I don’t know how to manage my nitrates. Anxious.

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

If the foods getting eaten I really don't see a problem with feeding a 200g display 4-5x a day.
D

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I don’t want ultra low nutrients. I just want to keep them in range and in balance.

"In range" is subjective and "in balance" might mean letting your tank do its own thing and see where it stabilizes.

But. But. I want my numbers in a range.

Nitrates need to be between 3-10ppm
Phosphates need to be between 0.03ppm-0.10ppm.

Again, why this specific range? I humbly suggest that you remove the word "need" from your vocabulary on this topic.

I know how hard you've worked on this tank and it's really paid off! I understand wanting to have complete control over every aspect, but nitrates at 8 (climbing or not) are not worrisome AT ALL.

I agree 100% with adding a refugium (or algae scrubber, algae reactor, etc). See if you can find a happy spot with your feeding schedule, and try not to stress (or change anything else) for a few weeks (continuing your weekly 15% WC schedule).

If nitrates climb above 15, then look at other options, but I really do believe that reducing feeding, regular water changes, and exporting nutrients through the use of a fuge are going to give you the best "control" and let your system find its balance.

P.S. You're doing an amazing job!

P.P.S. Do you have anything like Matrix in the sump? Something that will provide the anoxic zone for anaerobic bacteria to convert nitrate into nitrogen gas will be really helpful long term

 

[EugeneVan]

Hello @Randy Holmes-Farley

So I stopped carbon dosing for a few weeks, but my nitrates are slooooowly climbing up despite using an oversized skimmer, filter socks (changed 2x/week) + doing 15% weekly water changes. I do feed my fish often and well, and I believe that’s the cause of increasing nitrates.

I kind of just wanted to maintain my nitrates around 3-10 ppm. My nitrates are climbing to mid 8ppm which is still in range, but I don’t have control over it. It just keeps slowly getting higher and higher. I bring it down after the water change, but it reaches higher than the week prior in a few days.

I was thinking of just dosing 15mL of vinegar in my 260 gallon per day. I do use a UV. I don’t plan to dose microbacter 7.

I hope this will be ok for my acros…


I feel like I’m making a HUGE mistake. I just don’t know how else to maintain nitrates. I really don’t want to dose carbon because I’ve read people kill acros with it. But I don’t know how else to manage nitrates? I don’t have space for refugium and an algae scrubber is not something I’m interested in.

I’m just so anxious. I really want to carbon dose as it’s the “magic” solution which can be dialed up/down…I’m just so scared that I’ll kill my acros with it.

I’m just nervous right now. Does anyone have an idea on how to safely manage nitrates? I just want to have a safe solution like I do with GFO for phosphates. It’s a great solution. Maybe I need more corals, but I’m working at stocking the tank, it just takes time. I can definitely limit the food I feed.

I don’t want ultra low nutrients. I just want to keep them in range and in balance. If anyone has suggestions I’d be willing to hear them! Thanks!

Here’s my parameters:

Salinity: 35ppt
Calcium: 420ppm
Alkalinity: 8dkh
Phosphates: 0.05ppm
Nitrates: 8.5ppm
Temp: 77-78F
PH: 8.1-8.4

My water parameters are very similar to your except my nitrate level is at 20ppm. All my SPS, LPS grow well and show excellent color. No unwant alage anywhere in the 200 gal tank. Don’t chase numbers is the key.

 

[Jekyl]

Refugium, algae turf scrubber or an auto water change system.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Alright guys, I had the intention of feeding my fish 2x/day, so this morning I fed the tank pretty heavily.

I don’t think limiting food will be an easy task lol. I have a lot of small fish with fast metabolisms. I already dosed 15mL of vinegar last night (260 gallon tank) and everything is the same. I think I’ll just keep that dose and see if I can maintain my nitrates to where they are now.

I want to thank @taricha ,@Tamberav , @Spare time , and the other folks who made me feel better about carbon dosing. I will go slow (as I did in the past).

Cross over to the dark side and go bare bottom, your half way there lol. Imo not having sand helps keeping nutrients low with heavy feeding.

 

[Miami Reef]

I humbly suggest that you remove the word "need" from your vocabulary on this topic.

Sorry, I meant to say nitrates and phosphates need to be in that range for me.

I did not mean imply that everyone needs to have those levels of nutrients.

 

[JGT]

If the foods getting eaten I really don't see a problem with feeding a 200g display 4-5x a day.
D

Eh, not necessarily. What goes in, must come out. So either way, it’s still a lot of nitrates being added to the tank. A softer touch on feeding would yield benefits.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Sorry, I meant to say nitrates and phosphates need to be in that range for me.

I did not mean imply that everyone needs to have those levels of nutrients.

Oh, I understood that, lol.
I still have to wonder why those are the magic numbers...

 

[Miami Reef]

Oh, I understood that, lol.
I still have to wonder why those are the magic numbers...

