0 nitrate! Learned something new.

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So my tank is closing in on two years. I have never tested for nitrate because I’ve battled it for years, and just did not think low levels would be an issue. After finally getting a Salifert nitrate kit my reading are 0 clear as water. So I ordered nitrate and will start dosing to try to get it to 2ppm, is that correct? Do I have to bring it up slowly as not to stress the fish, and if so how do I figure the amount to dose? I would of never thought nirate would be a limiting factor In my tank.
 

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So my tank is closing in on two years. I have never tested for nitrate because I’ve battled it for years, and just did not think low levels would be an issue. After finally getting a Salifert nitrate kit my reading are 0 clear as water. So I ordered nitrate and will start dosing to try to get it to 2ppm, is that correct? Do I have to bring it up slowly as not to stress the fish, and if so how do I figure the amount to dose? I would of never thought nirate would be a limiting factor In my tank.

Here is the formula provided by @Randy Holmes-Farley in another thread.

I'd bring it up slowly, but there shouldn't be any harm in getting it to 2ppm in one dose. I recommend slowly (maybe 1ppm and test) to ensure you don't overdose and to see how quickly it is utilized. I found when I started dosing that I had a huge intake initially, but it leveled off and my doses thereafter were much smaller in comparison to the first week.

Good luck and take some before and after pictures!

Here's my standard recipe for potassium nitrate, and it can be adjusted easily up or down in concentration, as needed:

Dissolve 10 grams potassium nitrate in 1 liter of fresh water. That 10 grams contains 6.14 grams of nitrate, so that solution is 6,140 ppm nitrate.

If you add 1 ml of the solution per 2 gallons of tank water volume, that will boost nitrate by 0.8 ppm nitrate.

As a rough estimate, 10 dry mL of powder weighs about 10 g.
 
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Hey, thanks for the link. I did search and only found an old article on nitrate. I'll read it this afternoon. I think this old dog is going to stop assuming he knows anything;Jawdrop
 

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I'm right there with you. Been keeping marine aquaria for decades, always struggled to keep nitrates from rising out of control. New system, I put 2 liters of De-Nitrate in the sump, big refugeum with c. Mexicana and Chaetomorpha. After solving various other issues after startup, I found zero nitrates. As you said, clear as water.

I yanked three fourths of the de-nitrate media, and doubled what I had been feeding. That was enough for me, nitrate is measurable... Just a hint of color on that test kit. So far, that's all I've needed. Corals are coloring up nicely.
 

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Go very very slow. Your tank while it may seem is struggling its used to those 0 nitrates and if you bring it up to 2PPM in even 4 days it can cause issues. I know bc i did this 8 months ago and experience RTN events and algae problems. Few months ago I decided to dose again and this time took it slow and my tank handles going up to 3-5PPM in 1 weeks very smoothly. By this time the tank was mature enough to handle the excess nitrates and now it hold stable at the 5PPM. I don't have to dose everyday infact its at the point where I don't worry about it. I test nitrates weekly if its slightly low then i dose 1 capful of flourish nitrogen by seachem. This stuff is great for increasing and seems to hold the nitrates stable. Im not sure why other have to dose daily I found it stabilizes where i want it. Even though i had not dosed nitrates for 7 months it held stable at .2-.5 PPM (after initial nitrate dosing mess). Someone told me during this time "Your chasing numbers" and it ticked me off but then I thought about it and he was on the money I was chasing someone elses nitrates lol
 

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It kinda depends, if you add enough by food and or dosing to keep everything happy, you can have zero and be fine. If your corals get stressed or lose color, than you need more.

You might just feed more and add some scavengers like nassarius snails to get it.

I dose nitrates and phosphates just enough to be sort of measurable. My nitrates run about 1 ppm.
 

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yeah I did not see much difference in running near undetectable to 5PPM. Phosphates on the other hand even with a high bioload and feeding always had issue when tested at 0. I pay more attention to making sure my phosphates are up now and keeping my alk in line. I've read this on many article buts until you experience it its hard to explain. I gave up testing MG and CA often these do fine testing bi-weekly or monthly aslong as ALK is stable
 
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Got the Nitrate from amazon today. Added to my top off. Now it is wait and see...
 

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