How should I raise nitrates?

[Biokabe]

Well, R2R, I've done it again. In pursuit of improving one aspect of my tank, I've gone and thrown another one out of whack.

I've been dosing Red Sea Energy in my tank (10ml/day into a Reefer 350) for a little over a month now. In that time, my nitrates have gone from 8.9 ppm to 0.0 ppm, and as of a couple days ago my tank is showing some signs of dinos starting to proliferate. I would like to get the nitrates back up in the range they were at before starting Energy, but I think my corals have appreciated what the Energy brings to the table. I have no problem replacing Energy with a similar additive that doesn't have the carbon-dosing side of things.

The other aspects of my tank that are pertinent:

1. I have a Plank autofeeder. I'm currently feeding 8 times a day for 40 seconds each feeding.
2. I run my skimmer 24/7, and I have both a refugium and an ATS with 17 hours of lights-on each day.

When I first saw the 0.0 reading (this Sunday), I actually increased my feed time per feeding from 30 seconds to 40 seconds. So it's stayed at 0.0 despite a 25% increase in feeding.

I've been battling a very persistent GHA/bryopsis problem for over a year now, which is why I have so many methods of nutrient export. I harvest from both the refugium and the ATS once every 10-14 days - I usually pull about a baseball's worth of chaeto from the refugium (representing maybe 20% of the chaeto mass). I don't have a great way to quantify the amount I harvest from the ATS, but it's not negligible. I also manually remove about half of a red Solo cup's worth of bryopsis/GHA from the display at least once a week (sometimes twice a week). I'm sure this very attractive algae in my display is binding quite a bit of nitrate up in it and getting rid of it would raise my nitrates... but then again, if I could just get rid of it I would have already.

So, fellow reefers, how would you go about increasing my nitrates?

• Increase feeding even more?
• Reduce skimming?
• Shut down the ATS?
• Shut down the refugium?
• Cut down on refugium/ATS lights-on time?
• Replace Energy with a supplement that doesn't include carbon dosing?
• Nuke the bryopsis with Flux RX?
• Direct-dose nitrates?
• Something else I haven't thought of?

I do want to get the nitrates up sooner rather than later... but I also don't want to repeat my bad habit and swing wildly in the other direction.

 

[Jekyl]

Allow skimmer to drain back into the sump rather than collect.

 

[19Mateo83]

Get a bottle of neonitro. Simple to dose and effective.

 

[VintageReefer]

Get a bottle of neonitro. Simple to dose and effective.

I would reduce scrubber by 1 hour and five s few days and see if nitrate lebels improve. If not, then dose neonitro as needed, it works great

 

[VintageReefer]

Sorry for my horrible typing :/

 

[Adamc13o3]

Not sure if I would increase them though. There are definitely nitrates in the system, they aren’t registering on a test because the GHA and Bryopsis are consuming them. You may want to wait it out. What are your phosphates at? Dino’s typically appear when either NO3 and PO4 are at zero. The tank definitely has nutrients in it or the algae wouldn’t grow. Did you try a 3 day blackout after removing the algae? It will help for both the algae and Dino’s. It may also help you get a more accurate test reading as the GHA needs light and nutrients to grow. Once you remove most of it and then starve it for light it may not take up the nutrients in the tank and they will register on a test.

 

[anemonalex]

I use sodium nitrate. It's powerful stuff, 1/8 tsp raises my nitrates about 5ppm. I have about 20g of water in my set up. But currently I have enough fish to balance the ratio.

 

[dieselkeeper]

I would dose something soon to raise nitrates alittle to keep dino's from getting worse.

 

[TokenReefer]

Both coral and algae seem to be growing and mopping up any excess nutrients. I'd try tipping the scales toward the coral now. Maybe less fuge light so the mop up is less... Probably start there personally. Dosing no3 or po4 or nh4no3 alone but keeping in mind yoyo affect and delayed readings

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dosing no3 or po4 or nh4no3 alone but keeping in mind yoyo affect and delayed readings

What delay?

