At my wits end

[Biokabe]

That's kinda what I was thinking. I thought my bacteria must not be converting nitrates into nitrogen gas. I don't get the science behind all of it fully lol

It's easy to overthink it, but basically:

Livestock creates ammonia as waste. One group of bacteria eats ammonia and creates nitrite as waste. Another group of bacteria eat the nitrite and create nitrate as waste. Finally, if you have the right conditions for it, a final group of bacteria eat the nitrate and creates nitrogen gas as waste. The nitrogen gas diffuses out of your water and into the atmosphere.

The first three stages (Ammonia - > Nitrite - > Nitrate) of the cycle are carried out by bacteria that are very common, live on surfaces in your tank, and use oxygen in their metabolism. They're aerobic bacteria. And in fact, this cycle happens all over the world, even outside of the water. They live in the soil and in the air and on the trees and are essentially the bacteria responsible for making things rot. "Rotting" is the common term for what we call "cycling."

The bacteria that eat nitrate and excrete nitrogen live in deep pores and surfaces in your aquarium that oxygen cannot reach. Oxygen is, in many cases, poisonous to them. They do not use oxygen in their metabolism, and are therefore considered anaerobic bacteria. These bacteria tend to take a while to get established, and it's not unusual for some tanks to never develop any.

My NO3 has been 50 for 2 years straight now. I don't care. Neither should you.

My other posts in here notwithstanding, both this and @zoa what have a point: The primary indicator as to whether your reef is healthy or not is the health of your inhabitants.

The reason that we have things like 'ideal numbers' and 'preferred parameters' is because those are the levels at which most tanks do the best. But every tank is different, and what works for one person does not always work for everyone else.

If you were having excessive algae problems, or if your corals were dying, and you told us that your nitrates were in the 50s - well, the first thing we'd tell you is to get those nitrates under control, because those numbers are higher than where most people have success.

But, much like age, nitrates are just a number. So don't sweat the number and worry about the health of your tank.

 

[Mjl714]

It's easy to overthink it, but basically:

Livestock creates ammonia as waste. One group of bacteria eats ammonia and creates nitrite as waste. Another group of bacteria eat the nitrite and create nitrate as waste. Finally, if you have the right conditions for it, a final group of bacteria eat the nitrate and creates nitrogen gas as waste. The nitrogen gas diffuses out of your water and into the atmosphere.

The first three stages (Ammonia - > Nitrite - > Nitrate) of the cycle are carried out by bacteria that are very common, live on surfaces in your tank, and use oxygen in their metabolism. They're aerobic bacteria. And in fact, this cycle happens all over the world, even outside of the water. They live in the soil and in the air and on the trees and are essentially the bacteria responsible for making things rot. "Rotting" is the common term for what we call "cycling."

The bacteria that eat nitrate and excrete nitrogen live in deep pores and surfaces in your aquarium that oxygen cannot reach. Oxygen is, in many cases, poisonous to them. They do not use oxygen in their metabolism, and are therefore considered anaerobic bacteria. These bacteria tend to take a while to get established, and it's not unusual for some tanks to never develop any.



My other posts in here notwithstanding, both this and @zoa what have a point: The primary indicator as to whether your reef is healthy or not is the health of your inhabitants.

The reason that we have things like 'ideal numbers' and 'preferred parameters' is because those are the levels at which most tanks do the best. But every tank is different, and what works for one person does not always work for everyone else.

If you were having excessive algae problems, or if your corals were dying, and you told us that your nitrates were in the 50s - well, the first thing we'd tell you is to get those nitrates under control, because those numbers are higher than where most people have success.

But, much like age, nitrates are just a number. So don't sweat the number and worry about the health of your tank.

Great description of the “nitrogen cycle.” Totally agree “don’t sweat the number and worry about the health of your tank.”

 

[Reefer_madness78]

well said Bio. if someone wants to run five canisters that's not going to harm anything, being way beyond needs of surface area is the reefing way. anyones live rock on this whole forum could be taken down to a quarter of the load and still run the fish they run, I've seen cuts that low in the sand rinse thread.

so if we're all using way more live rock than needed then there's no harm in running a canister filter and two hundred pounds of bioballs as well. surface area is never going to be harmful.


for sure you should cease nitrate testing and focus on the macro, for about three straight months. Pauls nitrate hits 160 sometimes, its time to not detail nitrate for a long time and change the way you reef it will work better for sure.

keep your calcium and alk ideal instead

dont run phosphate binding media either, let that and nitrate fall where the clean tank lets them fall, all variations are ok.

Thanks for the information. I will try to not test nitrates for a couple months. That time can be spent on scraping the glass everyday lol. Do you have any suggestions on macroalgae to put in dt? Something easy but effective.

 

[brandon429]

Earlier when I typed macro I was meaning the big picture view/ macro view of the tank (it already looks great, maintain that look by manual gardening not param restriction)


adding actual macro plants are just fine for diversity but they don’t make much of a long term difference on your nitrate. In my opinion it’ll balance just fine by feeding well and keeping the tank clean. When new rocks get some growth you don’t like, lift them out and clean them externally vs alter tank params for these test months