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FWIW, food grade sodium nitrate is cheap and easy to dose.
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Would it help if I shut my skimmer down or at the very least put it on a cycle where it shuts down at certain times?You can feed more, or dose nitrate or something like an amino acid.
IMO, cyano is worth it to avoid dinos.
Would it help if I shut my skimmer down or at the very least put it on a cycle where it shuts down at certain times?
Randy, can you give be a good source for the sodium nitrate?FWIW, food grade sodium nitrate is cheap and easy to dose.
JMO, but your tank is very new and started with dead rock and only 2 months old!Higher nutrients means I need to add Nitrates some how, I am already seeing a slight Cyano out break which only occurs when I feed more, so I tend to cut back and it goes away. Should I continue to feed more and push thru the Cyano or is there another way I can add nitrates with out having to dump an entire bottle of "XYZ" additive in my system which is between 400-450 gallons?
Randy, can you give be a good source for the sodium nitrate?
maybe this?
Really interesting.
So, if I have lower nutrients alk should be in the 7's but higher nutrients @ alk can be higher 8 - 11.
Burnt tips on SPS could equal high alk with low nutrients.
Do some research and you will find that people running close to NSW big 3 levels have far less issues than people running higher alk, imo.Really interesting.
So, if I have lower nutrients alk should be in the 7's but higher nutrients @ alk can be higher 8 - 11.
Burnt tips on SPS could equal high alk with low nutrients.
You say you are dosing Nitrates, care to elaborate on your process? I seen the calculator but what is your ratio? Do you premix a gallon and just dose from that? I have never dosed Nitrates, so I am trying to learn as much as possible. This thread has opened my eyes so much. Randy has so much knowledge.This is really interesting. I too am dealing with low nutrients. I am actually dosing nitrates to try and keep it around 4-5, but phosphates are usually 0-0.1 (according to RS test kits). No matter what I do, I can get phosphates up. Now, my alkalinity goes from 8.6-9.1 at times. Still trying to figure better stability. I have a mixed reef...LPS is doing great, but SPS is kind of meh.
At this rate, I’m willing to try a new approach. Stop the nitrate dosing, let it drop, and lower my Alk to around 7.75, obviously slowly. Do you think this is an okay idea Randy? Or what would you do?
You say you are dosing Nitrates, care to elaborate on your process? I seen the calculator but what is your ratio? Do you premix a gallon and just dose from that? I have never dosed Nitrates, so I am trying to learn as much as possible. This thread has opened my eyes so much. Randy has so much knowledge.
you have a large system so you might not want to mix it with a gallon, i have around 300 gallons of volume & dose nitrate & phosphate to keep levels up also using the http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm i mix 1 tablespoon with 500ml of rodi water, then dose 30 ml to bring my level up by about 0.3-0.5 this way I'm not adding so much rodi water to my tank independently of my ato system. if you need to dose often & continue doing so for some time adding more rodi with your dosing might start to drop your salinity level, & then that's just one more thing you need to correct. if you had a 30 gallon cube your best to mix it with a gallon, because small dosing amounts will have greater affect if you add a few ml too much, but i find that with large systems like yours it's better to use a more potent mixture & minimize the extra rodi your adding to your system. also when i mix it i fill the bottle about 3/4 full of rodi then add my 1 tablespoon of dry mix, cap it & shake the daylights out of it to mix it well then fill the bottle the rest of the way & shake again. after it sets for a few days & i need to dose again i always shake the bottle pretty good before dosing again just to be sure.You say you are dosing Nitrates, care to elaborate on your process? I seen the calculator but what is your ratio? Do you premix a gallon and just dose from that? I have never dosed Nitrates, so I am trying to learn as much as possible. This thread has opened my eyes so much. Randy has so much knowledge.
So what NO3 and PO4 levels are we talking for high nutrients matched to high alk?
I currently have 1ppm NO3 and 0.07 PO4 at about 9.4 dkH alk.