No3 higher than preferred?

[Chucky]

Okay let me start off by saying I absolutely love this group and the fine folks a part of it, I’m trying to get my no3 numbers down and I’m battling a gha outbreak..


setup is a Biocube 32
Ai prime for lighting
I’ve done several upgrades to the tank and added an intank cheato fuge a few weeks ago.. I will post my params over the past 3 weeks to show you my trends..
I feed fish very lightly 3 times a week at best I only have 3 fish and a decent cuc, I’ve pulled all whites reds and greens out of my schedule lowered it to only 8 hours a day with 1hr ramps I’ll post that if needed as well.. I only use filter floss along with my purigen bag and live rock for filteration, I do run a skimmer 24/7 with airline ran out window to keep my ph up.. I wc weekly the wc amount has varied as I’m trying to lower my no3 I’ve bottomed out my po4 twice the past month or so ( no good I know) ‍ anyways any questions feel free to ask and any advice is much appreciated sorry if this is a shabby post I’m at work like always lol tryna figure this out but ya know it is what it is

 

[Tamberav]

Being that it is a nano, it is fairly easy to dose the water with po4 and just do a water change to drop the nitrate.

The gha can be manually removed so it’s shorter and then the cuc will eat it.

Nitrate and PO4 are consumed together so no Po4 limits nitrate consumption.

I can’t see what corals you have but your no3 is fine for softies. My softy tank runs around that no3. Last I checked I had 50ish No3 and po4 was maxed out on test kit at 0.6 (so not sure exactly what it is) and I run whites 45 percent and no gha.

What cuc do you have?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Phosphates hitting zero can justify the increase in nitrates and the increase in algae. I would concentrate on keeping them above 0.05 wile the tank is young

 

[Chucky]

Being that it is a nano, it is fairly easy to dose the water with po4 and just do a water change to drop the nitrate.

The gha can be manually removed so it’s shorter and then the cuc will eat it.

I can’t see what corals you have but your no3 is fine for softies. My softy tank runs around that no3. Last I checked I had 50ish No3 and po4 was maxed out on test kit at 0.6 (so not sure exactly what it is) and I run whites 45 percent and no gha.

What cuc do you have?

 

[Chucky]

Being that it is a nano, it is fairly easy to dose the water with po4 and just do a water change to drop the nitrate.

The gha can be manually removed so it’s shorter and then the cuc will eat it.

Nitrate and PO4 are consumed together so no Po4 limits nitrate consumption.

I can’t see what corals you have but your no3 is fine for softies. My softy tank runs around that no3. Last I checked I had 50ish No3 and po4 was maxed out on test kit at 0.6 (so not sure exactly what it is) and I run whites 45 percent and no gha.

What cuc do you have?

My cuc consist of red/ blue leg hermits, bumblebee snails, cerith snails, bristle worms, trochas snails, astrea snails and a red tuxedo urchin

 

[Tamberav]

Corals look nice.

Pluck the algae where you can so it’s shorter and the CUC can eat it.

Make sure to take a turkey baster and blast the rock to get the debris out.

In the past on new tanks I dosed bottled po4 to keep it acceptable. Brightwell and Seachem make it.

 

[Chucky]

Corals look nice.

Pluck the algae where you can so it’s shorter and the CUC can eat it.

Make sure to take a turkey baster and blast the rock to get the debris out.

In the past on new tanks I dosed bottled po4 to keep it acceptable. Brightwell and Seachem make it.

Some of it I can’t get my hands on, I have a good bit of rock probably to much lol (opinions vary)

 

[Chucky]

Corals look nice.

Pluck the algae where you can so it’s shorter and the CUC can eat it.

Make sure to take a turkey baster and blast the rock to get the debris out.

In the past on new tanks I dosed bottled po4 to keep it acceptable. Brightwell and Seachem make it.

I’ve been feeding reef roids I know if I feed 1/4 tsp to my dt it raises my po4 to roughy .04 which as trends show me my tanks consuming so I really just need to dial down how much to feed and keep elevated to a sustainable level between weekly wcs ima feed another 1/4 tsp today which will be 2 days since I last fed it and check my trends come next regular wc/ test time

 

[flyingscampi]

Without a sump your nitrate management options are pretty limited, mainly changing water. This was one of the reasons I just upgraded my tank to one with a sump. I use Tropic Marin Elimi-Phos Longlife (GFO) to control phosphate.

 

[Tamberav]

I’ve been feeding reef roids I know if I feed 1/4 tsp to my dt it raises my po4 to roughy .04 which as trends show me my tanks consuming so I really just need to dial down how much to feed and keep elevated to a sustainable level between weekly wcs ima feed another 1/4 tsp today which will be 2 days since I last fed it and check my trends come next regular wc/ test time

Reef roids/feeding is a poor way to raise po4. Yes it raises it but it is also full of organics.

It’s fine to feed the amount you want for actual food for the corals but don’t use it as a way to raise po4. It is not ideal.

 

[92Miata]

Out of control nitrates with and phosphates bottoming out are usually related - the tank is phosphate limited and biological processing of nitrogen is hard because of that. Start dosing phosphate - and the nitrates will stop going up.

 

[Chucky]

Reef roids/feeding is a poor way to raise po4. Yes it raises it but it is also full of organics.

It’s fine to feed the amount you want for actual food for the corals but don’t use it as a way to raise po4. It is not ideal.

I guess I worded that totally wrong smh I feed my coral reef roids but I monitor the effects it has on my po4

 

[sixty_reefer]

I guess I worded that totally wrong smh I feed my coral reef roids but I monitor the effects it has on my po4

Unfortunately with reef roids and other foods you may find that in addition to raise po4 it also raises nitrogen, they are a really good coral food, unfortunately it is also a great source of nitrogen for algae. As many others suggested I would target just the required nutrient at this point.

 

[Chucky]

Unfortunately with reef roids and other foods you may find that in addition to raise po4 it also raises nitrogen, they are a really good coral food, unfortunately it is also a great source of nitrogen for algae. As many others suggested I would target just the required nutrient at this point.

Ahhh what would you recommend in your exp?

 

[Chucky]

Without a sump your nitrate management options are pretty limited, mainly changing water. This was one of the reasons I just upgraded my tank to one with a sump. I use Tropic Marin Elimi-Phos Longlife (GFO) to control phosphate.

Yeah my system is an AIO so the sump is in the back of tank if you can even classify it an sump lol

 

[flyingscampi]

Yeah my system is an AIO so the sump is in the back of tank if you can even classify it an sump lol

I had a cannister filter. I'm going to try a refugium with the new tank. Failing that, I'll get a skimmer as well then I can also carbon dose.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Ahhh what would you recommend in your exp?

For phosphates neophos could be a good choice if you prefer ready made solutions to make your own.