Low Nitrate Problem in Fluval Evo 13.5

[Aqua Man]

If you ask a chemist, add sodium nitrate or calcium nitrate.

If you ask a biologist, add more food or more fish.

Ask a reefer with a decade of experience, nitrates!? Hold on let me dust off my kit that’s probably expired! Lol.. IMO nitrates don’t matter much unless extremely high.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you ask a chemist, add sodium nitrate or calcium nitrate.

If you ask a biologist, add more food or more fish.

Ask a reefer with a decade of experience, nitrates!? Hold on let me dust off my kit that’s probably expired! Lol.. IMO nitrates don’t matter much unless extremely high.

I'm a chemist and a biologist and a reefer, which is presumably why I recommend both when appropriate, or either one alone when it is more appropriate. :)

 

[ElementReefer]

Now that my tank is established, I have found empirically that it’s more helpful to track my phosphates than nitrates. If phosphates are in a good range, coral are happy, and nitrates seem to work themselves out. I don’t test nitrates very often anymore.

When my tank was young, it didn’t matter because nutrients were all over the place all the time.

 

[maalta]

Oh wow, I go on a trip, come back, and see this thread has blown up. I really appreciate all the feedback and discussion.

It appears that there are differing opinions on how to tackle this issue. I fully acknowledge that there’s more than one way to have a successful reef, and there may be more than one solution to my problem.

Let me give some more background:

My concern with low nitrates revolves around my pesky battle with Dino’s. I had a horrible outbreak early on (about month 3) that wiped out a few corals, and I’ve been paranoid about an outbreak ever since.

I noticed the beginning of another Dino outbreak around the same time my nitrates started to decrease. I combated the problem early with a 2 day blackout and temporarily running a Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer. Took care of the problem in about a week.

Unfortunately a few weeks later I began to see the beginnings of bubbles on my rock work and a few strings on my toadstool suggesting the Dino’s were creeping back. I put my UV back in the tank and the problem isn’t getting worse.

The correlation between lower nitrates and Dino’s appearing is why I was aiming to keep my nitrates around 10. But maybe as my tank continues to mature, my beneficial bacteria will start to consistently outcompete my dinos and I should just continue to treat as needed for the time being.

On another note - my Orphek lenses just came in so I’ll grab a picture of the tank tomorrow after work.

Thank you again everyone for the advice and lively discussion