Dosing reef tank (0 nitrates) with water from freshwater tank (200ppm nitrates)

[ewanho]

Anyone doing this currently:

i have a reef tank that is pretty much zero for nitrates;
Also have a freshwater tank that apparently has 200 ppm nitrates.

was going to add some of the freshwater to the reef tank for a source of nitrates

 

[Doctorgori]

I can’t see why not, maybe even as top off water...my concern would be other nasties, is the FW tank planted?

 

[ewanho]

No plants, just cichlids and plecos. However just tested phosphate is at or above 3ppm in the freshwater tank.

in reef tank phosphate is about 0.04.

so will add a pipette full of freshwater every day to the reef tank and test phos and nitrates as an experiment.

 

[Doctorgori]

Your coral biomass high? Whats your fish load like? One suggestion is try feeding flake food and see what happens. VERY anecdotal but flake seems to funky the water more than pellets. Again, anecdotal.
Added: your phosphate is dead on target, seems tricky to elevate nitrate w/o affecting it.

 

[Doctorgori]

why can’t you dose nitrate or are you just looking for a simpler solution

 

[ewanho]

I have lots of zoas, a few favias;
Fish are only 2 clown fish that get garlic flakes.
I add hikari brine frozen cubes about three times a week.
Just Calculated thanfor every cup (250mL) of freshwater I would raise the phosphates by 0.02 and nitrates very little by 0.9;
Well lets see what happens

 

[ewanho]

why can’t you dose nitrate or are you just looking for a simpler solution

Dosing nitrate? Not sure of a supplier in Canada. Is it made by Seachem or one of the other big guys?

 

[Silly clownfish]

Not quite the same, but when my 75g reef tank was at 10-20, and the 30g had zero nitrates and a Dino problem, I used change water out of the 75 so I could vacuum and change water out of the 30. It helped a bit, but the 30g would consume the imported nitrates faster than I wanted to be doing water changes. Plus I got the 75g under control pretty quick.

I think using the water out of your freshwater tank as top off in your salt tank sounds like a good Source of natural nitrate. As long as you don’t have any significant problems in the FW tank, I would not worry much about transferring parasites since most nasties have a fairly limited range of specific gravity.

 

[ewanho]

Thanks very much!

 

[sagedrake690]

So the nitrate buildup is because you dont have plants. Put some in there and bro....they will go ham. They eat up phosphates and stop or slow algae growth. They add food so you cut back on feeding and help add oxygen. If your power goes out it could mean the diff between dead fish and still thriving tank. They also add surface area for bacteria to nitrify waste into plant food. I havent fed my river betta tank since I set it up 7 months ago. Sometimes I drop 1/2 algae wafter for the pleco but it never gets eaten and just causes a small algae bloom that the pleco does eat lol.

 

[ewanho]

Oh sorry you may have misunderstood; the freshwater nitrates i am not concerned about;
Its been running well for almost ten years.

just want to increase nitrates in my reef tank using the freshwater high nitrate water.

 

[sagedrake690]

Well it should work in theory. Nitrates aren't that toxic unless they're in super high ammounts but Idk what that is lol.

Fish Pee, Coral's Number One Nutrient Supply, Cut by Fishing

Fish urine plays an important role in coral reefs' food chain—but unsustainable fishing can devastate this natural nutrient flow.

www.google.com

I would guess if you had a large enough tank you could dose your own urine. I know that sounds insane but... Its nature. Its chemistry. It has plenty of beneficial nutrients for coral.

 

[ewanho]

Lol urine would kill the tank in a few hours; look at the structure of urea as it breaks down to ammonia; also the tam hostfwldt Uromodulin protein impacts the balance of soluble and insoluble components in the tank. And since each persons urine can be significantly different in composition, you would never get a routine consistent dosing actually;

 

[ewanho]

If using the urine model, i would stock more fish rather than use human Urine. Since i take 14 different drugs each more, better to use urine closer to the source, so more fish