Newbie’s Nitrate and Torch coral Q

[Gavin Noy]

Good afternoon all. Novice reefer question. Been reading up alot about Nitrates and corals. I have 2 torch corals that have been in my nano for about 9 days. I have zero nitrates. Tried over feeding, nothing has happened yet. My torches seem happy enough to me. They open nicely every day. One shot its colour out its mouth on day 2 so i reduced the lighting by 3 hours per day and its slowly colouring up. I have no real algae issues.

The question. Should i dose some neo nitro and get it up to 2-6 ppm ish to help my torch corals? I am testing every couple of days really trying to make my tank work. Or is dosing nitrates not that important?

Peramiters today are
0 nitrates
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 phos
kh alk 9.9
mag 1230
calc 400
Salinity 1.026

Light on 8 hrs a day. Tank fluval evo 13.5g

 

[Spare time]

I'd just feed extra and feed the coral since you have 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate. What test kits are you using? Alternatively you can mix some vitachem marine into your fish food (ideally dry food so it soaks it up), and let your corals take the leftovers.

 

[slingfox]

You should consider getting your mag level higher. 1400 is what I was recommended to aim for.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not a fan of any Brightwell product, including neonitro, but I agree that raising nitrate is a good idea, either by feeding more or dosing food grade sodium or calcium nitrate from amazon. The neonitro is expensive and lacks any purity info.

 

[TheSheff]

I'm not a fan of any Brightwell product, including neonitro, but I agree that raising nitrate is a good idea, either by feeding more or dosing food grade sodium or calcium nitrate from amazon. The neonitro is expensive and lacks any purity info.

are there any differences to consider between calcium nitrate and sodium nitrate?

 

[randomfishdude]

I will pop in here rq, adding neo nitro raises your alk. So I would go slowly if you do.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

are there any differences to consider between calcium nitrate and sodium nitrate?

Yes, calcium nitrate adds alkalinity and calcium in a balanced fashion, like kalkwasser or a CaCO3/CO2 reactor. Sodium nitrate adds just alk.

Both add 2.3 dKH of alk for every 50 ppm of nitrate dosed and consumed.

Depending on how you maintain alk and calcium, calcium nitrate may be easier to accommodate, but may be harder to find.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If adding alk is a concern, one can use ammonia instead:

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[TheSheff]

If adding alk is a concern, one can use ammonia instead:

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

have you heard of anyone experiencing negative effects from doing this?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

have you heard of anyone experiencing negative effects from doing this?

No, but but there not large numbers doing it. IMO, it is certainly safe, when dosed appropriately, but you can see folks experiences in the thread.