I did my periodic 6 month testing of my aquarium. Everything is still where I expect it to be.
CA: 540
MG: 1440
Alk: 7.5dkh (Expect this to be around 8.5 reagent is 3 months old and nearing the bottom of the bottle.)
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrates: 23.2
Phosphates: .05
I raised my vodka dosing 1 ml per day for the past week. This lowered my phosphates from .08 to .05, but my nitrates remained the same.
Which tells me even with a margin of error, I could be nearing an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates. I had seen for many corals nitrates of between 5 and 10 are ideal and mine are over double that. I'm thinking of raising my vodka dosing another ml per day which would put me close to 10 ml per day on a 350 gallon system. My skimmer is producing great skimmate. So, I believe the export system is working. Plus my algae turf scrubber is producing bright green hair algae every 3-4 days.
Any suggestions on how to gain control of nitrates. Will dialing in vodka dosing further cause nitrate consuming bacteria to work more efficiently? Or will I bottom out phosphates and have a minimal reduction of nitrates?
CA: 540
MG: 1440
Alk: 7.5dkh (Expect this to be around 8.5 reagent is 3 months old and nearing the bottom of the bottle.)
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrates: 23.2
Phosphates: .05
I raised my vodka dosing 1 ml per day for the past week. This lowered my phosphates from .08 to .05, but my nitrates remained the same.
Which tells me even with a margin of error, I could be nearing an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates. I had seen for many corals nitrates of between 5 and 10 are ideal and mine are over double that. I'm thinking of raising my vodka dosing another ml per day which would put me close to 10 ml per day on a 350 gallon system. My skimmer is producing great skimmate. So, I believe the export system is working. Plus my algae turf scrubber is producing bright green hair algae every 3-4 days.
Any suggestions on how to gain control of nitrates. Will dialing in vodka dosing further cause nitrate consuming bacteria to work more efficiently? Or will I bottom out phosphates and have a minimal reduction of nitrates?