Best Foods to Use in Order to Raise Nitrates and Phosphates "Naturally"

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Yes, how long have you got it going now feeding it PNS ProBio, I’ve seen the interview with Scott Anderson, couldn’t remember what you were feeding thanks.

About 6 months, before I accidentally crashed the tank rushing a water change. Even killed all the pineapple sponges LOL. Too bad, the dendro was doing quite well. Dumb thing is that the system was running fine without the water change anyway, should've just left it alone (common story in this hobby, it seems ).

I'd add though that I've been keeping a Nephthyigorgia for well over a year now (15 months?) in a completely filterless system feeding essentially the same thing (ProBio and YelloSno, and very occasional phyto).

 

[sixty_reefer]

Not individual cells of course (they're only a couple microns long). But the suspension does have a distinctive color to it due to the carotenoids they produce. You can also identify them in biofilms that build up a couple centimeters beneath the sand bed (against the glass) if they establish themselves in the substrate--kind of like in a Winogradsky column.

Do you mean like this I can see all 3 colours in my substrate.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Do you mean like this I can see all 3 colours in my substrate.

Nice! Maybe! Check this out (photo not mine, Lizah van der Aart).

 

[sixty_reefer]

About 6 months, before I accidentally crashed the tank rushing a water change. Even killed all the pineapple sponges LOL. Too bad, the dendro was doing quite well. Dumb thing is that the system was running fine without the water change anyway, should've just left it alone (common story in this hobby, it seems ).

I'd add though that I've been keeping a Nephthyigorgia for well over a year now (15 months?) in a completely filterless system feeding essentially the same thing (ProBio and YelloSno, and very occasional phyto).

I find that you feeding bacteria interesting read many articles that point this way specifically the dendronephtya as they are notoriously hardier to keep will have to look into some yellow snow to add to mines diet.
I also agree that not having mechanical filtration in a NPS system will be beneficial to keep food in suspense I have done the same to mine although I’ve used a under gravel system to aid the biological filtration.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Nice! Maybe! Check this out (photo not mine, Lizah van der Aart).

Thank you for the chart I’m finding interesting that we can determine the bacteria in the system based on the biofilm colour will have to find additional literature on the subject now to satisfy my curiosity.

thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Not individual cells of course (they're only a couple microns long). But the suspension does have a distinctive color to it due to the carotenoids they produce. You can also identify them in biofilms that build up a couple centimeters beneath the sand bed (against the glass) if they establish themselves in the substrate--kind of like in a Winogradsky column.

Thanks!

 

[Redhool7]

Hello from greece!
I feed my reef tank with ocean nutrition flakes and ocean nutrition frozen ...

I want to feed my tank with marine food that is rich in phosphates and very poor in nitrates!
What food would you suggest me?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hello from greece!
I feed my reef tank with ocean nutrition flakes and ocean nutrition frozen ...

I want to feed my tank with marine food that is rich in phosphates and very poor in nitrates!
What food would you suggest me?

That won’t be a very nutritious food because N is an integral part of protein. Thus, a very low N food will be a low protein food.

 

[arking_mark]

Hello from greece!
I feed my reef tank with ocean nutrition flakes and ocean nutrition frozen ...

I want to feed my tank with marine food that is rich in phosphates and very poor in nitrates!
What food would you suggest me?

Dry food generslly has higher amounts of phosphate than wet/frozen, but is not low in Nitrate.

 

[Redhool7]

I have a 360 liter aquarium that has been running for 2 years. My measurements are no3 25 and po4 0.03-0.1...


I have refugium in my sump,...nyos 160 for skimmer...T5 6×54...2 X gyre xf 250 in pulse mode...


,my problem is that I can't reduce the nitrates!!!


,Any ideas to solve the nitrate problem would be what I need most!

 

[Redhool7]

I have a 360 liter aquarium that has been running for 2 years. My measurements are no3 25 and po4 0.03-0.1...


I have refugium in my sump,...nyos 160 for skimmer...T5 6×54...2 X gyre xf 250 in pulse mode...


