How do you bump up nitrates

[Abhishek]

Does anyone keep track of the nitrate/phosphate ratio? I ordered potassium nitrate and phosphate. I want to experiment with the Redfield ratio.

Well I would never dose phosphate as hobby grade testkits are hardly accurate enough to show true phosphate value and its quite easy to overdose.
Easy enough to raise phosphates naturally by feeding frozen foods and reducing GFO usage.
Nitrates - yes, I dose sodium nitrate to hold values steady at 5 ppm .
Phosphates - Stopped measuring it long back and just monthly change GFO . Ofcourse I feed 5-6 times a day with frozen foods for my anthias and wrasses which will hold phosphates up pretty easily .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[mcarroll]

Does anyone keep track of the nitrate/phosphate ratio? I ordered potassium nitrate and phosphate. I want to experiment with the Redfield ratio.

Not that I know of, but some creative forum searches (on the website) for "nitrate phosphate test" should at least generate some data for you.

You'd like this reading:

• Results of the 1991 United States-Israel Workshop, “Nutrient Limitations in the Symbiotic Association between Zooxanthellae and Reef-building Corals”
• Ratio of Energy and Nutrient Fluxes Regulates Symbiosis between Zooxanthellae and Corals

 

[FindNem0]

Let's see these tanks!!!!!! I'm excited.

 

[Andres Ricardo perez]

You are right of course, and I haven't been doing this for too long compared to some people....but I've always been under the impression that fish waste came from fish food. ;)

If you're choosing a whole or live food like you should, the PO4 and N will be balanced. If you're dealing with an industrially composed food, then it's possible things could be out of whack, but probably not even then.

(Denitrification is what's usually behind the disparity of NO3 and PO4 in a tank where NO3 is low or zero while PO4 builds higher and higher. There's no similar EXIT for PO4 so if nothing like corals or algae are growing and using it, it just builds up. Beyond a certain point, low-NO3 itself actually feeds into this disparity.)

I have that same problem, null nitrates and high phosphate, I cannot export phosphate and my chaeto does not grow due to lack of nitrate, which I could do without using kno3 or overfeeding without increasing phosphate

 

[beaslbob]

I would think dosing calcium nitrate (from garden/plant store) would be effective in keeping some level (5ppm or so) of nitrates.

my .02