0 detectable Nitrates - Any advice welcomed!

[Austinsdepenbrock]

I would get some nitrate and phosphate you can hand dose when needed i have had dinos and they are not fun at all they will be good to have on hand anyway.

 

[Denisk]

Not sure but my corals look better with higher nitrate, so I have decided to just dose nitrate.

I don't know how fast the nitrification of ammonia is, and imagine it is very different in every tank, so I'm just gonna stick with what I know works to make my corals look the way I want them to.

No I completely agree. If it works, why change it... But I'm glad to hear your tank is doing so well with the higher nitrates and I appreciate the suggestions/advice.

 

[Denisk]

I would get some nitrate and phosphate you can hand dose when needed i have had dinos and they are not fun at all they will be good to have on hand anyway.

Thats the plan as I already made the amazon order haha. I had Dino's before and I honestly think thats the only reason they're at bay do to my uv sterilizer because if I took it down. They would take over the tank

 

[Denisk]

You can. At some point, nitrate will rise, but that may also be a point beyond which corals do not benefit from more N since they may be getting all they want (or more than they want) from dosed ammonia or urea, even before nitrate rises.

I understand but my understanding is you dose the ammonium bicarbonate until you see the nitrates rise until your desired point so to find your baseline based upon the chart from above.

 

[obanarama]

Ammonium bicarbonate is more bioavailable. Potassium nitrate can cause potassium to rise too high over time if the NO₃ demand is high; sodium nitrate is better.

Corals and macroalgae consume phosphate and nitrate in a fixed ratio. If nitrogen is too low, phosphate consumption will stop. Raising the nitrogen can allow PO₄ consumption to continue, and without enough phosphate import, will decrease (and vise versa).

I just noticed your phosphate is also very low. That may be even a bigger concern than low nitrate. Here’s my phosphate dosing recipe. The link has the Amazon link to purchase it.

DIY Phosphate Dosing Recipe

Sometimes phosphate can be so stubbornly low that the only way to meaningfully raise it is by directly dosing phosphate. When you feed foods, you’re adding nitrogen, carbon, and loads of organics. This effect is compounded if you’re trying to offset rocks that initially work against you by...

www.reef2reef.com

Buying phosphate and ammonium is substantially more inexpensive than neonitrate etc. In addition, the linked source is pure with no unknown byproducts.

Hey @Miami Reef I really appreciate your ammonium bicarbonate info. I'd like to purchase the stuff that you linked to, but your link doesn't seem to work: https://amzn.to/3W92uhB Can you get me an updated link? Thank you!

 

[Denisk]

Hey @Miami Reef I really appreciate your ammonium bicarbonate info. I'd like to purchase the stuff that you linked to, but your link doesn't seem to work: https://amzn.to/3W92uhB Can you get me an updated link? Thank you!

Not sure if this works but this is what I found. Amazon product

 

[Miami Reef]

Hey @Miami Reef I really appreciate your ammonium bicarbonate info. I'd like to purchase the stuff that you linked to, but your link doesn't seem to work: https://amzn.to/3W92uhB Can you get me an updated link? Thank you!

Here’s the link.

Amazon.com

 

[Miami Reef]

Any food grade ammonium bicarbonate will do as long as it’s the only ingredient. This source is the most inexpensive, I believe. That’s what I linked in that thread.


Edit

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I understand but my understanding is you dose the ammonium bicarbonate until you see the nitrates rise until your desired point so to find your baseline based upon the chart from above.

Having detectable nitrate is merely insurance that there is enough available N. That point can certainly come before nitrate rises if dosing ammonia or urea, and my recommendation is to monitor corals when dosing any form of N to see at which dose the organisms like best.

 

[Denisk]

Any food grade ammonium bicarbonate will do as long as it’s the only ingredient. This source is the most inexpensive, I believe. That’s what I linked in that thread.

Sorry to bother you but is there a large difference between what you shared vs Amazon product

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would also add that in a dino situation, I have dosed nitrate and recommend doing so because you can add it fast to a target level without slowly working up to it. For routine N dosing, I add ammonium bicarbonate.

