So question is as stayed by the thread. Can an extremely low nitrate level actually affect a reef in a negative way? Or are nitrates actually a positive addition in the correct, low level, amounts?
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I'm asking this because I recently began vodka dosing after am insane spike in nitrates. My nitrates are now absolute 0ppm and some of my corals looked meh today. Of course they do this from day to day but it seemed too much a coincidence. Before the spike they usually stayed at about 2 to 10 depending.
OK it may sound noobish but what nitrogenous sources would you recommend if NO3 is extremely low? Also, what is ULNS?Don't let 0 nitrate stay or corals just get more and more pale and eventually you star seeing die-off. Zero nitrate is bad. NSW has a very very low amount of nitrate but nutrient sources are readily available and replenished all the time. If you intend to have ULNS this is even more important. In that case you'd want your NO3 to be really close to zero but you dose amino acid and feed corals to keep nitrogenous sources always around.
OK so in short short, corals need a low level of nitrates to effectively photosynthesize and produce energy?To make it even simpler, organisms need nutrients for most of their biosynthetic activities. Phosphate and nitrogen are involved in making the most important energy molecule - ATP (literally adenosine triphosphate with 3 phosphates and an adenosine which is made from a complex pathway involving vitamin B9 and several amino acids which are made by taking up nitrogen via the form of NO3 by plants and algae like zooxanthellae and in short provides corals energy) and keeps us alive. Zooxanthellae that live in your corals need nutrients just as plants need nutrients in the soil. When nutrients are very low they die and corals become pale.
OK it may sound noobish but what nitrogenous sources would you recommend if NO3 is extremely low? Also, what is ULNS?
OK so in short short, corals need a low level of nitrates to effectively photosynthesize and produce energy?
OK so really the key is stability.
I had a hammer coral head recently die on me for unknown reasona, this caused the nitrate spike which cause the vodka dosing which caused the 0ppm nitrates. So really, I should resume my normal reef keeping behavior?
You do need some No3 in your tank, usually @5 ppm. It depends on how your corals are looking. If they are pale and have no color to them then I would get more No3 in my tank. I use KNo3 to raise mine to 4-5 ppm. I would keep the Po4 as low as possible,
the fact that our testing shows zero NO3 doesn't mean you don't have any.