How to balance the system

[nzkiwi80]

So I’ve been struggling with my system for a while now, struggling in the sense that corals are not growing or very slow and I’m talking Green Star Polyip / Zoa etc

I did a ICP test, most looked good but nitrate was very low so I increased feeding,

A month on my Hanna is testing Nitrates at 0.0 and Phosphate at 0.88ppm which has spiked.

I’ve put a touch of RowaPhos in the sump to bring that down but I suspect I’m just feeding algae.

I do have bubble algae I’d like to remove, nothing huge but annoying!

Anyway, how can I increase nitrates without feeding algae and spiking phosphate

System is 350L 4 fish, 3 years old.

 

[exnisstech]

You could dose ammonium. It works well for me. I get bakers ammonium bicarb from Amazon

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-chart.1123913/

 

[EnterName]

I second exnisstech's suggestion. I'm dosing ammonia and phosphate myself (phosphate won't be required in your case). Every hour my dosing pump is adding a few mL of an ammonia bicarbonate solution to my tank and it's working absolutely great.

The problem with adding more food is that you will inevitably add more phosphate and organics to the tank. In your case phosphate is already very high so you definitely want to avoid that. Organics are rarely measured and we don't know the optimal target ranges, but I don't really think they will be "too low" in a reef tank that has been running for a while.

Adding food will only slowly increase nutrient levels as it takes a while for the matter to break down. This makes it very difficult to know when to stop so you don't accidentally overshoot and end up with too much detritus in your tank. By dosing ammonia, you will know exactly how much nitrogen you are introducing into the system and you can stop any time when nitrate increases too much. You wouldn't be able to stop the detritus from releasing nutrients without putting in a lot of work cleaning the tank.

The only potential downside is that adding ammonia will only offer a single nitrogen source (you can add urea to the recipe to provide a second nitrogen source). Food that is being broken down, however, will introduce different amino acids which, according to some studies, corals can take up very fast [1]. Amino acid dosing is another possibility, but I would still consider it "experimental" as we don't know if there is an actual benefit to it or not yet. So if there actually is any downside to this method is questionable and I don't think you will have any problems with it.

[1]: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb...2/Uptake-of-dissolved-free-amino-acids-by-the

 

[nzkiwi80]

Won’t that just feed the algae?

 

[EnterName]

Won’t that just feed the algae?

Well all nutrients you add will feed algae no matter the form. Detritus will get broken down and end up as dissolved nutrients as well sooner or later.
Even if you feed your corals directly only a portion of the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the food will be bound to the animal's tissue for longer periods of time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I’ve been struggling with my system for a while now, struggling in the sense that corals are not growing or very slow and I’m talking Green Star Polyip / Zoa etc

I did a ICP test, most looked good but nitrate was very low so I increased feeding,

A month on my Hanna is testing Nitrates at 0.0 and Phosphate at 0.88ppm which has spiked.

I’ve put a touch of RowaPhos in the sump to bring that down but I suspect I’m just feeding algae.

I do have bubble algae I’d like to remove, nothing huge but annoying!

Anyway, how can I increase nitrates without feeding algae and spiking phosphate

System is 350L 4 fish, 3 years old.

I have a similar situation and I dose ammonium bicarbonate. I stopped for a while, but today nitrate was bottomed out while phosphate was fine, so I restarted it.

 

[nzkiwi80]

Where can you get this stuff from

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What is your lighting like? To me, growing corals is 90% about the light, and 10% for flow, parameters mean very little as long as they are within range and it is a wide range that is acceptable. IME, corals not growing or growing very slow is usually related to low lighting.

 

[allof fish]

What is your lighting like? To me, growing corals is 90% about the light, and 10% for flow, parameters mean very little as long as they are within range and it is a wide range that is acceptable. IME, corals not growing or growing very slow is usually related to low lighting.

I agree that can be a possibility. But op also said gsp and zoas. Dosing ammonia or nitrates can work. What works for me in feeding more often but making sure all the food gets eaten and doesn’t just break down as leftover food

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I agree that can be a possibility. But op also said gsp and zoas. Dosing ammonia or nitrates can work. What works for me in feeding more often but making sure all the food gets eaten and doesn’t just break down as leftover food

Not at all to argue I think all the suggestions are helpful to the op, but op also mentioned he has bubble algae growing, so in my mind if there is enough nutrients for algae to grow, then the corals have enough nutrients too.

For me I figure that no growth on zoa's and gsp for 3 years is pretty extreme, thats a long time! Hopefully it really is as simple as just increasing the nitrates slightly and the corals will start growing. But in case it doesn't happen it might be worth to get some info on the lights and flow.

 

[exnisstech]

Where can you get this stuff from

I see your not in the US so I'm not sure but here's where I get it. LINK

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Where can you get this stuff from

Look for baking ammonia.

 

[mfinn]

I think you should get a handle on the algae first before adding anything that could possibly feed it.
You said it's "nothing huge", but we all know how bad bubble algae can get and it can be a big issue down the road.