Maintaining Nitrate and Phosphate

[TX_REEF]

So I am finally at the point through consistent testing and monitoring that I believe most maladies affecting the coral health in my display tank is due to the near-zero nitrate and elevated phosphate. I have finally tuned in my kalk dosing to maintain ~8-9 dkh, my ph is consistently ~8.2. I am needing some advice and guidance on how to maintain, in a sustainable way, a healthy level of nitrate and phosphate. about a year ago, both were zero. I got rid of my skimmer and algae turf scrubber, which helped a bit because now I have phosphate buildup, which is now generally around 0.10 on Hanna ULR tester. However, nitrate is still consistently undetectable or very near zero as tested with red sea, and API just for a second indication. I have tried dosing neonitro manually, and cannot seem to get readable nitrate following the bottle instructions. What sustainable options do I have to achieve and maintain a healthy and balanced level of Nitrate and Phosphate? It seems that ~5 nitrate and ~0.05 phosphate is a decent goal, open to suggestions here as well. thanks in advance.

 

[mjw011689]

I’d agree with your goal numbers… seems like most of the big coral farmers keep their numbers in that range.

As far as adding nitrate, the neonitro is really the only product I know of to ADD nitrate. I have had a couple tanks where I had to go through a couple bottles before it actually started accumulating. What fish load do you have? Feeding?

 

[Johnd651]

How high of a dosage of neonitro have you used? Size tank?

 

[Johnd651]

You can also dose ammonia


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/

 

[KStatefan]

ESV has a Nitrate product or you can dose DIY sodium nitrate or calcium nitrate or as mentioned above diy ammonia

 

[TX_REEF]

Thanks for the clarifying questions. I wonder if the large amount of coralline algae in the tank is consuming the nitrate from the fish, as I believe I am fairly well-stocked. I have pondered ammonia dosing, I am looking for as many informed suggestions as possible before I choose a path to forge down.

Tank is ~70 gallons with ~80 gallons total water volume (red sea reefer 350)

Fish (all healthy):
Yellow tang
coral beauty angel
2x occelaris clowns
2x springeri damsels
black molly
starry blenny
sixline wrasse

Corals/Nems:
2x BTA healthy
4x micromussa/acan frags ~1", semi-healthy looking
1 xenia colony, not healthy looking
2x small candycane colonies, not healthy looking
*lots of corals have died, I think this imbalance is the cause

 

[Patx]

I can tell that my No3 are related to my feeding and refugium light schedule.
When needed i change hrs of light or...
add more sinking pellets with a auto feeder*

I have amonium and neonitro on hand (didn't use for now)

Ps: refugium (mostly full of xenia) .

 

[rtparty]

Dose ammonia and phosphate. Randy has great threads and recipes for both

 

[TX_REEF]

I can tell that my No3 are related to my feeding and refugium light schedule.
When needed i change hrs of light or...
add more sinking pellets with a auto feeder*

I have amonium and neonitro on hand (didn't use for now)

Yes, I got my nutrients up from zero zero initially by heavy feeding. However, my concern at this point is that phopshate is already elevated, and nitrate remains zero, despite heavy feeding, so I don't want to continue this course and allow phosphate to rise to (more) harmful levels in absence of nitrate.

 

[Patx]

Yes, I got my nutrients up from zero zero initially by heavy feeding. However, my concern at this point is that phopshate is already elevated, and nitrate remains zero, despite heavy feeding, so I don't want to continue this course and allow phosphate to rise to (more) harmful levels in absence of nitrate.

I dose phosphate, pellet don't seem to add po4 (in my case)
But, yep amonium could be your path or calcium nitrate.

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks for the clarifying questions. I wonder if the large amount of coralline algae in the tank is consuming the nitrate from the fish, as I believe I am fairly well-stocked. I have pondered ammonia dosing, I am looking for as many informed suggestions as possible before I choose a path to forge down.

Tank is ~70 gallons with ~80 gallons total water volume (red sea reefer 350)

Fish (all healthy):
Yellow tang
coral beauty angel
2x occelaris clowns
2x springeri damsels
black molly
starry blenny
sixline wrasse

Corals/Nems:
2x BTA healthy
4x micromussa/acan frags ~1", semi-healthy looking
1 xenia colony, not healthy looking
2x small candycane colonies, not healthy looking
*lots of corals have died, I think this imbalance is the cause

I have the XL300 tank but have 4 more fish then you heavily fed 2 to 3 times daily. This sustains my nitrates and phosphates levels with a heavily stocked corals wall to wall.

 

[exnisstech]

I use food grade sodium nitrate when I need to raise NO3 in my acro tank. I was going to switch to dosing ammonium and actually set it all up but I chickened out. Everything in the tank is doing so well I'm hesitant to change anything.

 

[VintageReefer]

Feed some reef roids to the corals every 2-3 days

It’s like…Powdered phosphate lol

 

[TX_REEF]

I have the XL300 tank but have 4 more fish then you heavily fed 2 to 3 times daily. This sustains my nitrates and phosphates levels with a heavily stocked corals wall to wall.

Oh dear, please don’t get it in my head that I need more fish, I’m trying to be good :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[TX_REEF]

Feed some reef roids to the corals every 2-3 days

It’s like…Powdered phosphate lol

I did that last year, it helped me get phosphate up from zero, but now my phosphate is stable around .1 with no nitrates so I don’t think I should intentionally boost phosphates further without a sustainable solution for nitrate

 

[Pistondog]

Thanks for the clarifying questions. I wonder if the large amount of coralline algae in the tank is consuming the nitrate from the fish, as I believe I am fairly well-stocked. I have pondered ammonia dosing, I am looking for as many informed suggestions as possible before I choose a path to forge down.

Tank is ~70 gallons with ~80 gallons total water volume (red sea reefer 350)

Fish (all healthy):
Yellow tang
coral beauty angel
2x occelaris clowns
2x springeri damsels
black molly
starry blenny
sixline wrasse

Corals/Nems:
2x BTA healthy
4x micromussa/acan frags ~1", semi-healthy looking
1 xenia colony, not healthy looking
2x small candycane colonies, not healthy looking
*lots of corals have died, I think this imbalance is the cause

Dosing ammonia bicarb in 125 totals gallons
Solution: 20 grams in 1 liter rodi
Dose 8 ml over 24 hours.
Target nitrates at 10ppm.

 

[TX_REEF]

Dosing ammonia bicarb in 125 totals gallons
Solution: 20 grams in 1 liter rodi
Dose 8 ml over 24 hours.
Target nitrates at 10ppm.

Is it ok to raise nitrate 10ppm in 24 hours?

 

[Pistondog]

Is it ok to raise nitrate 10ppm in 24 hours?

The dosing above will not do that.
Id adjust to 5ml per 24 hours to start for your tank.
It might take a week to get up to 10 ppm.
Or it might never get there depending on your tank nitrate use and feeding.
Adjust as required.

 

[OctaviusBrine]

How much neronitro are you dosing? back when I had a similar sized tank I believe one cap full would bring it up 1.0

 

[TX_REEF]

How much neronitro are you dosing? back when I had a similar sized tank I believe one cap full would bring it up 1.0

I followed the instructions to add ~5mL per 75 gallons per day which they say on the bottle should raise 0.5ppm which they say is the max advisable per day. Should I disregard this and simply dose more heavily?