Reducing Nitrate Using Carbon Source???

[whatcaneyedo]

This is a good article on it from a few years back http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/ I tried it myself around that time. It was foolish of me to do so however as I didn't have detectable nitrate in the first place. So I immediately pushed it too low and had several coral bleach. When I stopped they recovered and I haven't tried again since.

[crimper]

Here is my 2 cents...

Zero nitrates and Zero Phosphates is not good for corals.

The reason why reefers are doing this is they want dosing control on the nutrient levels to attain those pastel (I call it pale) coral coloration. Meaning after stripping their tank, they need to dose those nutrients back on the level that they want them in. You're always chasing numbers.

I almost got a tank crash last Spring break as I went away for a week. My reef suffered a bacterial bloom that stripped my tanks NO3 and my PO4 levels for several days due to carbon source overdosed. When I came back most of my colonies have STN at the bottom.

Running ULNS requires lots of time, testing, tweaking and gazillion patience.... this means $$$$$. I tried running my reef on ULNS and I won't do it again. It feels that I am on the knife edge all the time. The margin of error is very slim. I realized that it is not for me as I can't be away for several days.

I must admit my corals have the best coloration running on ULNS. But I realized this is not for me. If you are after coral growth, that's a different story, most experienced reefers that I know run their nitrate higher than 2ppm to achieve good growth.

[Frogger]

Like being said above Zero nitrates are not good. Managing your nitrates in relation to your phosphates is the best option. The ideal Nitrogen to Phosphorus ratio is 16 to 1.

This means if you want a Phosphate of less then .02ppm (.004ppm Phosphorus) you will need a nitrogen level of around .06ppm or .3ppm nitrate.

Zeros across the board do not result in colourful corals. You colours will be washed out. Check my recent post on my 73 gallon tank.

The top growers of corals for resale are maintain their nitrates in the neighbourhood of 5ppm or higher. Check on the web in regards to companies like Battle Corals or aquariumcreationsonline.net.

Please read the following article: [url="http://wateralchemy.blogspot.ca/2012/03/nutrient-reduction-using-organic-carbon.html?m=1"]

[Reefadiction]

Thanks for all the great infomation and inputs guys. So I guess to achieve Zero Nitrate and Phosphate is more for the reefer's satisfaction than for the reef itself and it sounds way to complicated for my little brain. Like i said on my post...my sps are growing like weed and my Phosphate and Nitrate are never zero. Well, I will keep going with my K.I.S.S theory and won't fix it if it's not broken. Sometimes I just wonder why many experienced reefers decide to go the hard, complicated and expensive route, where simplicity also works great.
But I still won't shut the door on any great ideas. Thanks again.