw...