Nitrates stuck at 0ppm slow coral growth

[Hans-Werner]

Hi,

in my eyes low phosphate is responsible for the slow growth. According to the latest findings of a doctoral thesis from 2017 at the University of Florida nitrate can damage your corals with low phosphate concentrations. Adding nitrate with low phosphate concentrations may result in bleaching and burning of coral tips, montipora plates and in general of parts exposed to light.
All scientific findings under controled conditions (aquaria) of the last few years and my own experience say the same.

I recommend to feed the fish more or to feed the corals.

 

[Grantlewis1983]

Hi,

in my eyes low phosphate is responsible for the slow growth. According to the latest findings of a doctoral thesis from 2017 at the University of Florida nitrate can damage your corals with low phosphate concentrations. Adding nitrate with low phosphate concentrations may result in bleaching and burning of coral tips, montipora plates and in general of parts exposed to light.
All scientific findings under controled conditions (aquaria) of the last few years and my own experience say the same.

I recommend to feed the fish more or to feed the corals.

Is this research posted online somewhere?
Interesting so I'd ask what levels of phosphate are good in what ratio to nitrate are we looking at?

 

[Cory]

FWIW, skimmers remove all sorts of crap and do not remove nitrate directly. Nitrate may rise if you skim less, but so will other things, such as organics generally, which also may include toxins, whole bacteria, etc.

IMO, it makes more sense to remove as much generalized crap as possible and add back exactly what you want (whether that is nitrate, or something similar, such as amino acids).

Skimmers also help a lot with O2 and CO2 gas exchange, and IMO, may be their most important feature in many tanks.

Lol I never heard you say crap

 

[Hans-Werner]

The doctoral dissertation of Andrew A. Shantz at the University of Florida is the most complete and most clear study about the effects nitrogen and phosphorus on coral reefs. It is from 2016, not 2017 as I have written above.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok finally got some potassium nitrate. Took a while but amazon always pulls through. Now the next step to start dosing. I was playing around with the calculator that was linked. But what range ppm should I shoot for? I have mainly LPS with 1 little monti frag. 2ppm enough for good growth or higher?

I'd aim for 2 ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Lol I never heard you say crap

Sometimes it's a good fit. lol

 

[Grantlewis1983]

Hey gang good news! So I have been adding a ton of extra food to my tank, Reef roids, Reef energy, some mysis, some zooplanktons, and a tiny bit of the potasium nitrate. Only skimming everyother day or so and only turning on fuge light occasionally. P04 went up to .16, and N03 was at 4ppm. Im trying to find a balance, I backed off a bit and P04 is at 0 and N03 is down to .25 as of today. Corals have improved quite a bit honestly, my Green trumpet is swollen and plump again, the Monti frags are growing noticeably. Any recommendations to find a balance? Wish I had a full size tank with an apex or something haha...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Good to hear!

Happy Reefing.

 

[Hans-Werner]

I recommend just to monitor phosphate and keep it above the detection limit. In my opinion the coral will regulate the nitrogen uptake according to its needs. If you regulate phosphate concentration by feeding sufficient nitrogen compounds will come in automatically. Just check nitrate to avoid accidental high concentrations.

 

[lbacha]

I added Xenia to my sump and since I did I'm struggling to keep nutrients in the tank. I'm going to have to figure out how to get nutrients up now lol

 

[Grantlewis1983]

I added Xenia to my sump and since I did I'm struggling to keep nutrients in the tank. I'm going to have to figure out how to get nutrients up now lol

Xenia is evil! haha I just spent a few days with tweezers removing a bunch from my display. It was growing like a weed. I was able to quarantine it to a frag in the sand away from the other rocks. Just add more food than you are use too, numbers will come up.

 

[scardall]

Cool, what products do you recommend?

sodium Nitrate(Reagent grade) 2.5 grams sodium nitrate to 8oz water(RODI) 1ml solution= .8ppm/2gallons

 

[lbacha]

Xenia is evil! haha I just spent a few days with tweezers removing a bunch from my display. It was growing like a weed. I was able to quarantine it to a frag in the sand away from the other rocks. Just add more food than you are use too, numbers will come up.

Yeah I'm watching to make sure it stays in the fuge. It is a display fuge open to the living room so I needed to put something my fiancé would like and still be productive. A friend was tearing his tank down and gave me a bunch of pulsing Xenia, shrooms and polyps so the fuge is full.

I've been adding more and more reef chili and roids each day to see if I can get nutrients up the acros have great polyp extension so I'm hoping the feeding does them well.

I just ordered a low end nitrate kit as I'm using a Red Sea foundation high end test kit so I may have some nitrates but can't detect them with my kit.

If all else fails I dose macro nutrients (Phosphate, potassium and nitrate) into my freshwater planted tank daily so I may just start adding a small amount at a time to the reef since i have them available, not sure what effect extra potassium will have so I may need to start testing for that