jason the filter freak August 13, 2021 Share August 13, 2021 So I've been skeptical about my Salifert and TropicMarin kits reading zero for Nitrates. So I sucked it up and spent the $$ on a Hanna LR Nitrate checker. Sure enough after running the test correctly* twice, I get 0.00. I'm blown away my Nitrates are 0. Hanna checker ULR Phos says my level is 0.5. After years and years of NITRATE BAD PHOSPHATE BAD. I'm hesitant/flabbergasted to think I might need to dose those. Can I feed more? Get a diamond goby to stir up my sand bed? Stop doing water changes? BIO LOAD (LIVE STOCK): I have around 80 gal of volume with adult 2 Bangii, 2 nearly adult Ocellaris, nearly adult Azure damsel, juvi-adult royal gramma, a juvi-adult potters angel and a antenna goby. Cleaner shimp, porcelain crab, misc CUC. BIO LOAD (FOOD): I dose 10mL AB+ daily, feed a healthy heap of New Life Spectrum daily (though I try to make sure the majority is consumed by the fish and not end up on the sand bed. FILTRATION AND MAINT: I do around a 10 gal w/c with Reef Crystals once a month.Before I started checking levels I dropped my filter sock changes to 2 x a week because my skimmer (reef essence 130) wasn't pulling much and my chaeto was dying. Now I use Brightwell Cheato for the cheato and it seems to be helping. I also run rox carbon for water polishing. Change it every 1-3 months (aka when I remember to) CORAL: Tank is 95% zoa and Paly (the rest is anemone, no SPS/LPS. I have noticed some die off but I was attributing to my lights being too strong, finicky nature of some coral, and possibly tank wide chem warfare from other paly/zoa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefdUp August 13, 2021 Share August 13, 2021 I'm short on time, but I dose nitrate. I also keep phosphate on hand to dose just in case things get out of whack. Dosing nitrates will lower your phosphates, so you'll need to be careful. I also keep some carbon sources and bacteria on hand. Does everyone need to be crazy like me? No. Having low nutrients isn't necessarily a bad thing. But if your tank is starving, then you need to act. I'm in a weird situation with bioloads since I rehab corals (the corals have a LOT of die-off, then nearly none, so I have to manage those swings). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme August 13, 2021 Share August 13, 2021 20 minutes ago, jason the filter freak said: So I've been skeptical about my Salifert and TropicMarin kits reading zero for Nitrates. So I sucked it up and spent the $$ on a Hanna LR Nitrate checker. Sure enough after running the test correctly* twice, I get 0.00. I'm blown away my Nitrates are 0. Hanna checker ULR Phos says my level is 0.5. After years and years of NITRATE BAD PHOSPHATE BAD. I'm hesitant/flabbergasted to think I might need to dose those. Can I feed more? Get a diamond goby to stir up my sand bed? Stop doing water changes? BIO LOAD (LIVE STOCK): I have around 80 gal of volume with adult 2 Bangii, 2 nearly adult Ocellaris, nearly adult Azure damsel, juvi-adult royal gramma, a juvi-adult potters angel and a antenna goby. Cleaner shimp, porcelain crab, misc CUC. BIO LOAD (FOOD): I dose 10mL AB+ daily, feed a healthy heap of New Life Spectrum daily (though I try to make sure the majority is consumed by the fish and not end up on the sand bed. FILTRATION AND MAINT: I do around a 10 gal w/c with Reef Crystals once a month.Before I started checking levels I dropped my filter sock changes to 2 x a week because my skimmer (reef essence 130) wasn't pulling much and my chaeto was dying. Now I use Brightwell Cheato for the cheato and it seems to be helping. I also run rox carbon for water polishing. Change it every 1-3 months (aka when I remember to) CORAL: Tank is 95% zoa and Paly (the rest is anemone, no SPS/LPS. I have noticed some die off but I was attributing to my lights being too strong, finicky nature of some coral, and possibly tank wide chem warfare from other paly/zoa. What's the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak August 13, 2021 Author Share August 13, 2021 18 minutes ago, howaboutme said: What's the problem? Losing corals, losing color on corals, chaeto dying, intermittent cyano/diatom blooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds August 13, 2021 Share August 13, 2021 Welcome to the club. I’m now dosing nitrate and phosphate daily just to keep them level. Even though I have 25+ fish, feed multiple times per day and do weekly water changes. and now I have to dose a ton of magnesium cause my torches are thirsty little son of a guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme August 13, 2021 Share August 13, 2021 38 minutes ago, jason the filter freak said: Losing corals, losing color on corals, chaeto dying, intermittent cyano/diatom blooms. Is this happening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak August 14, 2021 Author Share August 14, 2021 59 minutes ago, howaboutme said: Is this happening? Occasionally. Zoas shrinking/dying off and becoming less colorful is definitely and issue. Cyano/dino blooms are few and far between. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme August 14, 2021 Share August 14, 2021 55 minutes ago, jason the filter freak said: Occasionally. Zoas shrinking/dying off and becoming less colorful is definitely and issue. Cyano/dino blooms are few and far between. I see. I just wanted to make sure you weren't searching for a problem because NO3 at zero by itself is not truly a problem. That said, I've used KNO3 (stump remover) in the past. Or you can try food grade sodium nitrate. I have zero trust in the ready made additives in a bottle. Personally I'd just feed more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak August 15, 2021 Author Share August 15, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaJMasta August 15, 2021 Share August 15, 2021 Well, that's something. I would assume that the chaeto supplement has a fair bit of iron in total, so you may actually already have a source you can dose... but thinking about that, I wonder if the brightwell product includes some phosphate, which could sort of magnify it when so low on nitrates and iron. Maybe there's a way to dose iron only or iron and nitrate? Iron is required for most macroalgae, so this could at least partly explain the chaeto growth issues and the supplement helping. I know there are specifically phosphate reducing additives (mostly based on lanthanum, I think), but if it were me, I would probably try to dose iron and see how the numbers level out. It could be with enough to let the plants grow, the phosphate gets consumed at a faster rate than now and it balances itself out somewhat, though if not, there's the phosphate specific products which could be an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D805 August 16, 2021 Share August 16, 2021 I just recently started dosing Neonitrate as was getting 0 nitrates from tests. I ended up buying the Hanna HR nitrate tester to verify my other tests like you. I'm finally getting nitrate. Last nights test showed 5.9. Now I need to figure out how high I want my nitrates . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak August 16, 2021 Author Share August 16, 2021 On 8/15/2021 at 1:05 PM, DaJMasta said: Well, that's something. I would assume that the chaeto supplement has a fair bit of iron in total, so you may actually already have a source you can dose... but thinking about that, I wonder if the brightwell product includes some phosphate, which could sort of magnify it when so low on nitrates and iron. Maybe there's a way to dose iron only or iron and nitrate? Iron is required for most macroalgae, so this could at least partly explain the chaeto growth issues and the supplement helping. I know there are specifically phosphate reducing additives (mostly based on lanthanum, I think), but if it were me, I would probably try to dose iron and see how the numbers level out. It could be with enough to let the plants grow, the phosphate gets consumed at a faster rate than now and it balances itself out somewhat, though if not, there's the phosphate specific products which could be an option. I posted the wrong results. That screen shot I was asking randy Holmes Farley about. I have Caribsea Hawaiian Black sand in my tank Wich is very ferrous. Randy indicated it's pretty much a non issue. I'm strongly considering ending the Chaeto Brightwell dosing. I suspect the Chaeto dying had more to do with the low nitrates and Phos than anything else. Here's those levels I've just doubled the amount of AB+ I'm using and plan to go back to feeding reef roids 2x a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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