Exactly seems counter intuitive.
I like high nutrients now. To many issues doing low. I prefer no3 15+ and po4 .1+. I dose to keep them up.
Ideal nitrate parameters?
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I like high nutrients now. To many issues doing low. I prefer no3 15+ and po4 .1+. I dose to keep them up.
Rmckoy
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What do you keep mag , cal and Alk at ?Honestly as an experienced sps and acro grower, the higher the nutrients the better. I have seen nothing but success and improvement the higher I push the nutrients in my tank. I actually have to dose n03 and p04 daily as acropora are like sponges for nutrients. Even at the lower end of the par (325) top of rocks I have never seen any browning or loss of color only increases with my nutrient increase. I have never run gfo, Carbon, Carbon dosing, refugium, ATS and I only run my skimmer for an hour or 2 every few days. Each tank is going to respond differently but for a tank packed full of acropora the more available nutrients the healthier the corals. Your gonna get mixed answers all over the spectrum but I’ll let my DT speak for itself...
Good point. I'll edit my post. Brain fart
FunkyReef
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May I ask why that is? I just tested my no3 at 9.9 and po4 at 0.21. Just did a while tank transfer and my skimmer and reactor broke so I just setup the new ones. Running rows phos. So if I could get po4 down a bit the nitrates arent concerning to you? I run mostly softing and some lps so I know they arent as picky as sps
If there are no problems with the tank, why worry about nitrates or phosphate levels? Imo I would not be using Rowaphos at .21.
I just started using a small amount of Rowaphos in my tank as my level of phosphate is .4+. I have seen more bubble algae lately, and I assume it’s from that. My fish and corals seem to not care about the levels though.
kevgib67
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Nitrates 10-15 and phosphates .05-.1 works well in my tank but as mentioned everyone’s tank and coral needs are different.
I am no expert so take this with a grain of salt, but Ive been doing alot of reading and reflecting on this exact topic. and I have come to the conclusion that you want to keep your NO3 as high as you can (within reason) without causing a runaway algae problem. for example, if your tank has a couple 1" frags, if you tried to keep your NO3 at 20ppm you would likely have a pretty big algae problem on your hands. So in this type of tank, maybe out of necessity you need to keep the nitrates below 5ppm just to keep the Algae under control. However, if you have a tank full of SPS colonies, you could do NO3 at a higher level (maybe 10-20ppm) because the coral filled tank will out compete the algae........I have seen alot of tanks, and those with NO3 higher than 10ppm have deep rich SPS coloring. Corals just look healthier. In the past, Ive noticed that my SPS lacked the deep rich color and looked more pale when my NO3 was below 5ppm. Again, just my opinion based on alot of reading, and personal experience..........
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I get the best color(s) out of my sps with NO3 ~10-15 and PO4 >.1
Randy Holmes-Farley
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FWIW, I think the question of nitrate is much more complicated than can be summarized in a sentence or three, and that is why very experienced folks have extensive discussions of these issues and do not come out with any simple conclusion that they agree on.
Folks have great tanks with high nitrate (100 ppm) and folks have great tanks with undetectable nitrate. That does not mean the same tank will do great if it is switched between the two cases. It just means that those corals in those tanks can get the N they need from all of the available sources, without having apparent problems. There are several sources of N in a reef tank, and nitrate is just one of them.
FWIW, you will find a lot of expert push back against the idea quoted above from at least three different perspectives.
1. Nitrate higher than 20 ppm is already so high that more does not likely encourage algae any further. It is already getting all of the N it wants and other things will be limiting to growth of algae (P, iron, manganese, lighting, flow, etc.).
2. Nitrate may not be used much by corals in reef tanks at all. There is little evidence that they do use nitrate in typical reef tanks, despite the fact that they can use it. IMO, the detectability of nitrate (>2 ppm) ensures there is adequate N available, but corals may get nearly all of their N from other sources, such as ammonia or metabolism of organics.
3. In many aquaria, there are clearly identifiable problems from excessive nitrate (such as browning of some corals with excessive zoox) that may not happen in all aquaria.
My reef sits like avg 20 and can go either way +/- 5.
Fishingandreefing
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That’s the same goes for me
What will you see if nitrates and phosphates are too low? I have heard that you will likely get algae blooms with higher nutrients, but if they are too low, what are the signs you look for?
Lebowski_
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Dinos and cyano:
I've heard others say their corals bleach/STN as well if nutrients bottom out, but anecdotally, I can't say I've even see that response. Maybe just because I've never bottomed out long enough.
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Corals get pale and grow poorly, macroalgae grows poorly, and there's a dino risk.
apb03
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I know folks worry about nitrates, but nitrates are mainly irrelevant to me. As long as they aren't 0, I think you are good to go. Mine hovers around 30-40, and I have no issues with my SPS colouration, browning, etc.
High nitrate means less worrying, and I can crank my lighting higher and add carbon dosing if I want. I'm sure there's a point where it becomes a problem, but I doubt it's a number that is reachable in a reef tank with reasonably good husbandry.
High nitrate means less worrying, and I can crank my lighting higher and add carbon dosing if I want. I'm sure there's a point where it becomes a problem, but I doubt it's a number that is reachable in a reef tank with reasonably good husbandry.
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my nitrates bottomed out a while back and i noticed that some of the sps were losing color. I believe this was due to a very full refugium so i took out about 80% of the chaeto as well as started dosing NeoNitro to get at least a minimum reading of about 5. SPS colored back up and things are back in balance. I would definitely no recommend 0
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