Well, for one Randy commonly recommends it. And he is my biggest mentor in this hobby.

I recommend 2-10 ppm nitrate and 0.02-0.1 ppm phosphate.

So regardless of nitrate level, I consider above 0.1 ppm to be suboptimal.

But tanks can still thrive and be considered great tanks at higher levels of nitrate and phosphate. .

Higher levels of nutrients may inhibit calcification and also lead to excess zooxanthellae, leading to browner corals in susceptible ones. That’s why I aim to keep as pristine water quality as possible.

With carbon dosing, I was able to maintain super super low nitrates. The goal is always heavy in; heavy out.

I will try limiting the food tonight for real this time. I already cut my feedings from 5x to 2x. Now I will half the amount I fed.

It’s a work in progress.

I’ll keep the small vinegar dose as a general maintenance.

 

[EugeneVan]

Cross over to the dark side and go bare bottom, your half way there lol. Imo not having sand helps keeping nutrients low with heavy feeding.

Totally agree. And you can turn up the water flow

 

[Miami Reef]

Update:

Vinegar dosing is working very well for me. Thanks everyone!

 

[haitian_reefer]

Miami Reef are you on IG? If so, look up Koralito. His tan is gorgeous and his nutrients are 4x yours.

I myself started to dose nopox as I believe the high nutrients is the reason for my slow growth.

 

[olonmv]

Try giving this a read, This man has a beautiful reef tank with minimal equipment. He made a spectacular nitrate filter.

Poor Man's Nutrients Control - Donovan's Nitrate Destroyer

Hello fellow reefers!. I have been in the hobby for more than 3 years, the first 2 years was tough. Cyno, diatom, nuisance algae, high NO3 (120ppm at one time) and ich/velvet. I have tried several nutrient control method (poor man, so most of it were DIY project). GFO, water fall scrubber...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Miami Reef]

Miami Reef are you on IG? If so, look up Koralito. His tan is gorgeous and his nutrients are 4x yours.

I myself started to dose nopox as I believe the high nutrients is the reason for my slow growth.

I copied and pasted “Koralito” into IG…I did not see anything about reef tanks. I did see something that was slightly disturbing though lol.

Do you have a link to his page?

 

[haitian_reefer]

Sorry about that! https://z-p3.www.instagram.com/thekoralito/?hl=en

 

[Cjeippert]

Alright guys, I had the intention of feeding my fish 2x/day, so this morning I fed the tank pretty heavily.

I don’t think limiting food will be an easy task lol. I have a lot of small fish with fast metabolisms. I already dosed 15mL of vinegar last night (260 gallon tank) and everything is the same. I think I’ll just keep that dose and see if I can maintain my nitrates to where they are now.

I want to thank @taricha ,@Tamberav , @Spare time , and the other folks who made me feel better about carbon dosing. I will go slow (as I did in the past).

For me, dosing nopox or increasing amount takes weeks for bacteria to make an impact . even more so with uv killing the floating kind. I like to see a slow downward nitrate reading like .5 to 1 ppm per week. I have a fully stocked tank 175 gallons and use very little like 5 to 10ml max. I only like to bump carbon up like no more than 1 ml per week. In the past I overdosed or dosed like 16 ml and had some bad bacteria kill some corals so I stopped completely for a few months. However my nitrates stay stable at 18 to 20ppm without carbon. Which supposedly is what WWC is at. But I notice some polyps turning color of acro skin with 20 ppm. For example pink floyd red polyps are yellow/ brown. Carbon helps keep my nitrates closer to 10 to 12ppm. Phosphate is kept about .04 to .08 with rowaphos gfo.

 

[Cjeippert]

I have read studies that carbon dosing increases the bacteria that is attached to rocks to lower nitrates but also floating kind that feasts on phosphates. These phosphate bloated floating bacterias get eaten up by acro polyps which is how an acro ingests most of its phosphates. Remainder of phosphate full bacteria gets skimmed out. Corals absorb nitrate easily but have a difficult time consuming phosphates which are needed. I think I heard lou from tropic marin explain this on youtube. Feeding good bacteria and having good level of nutrients to keep them thriving is how I have managed to never have dinos or cyano….. oversized uv sterilizer definitely helps as well… my point is carbon can do many wonders for your tank as well. It fuels everything. I would not carbon dose with low nutrients though or else bad stuff will get fed potentially.

 

[Miami Reef]

Update: still doing vinegar. No coral deaths.

 

[Gatorpa]

You may or may not realize depending on the test accuracy the goal you have set out may be hard to reach and not needed at all.

Many pros run NO3 of over 20 and dose it.

If it’s too low you can risk STN from the corals starving.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Allot of people run different n03 numbers sure, but shooting for 20 is only one piece of these pros puzzle, there's other pieces that need to fit, so going of a value of 20ppm nitrates doesn't tell you the whole story. So it's the same as saying go for 3-5ppm because the bottle of NeoPhos says so....