 

[Miami Reef]

Sorry to bother you but is there a large difference between what you shared vs Amazon product

I believe we shared the same link. Any food grade ammonium bicarbonate is good.

 

[Denisk]

I believe we shared the same link. Any food grade ammonium bicarbonate is good.

oh gotcha. At first glance to your link I thought it said sodium bicarbonate and mine said ammonium bicarbonate. Regardless, I ordered it and look forward to seeing how it works out. Thank you!

​

 

[Miami Reef]

oh gotcha. At first glance to your link I thought it said sodium bicarbonate and mine said ammonium bicarbonate. Regardless, I ordered it and look forward to seeing how it works out. Thank you!

​

Ah. You’re right. I somehow linked sodium bicarbonate. Very weird. I searched ammonium bicarbonate. Thanks for catching that.

Sodium bicarbonate will raise alkalinity. That is not the correct product for this purpose. lol

 

[Denisk]

I would also add that in a dino situation, I have dosed nitrate and recommend doing so because you can add it fast to a target level without slowly working up to it. For routine N dosing, I add ammonium bicarbonate.

Thats good to know so something like sodium nitrate? Does dosing sodium nitrate or ammonium bicarbonate have a direct relationship in lowering phosphates? If so, any tips on how to balance out the relationship without causing phosphates to drop to zero.

 

[Savage Henry]

Your tank looks good.

Agree with the poster above about that bubble algae. Get onto that fast!

My tank is in a similar state - undetectable nitrates. But, I have a sump full of chaeto.

As you don’t have many corals at the moment and as the fish don’t care, maybe let the nitrates build up slowly, naturally?

Are you coral affected? Otherwise, does it matter at this stage?

My corals (mainly hammers) are affected I think, so I am also feeding heavily and I removed my skimmer and I am limiting my sump lighting.

Yeah, that tang will grow big and those ones have such a lovely nature (I had one for a few months years ago), so personable and they need natural algae. He will need to go eventually.

 

[Denisk]

Your tank looks good.

Agree with the poster above about that bubble algae. Get onto that fast!

My tank is in a similar state - undetectable nitrates. But, I have a sump full of chaeto.

As you don’t have many corals at the moment and as the fish don’t care, maybe let the nitrates build up slowly, naturally?

Are you coral affected? Otherwise, does it matter at this stage?

My corals (mainly hammers) are affected I think, so I am also feeding heavily and I removed my skimmer and I am limiting my sump lighting.

Yeah, that tang will grow big and those ones have such a lovely nature (I had one for a few months years ago), so personable and they need natural algae. He will need to go eventually.

Completely understand. Been in the hobby for over a decade so the tang will def. go but I actually bought him struggling/on its last leg at a LFS who thought it wasn't going to make it so I gave him a home just to give it a shot until he grows a little and will go off to a large tank. I have a bunch of buddies in the area with 200+ gallon aquariums so it will have a great life.

bubble algae I will start to pick off and manually remove. The green slimer I have is a little pale hence why I thought my nutrients were low to begin with. Its not so much that it bothers me but the tank will be an sps dominated tank so my thoughts were why not at least get to detectable ranges before adding more to mitigate the risk of stressed Acro's especially if I go with some high end pieces.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thats good to know so something like sodium nitrate? Does dosing sodium nitrate or ammonium bicarbonate have a direct relationship in lowering phosphates? If so, any tips on how to balance out the relationship without causing phosphates to drop to zero.

No direct relationship to lowering phosphate unless N was limiting the growth of something that grew faster and consumed more phosphate when you dosed.

 

[Denisk]

No direct relationship to lowering phosphate unless N was limiting the growth of something that grew faster and consumed more phosphate when you dosed.

understood. Thank you!

 

[fushi]

Thats good to know so something like sodium nitrate? Does dosing sodium nitrate or ammonium bicarbonate have a direct relationship in lowering phosphates? If so, any tips on how to balance out the relationship without causing phosphates to drop to zero.

Anecdotally if both N and P are low and you only raise 1 of them the other will drop, most likely due to increased consumption when more of the other is available. So just be careful.