Relevance of an elevated nitrate level

Kirschy17 · Feb 27, 2018

Hey guys,

Im a fairly new reefer and got my first lps (frogspawn and acan) about 2 weeks ago.

While the frogspawn is doing well my acan died off about 3 days after i got it.

After checking all of my parameters and doing some research my only problem might be my nonexistent nitrates.

I have a little refugium and am dosing carbon. Also i have a skimmer.

My quistion is should i stop all those until i have nitrates again? Also do must corals require some nitrates?

Also some tips for keeping frogspawn and acan corals?

EmdeReef · Feb 27, 2018

Welcome!

You should stop or reduce carbon dosing, increase feeding, until you detect at least some nitrates. LPS and softies prefer "dirtier" water / higher nutrients.

Vincent100 · Feb 27, 2018

Yep I'm with Emdereef +1

zachxlutz · Feb 27, 2018

Why are you dosing carbon? Have you been fighting elevated nutrient levels previously? I'd pull the carbon dosing offline and carefully monitor your parameters as you watch how the tank reacts. I imagine you'll slowly see some nutrients reintroduced and then you can bring carbon dosing back online, as needed.

Kirschy17 · Feb 28, 2018

I tried to avoid most rookie mistakes in the first place by having carbon/refugium/skimmer from the start to ensure nutrients will never take over/get outta hand. Got told carbon dosing is smart if u wanna get into sps/lps

zachxlutz · Feb 28, 2018

Kirschy17 said:
I tried to avoid most rookie mistakes in the first place by having carbon/refugium/skimmer from the start to ensure nutrients will never take over/get outta hand. Got told carbon dosing is smart if u wanna get into sps/lps

I understand, I went through the same thing when I started my tank. I thought I was doing the right thing, based on what I had read, but I overdid it. I was dosing a carbon source, running GFO and running a large refugium. This resulted in a very low nutrient situation, which I'm still recovering from over 1.5 years later. Same situation as you, I had poor coral health and then I had a very bad dinoflagellate outbreak. I stopped all carbon dosing, removed any GFO and actively began dosing both nitrate and phosphate to my system in a controlled manner. The addition of these nutrients, at levels around 5-10 ppm NO3, 0.05-0.10 ppm PO4 resulted in both faster growth and increased coloration. If you don't see any improvement by pulling your carbon dosing offline and increasing your feeding, you can look at adding inorganic nutrients back in via some commercially available supplements. Good luck!