Nitrate dosing question

[jhaggerty1990]

So I have a 25g, and I'm trying to balance my nitrates. My phosphates always seem to be around .03. However, my nitrates bottom out unless I'm just way overfeeding. Without the skimmer, they start to climb too high, so I was going to dose nitrates. The skimmer doesn't immediately remove them, correct? Like I can dose while leaving my skimmer on 24/7, right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Skimmers cannot remove nitrate that is dosed. :)

 

[Reeferbadness]

I have 2 tanks (200g each) with refugiums and the chaeto def sucks out nitrates at a higher level than Phos - in this case, if i don't dose nitrates i bottom out at 0 and the corals suffer. I dose NeoNitrate (i know @Randy Holmes-Farley has a few threads on ammonia dosing for this same purpose) and gradually bring nitrates back up to 5 - 10ppm. My Phos is usually between .05 and 0.08

 

[Science/G]

I have 2 tanks (200g each) with refugiums and the chaeto def sucks out nitrates at a higher level than Phos - in this case, if i don't dose nitrates i bottom out at 0 and the corals suffer. I dose NeoNitrate (i know @Randy Holmes-Farley has a few threads on ammonia dosing for this same purpose) and gradually bring nitrates back up to 5 - 10ppm. My Phos is usually between .05 and 0.08

I just started a poll on the impact of chaeto on nitrates and phosphates. Your observation is really interesting. I noticed something very similar in my classroom reef aquarium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I just started a poll on the impact of chaeto on nitrates and phosphates. Your observation is really interesting. I noticed something very similar in my classroom reef aquarium.

All macroalgae consume significantly more N than P because living tissue contains far more N (such as in every amino acid of every protein) than P.