0 nitrates

[salty105]

My tank is 7 months old and I have not been able to get nitrates above 0.

I noticed my nitrates were 0 and not going up but my phosphates were. At one point going up to .5ppm I also have a big problem with this red looking algae so I turned my lights to a shorter and only blue setting to try to combat it. I added phosguard to get the phosphates down and they are at .08 so still a touch high. But I have been dosing neo nitrate about 3 times a week (5ml) but my nitrates are still at 0. I don’t know what to do anymore.

Tank is 20 gal
1 clown
1 green chromi
1 watchman goby
1 pistol shrimp
1 emerald crab
1 turbo snail
1 trochus
3 nassarius

Last water test was
0 ammonia
0nitrite
0 nitrate
8.2 ph
8.0dkh alk
.08 phos
1.025 sal
And temp is stead between 76-77 with an inkbird.

Im not running a skimmer

 

[BriDroid]

Do you have any corals? Are you noticing any issues from 0 nitrates? Dinos, cyano, pale or deflated corals? It sounds like you may have some cyano. If no undesirable issues, I would just keep dosing N and let it ride. You could also feed a bit more and that will help too.

 

[salty105]

Do you have any corals? Are you noticing any issues from 0 nitrates? Dinos, cyano, pale or deflated corals? It sounds like you may have some cyano. If no undesirable issues, I would just keep dosing N and let it ride. You could also feed a bit more and that will help too.

I’m not sure but I’m suspicious of having cyano I just don’t know for certain. It’s pretty aggressive algea looking stuff if I don’t remove it. Also I have a nepthea that is flopped over. And the other day my gsp was closed as well. The reason I asked now is because the tank is 7months old at this point so I thought it’d go up and hold. My tank just doesn’t look healthy yet

 

[BriDroid]

I’m not sure but I’m suspicious of having cyano I just don’t know for certain. It’s pretty aggressive algea looking stuff if I don’t remove it. Also I have a nepthea that is flopped over. And the other day my gsp was closed as well. The reason I asked now is because the tank is 7months old at this point so I thought it’d go up and hold. My tank just doesn’t look healthy yet

Don’t be afraid of dosing N, whether NeoPhos or even sodium nitrate. I have to dose a sodium nitrate/sodium phosphate solution daily to keep my N at 2ppm and my P at 0.05ppm. Maybe increase your dose from 3 times a week to everyday until you can measure it. Definitely not going to hurt anything.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Tank pictures are very helpful lets see this red algae problem. Algae's consume nitrate so depending how bad the algae is, it might be skewing the test results. What test kit are you using? How much are you feeding? What kind of light and flow do you have on the tank? Need more info

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Getting rid of a cyano problem might allow nitrate to rise.

How bad is it?

 

[salty105]

Tank pictures are very helpful lets see this red algae problem. Algae's consume nitrate so depending how bad the algae is, it might be skewing the test results. What test kit are you using? How much are you feeding? What kind of light and flow do you have on the tank? Need more info

I’m using a salifert nitrate test kit cuz I didn’t trust the api but it’s still 0. I’m feeding both pellets and frozen fish eggs. I have a nicrew light. And two power heads. I took these pics after I already tried to remove a bunch of the algea it was significantly more this morning

 

[salty105]

Getting rid of a cyano problem might allow nitrate to rise.

How bad is it?

It was worse this morning before I removed a bunch of it

 

[salty105]

I’m not sure but I’m suspicious of having cyano I just don’t know for certain. It’s pretty aggressive algea looking stuff if I don’t remove it. Also I have a nepthea that is flopped over. And the other day my gsp was closed as well. The reason I asked now is because the tank is 7months old at this point so I thought it’d go up and hold. My tank just doesn’t look healthy yet

Don’t be afraid of dosing N, whether NeoPhos or even sodium nitrate. I have to dose a sodium nitrate/sodium phosphate solution daily to keep my N at 2ppm and my P at 0.05ppm. Maybe increase your dose from 3 times a week to everyday until you can measure it. Definitely not going to hurt anything.

Ok I’ll definitely get at it a little more aggressive! Thanks!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The first thing I would do is stop adding neo nitrate, you have been feeding the algae by doing this. Algae consumes nitrate faster than corals, so test results are not believable when you have bad algae. Solve the algae problem first, IMO more water changes, more algae grazing snails, more rock and more corals. Good luck

 

[Fish Fan]

It was worse this morning before I removed a bunch of it

I see the Cyano around the rocks on the sand, but the brown sludgy stuff on the rocks and back glass is most likely a form of Dinoflagellate algae, which is in my experience a more difficult pest to handle, and it looks like it's already growing over some of your corals. I wouldn't sleep on the Dino's

Good luck!