,my problem is that I can't reduce the nitrates!!!


,Any ideas to solve the nitrate problem would be what I need most!

 

[GARRIGA]

I know not everyone thinks like me but I put a lot of effort into doing all I can to emulate the microbiome of natural reefs and through my reading natural sources really do have a positive effect on the microbial life in many ways

I take the same approach and why I just overfeed and don't worry about nitrates or phosphates. Goal is bottom both out yet know that because I overfeed there's always a source of all nutrients.

Hobby has become fixated on N & P yet plants and algae prefer ammonium which they get by converting nitrates to nitrites then down to ammonium.

As for which foods. That I don't know. All foods have nitrogen and phosphates. All life has both. Although frozen I've read has less phosphates and I stopped feeding that at the moment because it's inconvenient.

I'm running a test tank to force issues so I can see how to resolve and can't speak to how this affects corals but supposedly bottoming out N & P leads to issues of which I'm not encountering since going back to overfeeding. System running fine but ph a problem. Keep it natural and simple.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I take the same approach and why I just overfeed and don't worry about nitrates or phosphates. Goal is bottom both out yet know that because I overfeed there's always a source of all nutrients.

Hobby has become fixated on N & P yet plants and algae prefer ammonium which they get by converting nitrates to nitrites then down to ammonium.

As for which foods. That I don't know. All foods have nitrogen and phosphates. All life has both. Although frozen I've read has less phosphates and I stopped feeding that at the moment because it's inconvenient.

I'm running a test tank to force issues so I can see how to resolve and can't speak to how this affects corals but supposedly bottoming out N & P leads to issues of which I'm not encountering since going back to overfeeding. System running fine but ph a problem. Keep it natural and simple.

I'd be very interested in hearing about your test tank research when you've had time to observe the effects!

 

[J1a]

I wonder why many people believes that frozen food contain less phosphate than dry food.

 

[arking_mark]

I have a 360 liter aquarium that has been running for 2 years. My measurements are no3 25 and po4 0.03-0.1...


I have refugium in my sump,...nyos 160 for skimmer...T5 6×54...2 X gyre xf 250 in pulse mode...


,my problem is that I can't reduce the nitrates!!!


,Any ideas to solve the nitrate problem would be what I need most!

Carbon dosing works very well for me at reducing Nitrate...

 

[Redhool7]

Carbon dosing works very well for me at reducing Nitrate...

When i dose carbon with nopox or vodka ... My po4 goes to 0 before my nitrates start to reduce..... !!!

 

[arking_mark]

When i dose carbon with nopox or vodka ... My po4 goes to 0 before my nitrates start to reduce..... !!!

Weird...maybe your tank is PO4 limited?

 

[GARRIGA]

I'd be very interested in hearing about your test tank research when you've had time to observe the effects!

Need to put a thread together. Not sure if a Build or Experiment thread. Probably get more exposure under Build and probably will go there.

Will say this. Constantly push my nitrates and phosphates to 160 ppm plus and 2 ppm plus, respectively. With just carbon dosing I bottom my nitrates out and phosphates under 0.25 ppm. API limitations but I don't care because I'm not keeping sticks at the moment and presence or absence my main objective. Mad precision not my intent. Key is to overdose carbon and overfeed. Seems nature finds a way. Has long before we discovered such a thing as N & P.

Have had all types of algae and cyano as well as diatoms to start but no dinos. Now all that's left is some turf algae but only directly under my light. Seems to be receding but I'm tired of looking at white rocks and bought some purple fake rocks over the weekend plus going to a lower profile due to limitations on how my filter was designed.

Next phase of testing is sargassum under an XR15 Pro to see if it removes my co2 so I can grow coraline then add different corals and test these affects on them. Goal is play now so I can design my build accordingly. Just a 20H but no sump, no skimmer. No mechanical filtration other than occasionally for aesthetic reasons. Run it extremely dirty yet parameters as if ran traditionally. KISS