 

[TokenReefer]

Good question. Readings maybe not the right word, reactions by corals might be what I meant The reaction might not be instant, or it might be but rather than overdose, give enough time for things to react

 

[Formulator]

I recently started using brightwell neonitro for a very similar issue and it works great. I will second the earlier recommendation for it.

 

[Pistondog]

Well, R2R, I've done it again. In pursuit of improving one aspect of my tank, I've gone and thrown another one out of whack.

I've been dosing Red Sea Energy in my tank (10ml/day into a Reefer 350) for a little over a month now. In that time, my nitrates have gone from 8.9 ppm to 0.0 ppm, and as of a couple days ago my tank is showing some signs of dinos starting to proliferate. I would like to get the nitrates back up in the range they were at before starting Energy, but I think my corals have appreciated what the Energy brings to the table. I have no problem replacing Energy with a similar additive that doesn't have the carbon-dosing side of things.

The other aspects of my tank that are pertinent:

1. I have a Plank autofeeder. I'm currently feeding 8 times a day for 40 seconds each feeding.
2. I run my skimmer 24/7, and I have both a refugium and an ATS with 17 hours of lights-on each day.

When I first saw the 0.0 reading (this Sunday), I actually increased my feed time per feeding from 30 seconds to 40 seconds. So it's stayed at 0.0 despite a 25% increase in feeding.

I've been battling a very persistent GHA/bryopsis problem for over a year now, which is why I have so many methods of nutrient export. I harvest from both the refugium and the ATS once every 10-14 days - I usually pull about a baseball's worth of chaeto from the refugium (representing maybe 20% of the chaeto mass). I don't have a great way to quantify the amount I harvest from the ATS, but it's not negligible. I also manually remove about half of a red Solo cup's worth of bryopsis/GHA from the display at least once a week (sometimes twice a week). I'm sure this very attractive algae in my display is binding quite a bit of nitrate up in it and getting rid of it would raise my nitrates... but then again, if I could just get rid of it I would have already.

So, fellow reefers, how would you go about increasing my nitrates?

• Increase feeding even more?
• Reduce skimming?
• Shut down the ATS?
• Shut down the refugium?
• Cut down on refugium/ATS lights-on time?
• Replace Energy with a supplement that doesn't include carbon dosing?
• Nuke the bryopsis with Flux RX?
• Direct-dose nitrates?
• Something else I haven't thought of?

I do want to get the nitrates up sooner rather than later... but I also don't want to repeat my bad habit and swing wildly in the other direction.

I did a fluconazole treatment for gha, knocked it back to where manual removal and cuc are effective.
For nitrates we dose ammonium bicarb.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Good question. Readings maybe not the right word, reactions by corals might be what I meant The reaction might not be instant, or it might be but rather than overdose, give enough time for things to react

Ok, thanks.

 

[Biokabe]

I did a fluconazole treatment for gha, knocked it back to where manual removal and cuc are effective.
For nitrates we dose ammonium bicarb.

I've used fluco a few times before, both before and after the introduction of Reef Flux / Flux RX... which is why I'm a bit hesitant to use it now.

When I first used it (on a previous tank) it was before the commercial versions were available. With that formulation, my results were in line with what others reported - a relatively rapid die-off of bryopsis. Every time I used it, though, I immediately had a huge cyano outbreak about 2-3 weeks after the byropsis disappeared, and that's what would actually kill corals.

I tried using Reef Flux about 18 months ago to knock out this byropsis and it... basically did nothing. The algae weakened for maybe a week, then it got over it and kept going just as strong. So I don't know if what I have now is just resistant to fluco, or if the formulation in Reef Flux is less effective for whatever reason.

I do have more effective ways of reducing cyano now - much more nutrient export, better flow, and multiple sandbed stirrers to break up cyano mats before they form. So I might give it a try again soon. I have a box of Flux RX on the way, we'll see if that one works any better than the Reef Flux did.

I would reduce scrubber by 1 hour and five s few days and see if nitrate lebels improve. If not, then dose neonitro as needed, it works great

Done, and have a bottle of NeoNitro on the way for tomorrow. I also have a bottle of NeoPhos already here. I'll try another test in a couple of days, see if there's been any rebound on the nitrates... if not, I'll start dosing later this week.