 

[slingfox]

I see the Cyano around the rocks on the sand, but the brown sludgy stuff on the rocks and back glass is most likely a form of Dinoflagellate algae, which is in my experience a more difficult pest to handle, and it looks like it's already growing over some of your corals. I wouldn't sleep on the Dino's

Good luck!

Agreed that it looks like you are dealing with a case of Dino’s + cyano. You should try to manually remove as much of the uglies as possible (ie, scrape the back glass and siphon out the top layer of sand where the cyano is). You can rinse the sand outside the tank and then add it back.

 

[salty105]

It was worse this morning before I removed a bunch of it

I see the Cyano around the rocks on the sand, but the brown sludgy stuff on the rocks and back glass is most likely a form of Dinoflagellate algae, which is in my experience a more difficult pest to handle, and it looks like it's already growing over some of your corals. I wouldn't sleep on the Dino's

Good luck!

What would you suggest doing?

 

[exnisstech]

If you decide you want to raise nitrates maybe look into ammonia dosing. I use ammonium bicarb when my tank was testing 0 NO3. I also used sodium nitrate but prefer ammonium as I got better results and didn't require dowsing as often.

DIY Ammonia Dosing Chart

Introduction: Many reef tanks have an incredible nitrate demand, and despite the additional fish and coral food, still struggle to make an impact on the nitrate level. This can subject corals, anemones, coralline, macro/microalgae, and clams to nutrient starvation. Any photosynthetic organism...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Fish Fan]

What would you suggest doing?

I would manually scape and siphon out everything you can, and ensure you're nitrate and phosphate are above zero. Some suggest when either or both of those zero out, it invites Dinos. You can do a three day "black out" where you don't turn on the tank lights and that helps beat them back. Some clean up crew critters can eat it too. I can be persistent, and usually require some persistence to beat it.

Some will suggest that it's best to identify what species you're dealing with by microscopy, which can be a simple as a $30 kid's microscope. You can get surprisingly good pictures of what you're viewing just by holding your phone's camera up to the eyepiece of the microscope, then you can post them here on R2R for confirmation. I don't personally think you *need* a microscope, but it can help to narrow down what you're doing. For example, for some species a UV sterilizer can help, and for others it does little.

This is the late @Miami Reef's great guide on beating Dinos, I'd follow the advise here:

Beating Dinoflagellates: A Complete Guide

I'd like to give my perspective on how I approach dinoflagellates in reef tanks. They can be challenging to treat and release a lot of toxins. I personally dealt with dinos several times in the past, so I've gained a lot of hands-on experience. I've done a lot of research on them, too. Here's...

www.reef2reef.com

A recent thread for ID'ing microscopic organisms:

Microscopy Thread

Hello everyone and welcome to this little microscopy thread! Many hobbyists stumble upon microscopes once they are dealing with a pest they can't properly identify any other way. Besides their obvious usefulness when dealing with a problem, microscopes grant access to a whole new world many...

www.reef2reef.com

And some info on microscopy and Dinos in general:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscope.1094007/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cheapest-microscope-for-identifying-dinos.880217/

And this BRSTV video may be of some help, though I don't think you need to buy and add all the various magic potions that they push:


I hope that helps!

 

[salty105]

What would you suggest doing?

I would manually scape and siphon out everything you can, and ensure you're nitrate and phosphate are above zero. Some suggest when either or both of those zero out, it invites Dinos. You can do a three day "black out" where you don't turn on the tank lights and that helps beat them back. Some clean up crew critters can eat it too. I can be persistent, and usually require some persistence to beat it.

Some will suggest that it's best to identify what species you're dealing with by microscopy, which can be a simple as a $30 kid's microscope. You can get surprisingly good pictures of what you're viewing just by holding your phone's camera up to the eyepiece of the microscope, then you can post them here on R2R for confirmation. I don't personally think you *need* a microscope, but it can help to narrow down what you're doing. For example, for some species a UV sterilizer can help, and for others it does little.

This is the late @Miami Reef's great guide on beating Dinos, I'd follow the advise here:

Beating Dinoflagellates: A Complete Guide

I'd like to give my perspective on how I approach dinoflagellates in reef tanks. They can be challenging to treat and release a lot of toxins. I personally dealt with dinos several times in the past, so I've gained a lot of hands-on experience. I've done a lot of research on them, too. Here's...

www.reef2reef.com

A recent thread for ID'ing microscopic organisms:

Microscopy Thread

Hello everyone and welcome to this little microscopy thread! Many hobbyists stumble upon microscopes once they are dealing with a pest they can't properly identify any other way. Besides their obvious usefulness when dealing with a problem, microscopes grant access to a whole new world many...

www.reef2reef.com

And some info on microscopy and Dinos in general:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscope.1094007/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cheapest-microscope-for-identifying-dinos.880217/

And this BRSTV video may be of some help, though I don't think you need to buy and add all the various magic potions that they push:


I hope that helps!

Thank you so much! I’ll get to it!!