Any tips on dosing nitrates?

mattshell81

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 30, 2020
Messages
72
Reaction score
23
Location
Northern Cambria
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Does anyone have tips on dosing nitrates? I have been having some issues with algae lately and learned my nitrates are actually 0. Not a ton of algae but a small amount of dense turf algae on the bottom of the rocks about 2 months after mostly getting rid of it. My tank has been having some sps slowly pale or start to die from the tips while others like my secale and bonsai are doing great and have good color. My alk calc and magnesium are pretty stable those sit at 7.7 to 7.86dkh 470 to 505 calcium and 1440 to 1450 mag based in the past month of my logs. My nitrate tests always appeared to be around 5 to 10 but were a bit old so I got a high range hanna checker and was surprised to learn I'm actually at 0 nitrates. I'm guessing this resugance of algae plus my chaeto is using it all up so I took the skimmer offline but that hasn't made a change yet. Just this week I got brightwells nitrate product to try but so far I have been dosing enough that I should go up a few ppm of nitrates and haven't managed to get it above 0 yet. Wasn't sure if I could dose too much or how much I should do max so I was wondering if anyone else had such a struggle getting theirs up. I just can't believe the rate it's being used up I never clean my sump, don't have socks, and run my refugium before skimmer. If anything I figured my chaeto may be making them high by trapping more detritus and within it and raising it more than it uses it up.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,542
Reaction score
62,837
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would not expect the dosing to help with the algae, but I'd just dose more each day until it comes up to a few ppm (assuming you believe your kit is accurate). It can take time to raise it because organisms are taking it up after each dose.

Also bear in mind that the HI782 has an uncertainty of +/- 2 ppm nitrate, so if you dose 2 ppm, you might not detect it.
 
OP
OP
M

mattshell81

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 30, 2020
Messages
72
Reaction score
23
Location
Northern Cambria
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would not expect the dosing to help with the algae, but I'd just dose more each day until it comes up to a few ppm (assuming you believe your kit is accurate). It can take time to raise it because organisms are taking it up after each dose.

Also bear in mind that the HI782 has an uncertainty of +/- 2 ppm nitrate, so if you dose 2 ppm, you might not detect it.
Thanks for the reply randy thats really helpful. I'll aim for around 4 to 5 ppm so I can at least see something on the test I bought the high range expecting things to be on the higher end. I don't expect it to help with the algae but more so just a part in helping to restore the proper balance of nitrates to phosphates do the corals arent being starved of nitrates. I have a hanna checker coming to get a more accurate look at those phosphate numbers as well because I can't really tell the colors apart on most kits. Only feeding reef roids 1 time a week currently. I think phosphates were coming from source water or top off storage. I gave those all a good sanitizing and added a booster pump to make sure my membrane is working efficiently. The water now reads 1 tds after membrane and I confirmed all my containers are 0 tds so hopefully getting a fresh start.
 
Back
Top