My tank is TOO clean...

[WestonNanos]

So last night I got the High Range Hanna Nitrate Checker. I ran the test and got a 0.0... I figured my nitrates were too high or too low as I am trying to get better color out of some of my corals.

I have a 50 gallon IM lagoon AIO with...
baby regal tang
two clowns
tailspot blenny
lawnmower blenny
And I feed them pellets with selcon daily. I also dose 5 ml of AB+ amino acids every other day.

After seeing 0.0 on the checker I turned my skimmer off for the night.

I obviously need to increase nutrients in my tank, but I would like to do it naturally. IE I would prefer to add some chromis or something and only run my skimmer a couple of hours a day. I just really dont want to buy another bottle that I have to depend on for dosing nitrates. In a perfect world, my skimmer and nutrient absorption from coral would be in balance with the feeding and bioload.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[a.t.t.r]

Just feed more. Even fish won't help much unless they are being fed. Feed coral food as well.

Almost 20 years in this hobby and I never thought we would be having issues keeping nutrients up. I have actually switched to topping off with tap water....

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You might look into measuring phosphate too. If it's high, then dosing nitrate is another option that won't impact phosphate.

 

[WestonNanos]

You might look into measuring phosphate too. If it's high, then dosing nitrate is another option that won't impact phosphate.

Thankyou for the quick response! Is there a preferred ratio of phosphate to nitrate?

Just feed more. Even fish won't help much unless they are being fed. Feed coral food as well.

Almost 20 years in this hobby and I never thought we would be having issues keeping nutrients up. I have actually switched to topping off with tap water....

Im definitely going to start feeding more! I think I also have some reef chili in the closet, thanks for the reminder!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thankyou for the quick response! Is there a preferred ratio of phosphate to nitrate?

Im definitely going to start feeding more! I think I also have some reef chili in the closet, thanks for the reminder!

No, ratios are misleading and not optimal.

There are preferred ranges for both, and, IMO, 2-10 ppm nitrate and 0.02 to 0.1 ppm phosphate are fine ranges for an ordinary reef aquarium.

 

[WestonNanos]

No, ratios are misleading and not optimal.

There are preferred ranges for both, and, IMO, 2-10 ppm nitrate and 0.02 to 0.1 ppm phosphate are fine ranges for an ordinary reef aquarium.

Awesome, great info, thanks

 

[jda]

I would look into dosing ammonia/ammonium instead of nitrate if you really feel that your corals need more nitrogen. It appears that nearly all "coral" can use ammonia/ammonium more efficiently than nitrate and and some "corals" cannot use nitrate at all.

All of that said, if you just feed your fish more, you are probably good. My residual nitrates are about .10 that needs ICP to detect (I have not tried the new Hannah low nitrate) the available nitrogen is likely very high since everything thrives. Even if I added a bunch more nitrate on the backend, the anoxic bacteria in my sand and rocks would multiple to crush it right back down to where just a trace remains.

Availabilty > residual

 

[Spare time]

So last night I got the High Range Hanna Nitrate Checker. I ran the test and got a 0.0... I figured my nitrates were too high or too low as I am trying to get better color out of some of my corals.

I have a 50 gallon IM lagoon AIO with...
baby regal tang
two clowns
tailspot blenny
lawnmower blenny
And I feed them pellets with selcon daily. I also dose 5 ml of AB+ amino acids every other day.

After seeing 0.0 on the checker I turned my skimmer off for the night.

I obviously need to increase nutrients in my tank, but I would like to do it naturally. IE I would prefer to add some chromis or something and only run my skimmer a couple of hours a day. I just really dont want to buy another bottle that I have to depend on for dosing nitrates. In a perfect world, my skimmer and nutrient absorption from coral would be in balance with the feeding and bioload.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Up the dosage of AB+. Corals can tolerate 0 nitrate if they are getting nitrogen from somewhere (this is how it works in the wild) and yours are likely getting much of it from the amino acid mix. My tank is a perfect example. I ran essentially 0 nitrate for months but HEAVILY dosed amino based products

 

[jda]

BTW - I would keep that skimmer on. They do more than just export dissolved organics.

 

[WestonNanos]

BTW - I would keep that skimmer on. They do more than just export dissolved organics.

Assuming you're talking about the gas exchange/PH increase... I have a window open and the surface of the water looks like a boiling pot of water

 

[jda]

It will also export heavy metals and toxins bound to organics. Some of these get into your tank with almost every kind of food, among other places. This is not a bid deal as long as they don't accumulate, and the skimmer is a big part of them not accumulating.

I don't want to turn this into a skimmer thing, and you certainly don't need one, but I would use it until you come up with a comprehensive plan to replace what it was doing.

With your current issue, even if it helps the no3 level rise on the backend, did you really help the corals any if they are indeed nitrogen starved?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Assuming you're talking about the gas exchange/PH increase... I have a window open and the surface of the water looks like a boiling pot of water

Have you ever measured the day/night pH swing? That's a way to gauge aeration.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Leave skimmer on and dump the cup back into the tank, lol it’s free nitrate / phos dosing. Done it before when tank is getting too clean works

 

[WestonNanos]

Have you ever measured the day/night pH swing? That's a way to gauge aeration.

I have not, but I live in California on the coast and the windows are always open right next to the tank unless it is raining. I cant imagine it would swing much, right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have not, but I live in California on the coast and the windows are always open right next to the tank unless it is raining. I cant imagine it would swing much, right?

Folks often think they have good aeration by looking at the tank, but the pH swing will disappear with complete aeration, and almost no one attains that.

Whether complete aeration is necessary or not is perhaps a debatable question, but I've never seen anyone post a graph of a steady pH day to night.

 

[sgrosenb]

I would look into dosing ammonia/ammonium instead of nitrate if you really feel that your corals need more nitrogen. It appears that nearly all "coral" can use ammonia/ammonium more efficiently than nitrate and and some "corals" cannot use nitrate at all.

@jda I have been dosing Sodium Nitrate (Loudwolf) in an effort to keep my NO3 above 0. It sounds like that might not be the right approach and my SPS can't really do anything with the Nitrate, but would benefit from ammonia dosing instead.

Any thoughts on what a good ammonia dosing product might be that won't also increase PO4? I have a decent amount of fish, and I would feed more to keep ammonia / NO3 up, but I've found doing so raises my PO4 too high. So I'm in that tough position where I want NO3 (or maybe better said, ammonia), but I can't get enough without raising my PO4 too high.

Thanks as always for your insight.

-Scott

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

While corals may preferentially take up ammonia when they have both, they can use either one.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not know of any commercial ammonia dosing products, aside from cycling products, so you may have to repurpose some other product if you want to regularly dose ammonia.

 

[Spare time]

I do not know of any commercial ammonia dosing products, aside from cycling products, so you may have to repurpose some other product if you want to regularly dose ammonia.

The dr tim's ammonium chloride is super cheap.

 

[jda]

I have used janitorial strength ammonium from the hardware store. I only use it in tanks with no fish, so that is not all of the time for me. There is no po4 in ammonium.