Nitrae/Phosphate Ratio - Super high Phosphate, and bottoming out Nitrate.

[The Opinionated Reefer]

I do not agree that low nitrate is as simple as using good quality rock. Lots of folks use good quality rock and do not have nitrate that low. It's a balance between foods and export, including the rock. If the balance is tipped to too little food for the export, then nitrate will be low.

Regardless of the reason, however, having it that low (below 2 ppm, IMO) runs a risk of N being limiting, even with dosing of other compounds.

I do not doubt that your approach is recommended by some folks, but I think my suggestion is superior, unless your goal is to intentionally keep nitrate at that level, in which case, you are assuming that the "recommended" dose of whatever is in that product is perfectly suited to your specific aquarium.

My situation seems to have gotten worse, my nitrates are now down to 0.11 on the hanna Ultra low range tester and this is after I increased the amount of nitrogen I was dosing.

Its my understanding that your nitrate reading is a balance between the amount of food you put in and amount of bacterial surface area for nitrobacter to turn nitrate into nitrogen, as well as any filtration you have?

I have also tried feeding more but just seems to be making my phosphates go up but has no effect on nitrate. When I think about it I do have a heck of a lot of surface area and resonably dense sand bed.

I am not sure what to do about this as I am not convinced dosing lots of nitrate suppliments is a sustainable long term soultion. Nor am I sure if its even a problem worth worrying about since corals are not really after nitrates. I plan to add a two or three more fish but its only a reefer 350 and is fairly well stocked as it is.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Certainly nitrate is a balance of N inputs against N exports. Any sort of N input, whether fish foods, ammonia, organic N like amino acids, or nitrate dosing will help raise it. I'd up it somehow.

 

[SauceyReef]

My situation seems to have gotten worse, my nitrates are now down to 0.11 on the hanna Ultra low range tester and this is after I increased the amount of nitrogen I was dosing.

Its my understanding that your nitrate reading is a balance between the amount of food you put in and amount of bacterial surface area for nitrobacter to turn nitrate into nitrogen, as well as any filtration you have?

I have also tried feeding more but just seems to be making my phosphates go up but has no effect on nitrate. When I think about it I do have a heck of a lot of surface area and resonably dense sand bed.

I am not sure what to do about this as I am not convinced dosing lots of nitrate suppliments is a sustainable long term soultion. Nor am I sure if its even a problem worth worrying about since corals are not really after nitrates. I plan to add a two or three more fish but its only a reefer 350 and is fairly well stocked as it is.

You literally have 11 full pages of gold on this topic..

 

[SauceyReef]

I fed the tiniest bit of reef roids and it shot my phosphate up from .6ppm to 1.3ppm. I am going to run a small amount of ROWA GFO for the next few months to help slowly get the levels down.

Is there a calculator for how much ROWA to use for a 13 gallon? The back of package doesn’t seem to give clear dosing instructions.

 

[Dburr1014]

I fed the tiniest bit of reef roids and it shot my phosphate up from .6ppm to 1.3ppm. I am going to run a small amount of ROWA GFO for the next few months to help slowly get the levels down.

Is there a calculator for how much ROWA to use for a 13 gallon? The back of package doesn’t seem to give clear dosing instructions.

A tiny bit won't keep it up for any length of time. It will get used up before the rock/substrate can soak it up. Even still, 1.3 is not bad at all.

 

[SauceyReef]

A tiny bit won't keep it up for any length of time. It will get used up before the rock/substrate can soak it up. Even still, 1.3 is not bad at all.

For sure, but I would rather have a small amount of ROWA exporting out phosphate than it just collecting which seems to be the case. I want more phosphate export so I can feed the corals more, and not just stick to a tiny spritz of mysis a day which has been keeping me at around .5ppm (my desired area).

When I say small amount, probably 1/4th the reccomended dose for my tank size which is what I am trying to figure out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds reasonable to me, if that value is correct, though I worry it may be test error based on the rapid jump up.