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ThanksWelcome welcome welcome to the r2r!! Looks like you need more nitrogen going in. This could be anything from amino acids to nitrate itself, and if you're advanced you can also use ammonium. Good luck!!
Hi and thanks for the suggestion. I think this is the right way to go. I have started testing the nitrate and phosphate weekly and I will, test your suggestion over the next 6 months or so and see how it goesThis is a crisis that I have experienced before. The cause can be a continuous, slow build up of nitrates in the bio filtration. Then, you think you are helping by removing the bio filtration media or replacing it, which causes a huge spike in nitrates. I have found it best to rinse about 50% of the media in RO water (throw out rinse water!) about ever 3 months. Keep a close eye on the before/after Nitrate numbers. Don't know if this applies to you, but let me know if this helped. GOOD LUCK!
Thanks
I tried boosting my nitrates through feeding but I only saw phosphates rise.
My LFS also advised me to do some dosing. The problem with dosing as I see it is the size of the system and the maintenance schedule, as I do 5-10 liter water changes weekly or bi-weekly (15-30%). Thus water parameters should be kept in check by water changes. Also, I do not think dosing is going to be affordable or easy for such a small system where water parameters fluctuate quickly.
I, therefore, think I will try what imerk proposed, by rinsing 50% of my biohome media every 3 months, as I think the biological filtration in the system is too high (Can it be too high?).
Yes you can remove your nitrifying bacteria so the ammonia isn't 'stolen' as much (and will remove some heterotrophic bacteria that use ammonia as well). In essence this is increasing nitrogen as NH4/NH3 to your other residents. The idea that it is going to increase nitrates though? Not sure how unless you're thinking you have a large anaerobic denitrifying population in your biomedia?
Oh and to be sure I am not personally worried about nitrates at all, except maybe as a signal that there is not enough nitrogen fluxing through the system.
Yet if you want nitrate you will have to increase nitrogen in some way. That could mean dosing nitrate...So for example
It would be really inexpensive to add nitrate to your water change water to the same concentration as the tank. So if you decide to run 2ppm in your tank, then you can add 2ppm to your water change water. For a tank your size a pound of sodium nitrate would last years upon years and shouldn't cost too much. I can get a 5 lb bag in the US for $21. If you dosed 2ppm daily in your ~35 liter, plus a bit to water change, lets say 2ppm/50L or 137mg daily (which is probably a lot for your system). So in this instance a 5lb bag would last more than 16500 days.