nitrate think tank I'm at my wits end

[pizzaguy]

No cats upstairs. Kids can't reach tank at all or food for that matter.90 percent of sand gone. Feed 2 times every 3 days and only once. All incoming water has tested 0. That's ro and mixed water and ato water. Myth busters where you at. We're all stumped. Chaeto should be growing like weeds but it's not. Bio pellets have been full power for a long time now. Only guess at this point is that my tank has starved to death for po4 so dosing will increase for a while in theory of course

[jaddc]

I too have the very some problem, High nitrates ( almost identical to yours )  but SPS are ok.    Is high nitrates = bad SPS a myth ?  If I remember correctly, I think Paul up north has nitrates in the 30ppms and his SPS are not suffering.

 

I don't know. Maybe high nitrites is a correlation, and not a causation, of coral decline.

 

Personally, I don't understand how potassium phosphate is helping the corals thrive. Potassium is an essential element, but is that enough to explain tremendous coral coloration and growth? Are we hurting our coral by aggressively removing phosphate?

 

And where the heck is the nitrate coming from? Excess feeding causes an increase in *both* nitrate and phosphate (often more phosphate). Urine is one plausible and gross idea. I can understand starting with high nitrates. But after numerous large water changes and phosphate addition -- it should not be climbing out of control while the phosphate levels remain low.

 

I mentioned this to three oceanographers and they had no idea what could be wrong.

 

Could the phosphate be absorbed into the rock? I think that requires a higher pH, low pH release phosphate from the rock.

[AlanM]

don't you have sump/fuge and other stuff out in the garage or am I thinking about someone else?  Any possibility of stuff getting in from that route?

[pizzaguy]

Yes in garage. But rarely ever in the garage. And no animals or anything out there.

Ph is 8.0 at night and 8.2 to 8.28 during the day.

[AlanM]

I think you should have a WAMAS social out at your house where you make pizzas and let everyone crawl your house looking for where all these nitrates are coming from.  Everyone could show up with their battery of test kits and test every darn thing between the tank and the sump. 

 

You could shut off your returns and powerheads for a while to let all water mixing stop and tubes could be inserted to different spots of the rocks, sand (or tank floor), sump, etc, with separate water samples taken to see if you could make a map of which areas were higher in nitrate than others.

[pizzaguy]

At the rate I'm going were calling in scientist next.

I'm gonna keep hammering the po4 and fingers crossed.

[Orion]

When you set this tank up, did you use dry or live rock?

[Origami]

Nitrates and phosphates can definitely affect SPS coloration, growth, robustness, and survival. High nutrients are more likely to brown out a lot of corals. If one describes that as "not suffering," then I guess that's an opinion. It may not be the direction that a lot of people want to go, though.

 

Back when it was initially suggested, Eric, we zeroed in on low phosphates as a possible problem area. I've not gone back and read everything, so I'll ask for a quick update. Have you been dosing a phosphate supplement at all. It sounds like you have both biopellets and macroalgae going at the same time, too. Is this correct? Are you seeing any bacterial "mulm" developing in your biopellet reactor that would indicate that the bacteria are thriving and, perhaps, outcompeting the macro? I'm also curious about your current magnesium level.

[pizzaguy]

Yes on po4. Started at 1 ml a day up to 5 ml a day currently and gonna start going up a little quicker until I see negative effects. Yes pellets and chaeto but neither seem to be doing much. Pellets are shrinking if that's an indication. Mag is on a doser as my tank has always used it rather quickly or constantly tested low. They are steady between 1250 and 1300.

[AlanM]

I assume you're testing phosphate and it's still being used up to a 0 level as you dose it at 5ml per day?

[pizzaguy]

.1 to .2 if I stop for one day back to 0

[zygote2k]

how did you have your water tested? by home kits or a lab test? I'd recommend a lab test for the incoming freshwater, the water from the r/o, the water with salt of your choice, and the actual tank water.  Shouldn't cost more than $100 and you'll get real results.