Dosing nitrate

[Kungpaoshizi]

I wouldn't worry too much about the uv, fluorescence is probably the best indicator of health of a coral imo.
I would back off the carbon dosing and get the no3/po4 up. 0 po4 is a very good way to kill everything since the corals still need some.
Also I would just feed more, it works wonders.

 

[Acroporaaddict]

One little tip I'll add based on my mistakes. When I started dosing trying to find how much n03 my system was consuming I kept dosing that amount. My system ended up reaching a saturation point and n03 got too high. For my 120g that's fully stocked I only need to dose 3-8 ml daily to keep it around 4ppm.
I guess the lesson I learned is it took about 20ml to get it to 3ppm but a fraction of that to keep it there. ;)

Yeah I noticed that today. I did my initial nitrate dose to bring tank up to 2-5ppm no3. I tested today before dosing and I'm still sitting at 2-5ppm

I wouldn't worry too much about the uv, fluorescence is probably the best indicator of health of a coral imo.
I would back off the carbon dosing and get the no3/po4 up. 0 po4 is a very good way to kill everything since the corals still need some.
Also I would just feed more, it works wonders.

I cut down on vinegar a little bit. Increased feeding has brought my po4 up to .04ppm.

 

[JBNY]

I agree with others, you should stop carbon dosing if you want to dose Nitrates. The sole purpose of carbon dosing is to lower your nitrates, it make no sense to both carbon dose and Nitrate dose.

 

[Acroporaaddict]

Well, more acros are pale now. I have cut vinegar from 13ml /day to 1ml/ day. Should be completely off vinegar in a week or so. I've been adding 1ppm nitrate daily and the next day when I test it still reads 0. What is the max nitrate I can dose at once in order to get an idea on my systems nitrate consumption. Can I dose so my tank tests at 5ppm or is that to much?

 

[JBNY]

I keep N between 5-7 ppm. So you can raise it that high with no problems. But adding N while you are still carbon dosing is pointless. You need to dose N after you stop the Vinegar. You are probably only consuming .5-1 ppm of N a day but the Vinegar is making it look like you consume more.