Should I dose nitrates?

[ZachP]

So I have a fairly new setup (2 months or so) and I’ve had very high phosphates from the start. Over the last while I’ve gotten them down from .5 to .1 with water changes, and running chemipure elite while I got my refugium setup. Now the refugium is setup and chaeto has been growing for the last 2 weeks which has helped lowering phosphates a lot. Problem is that now my nitrates have bottomed out. I’ve been feeding heavily this week trying to get them up with no luck, worried if I feed more I’ll just increase phosphates instead.
So my question is, do you guys think I should dose nitrates to get them up then just let my fuge keep bringing phosphates down?

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I think the fuge is bringing your nitrates down. Did you start with dry rock?

 

[ZachP]

I think the fuge is bringing your nitrates down. Did you start with dry rock?

I started with live rock, im thinking that’s where the phosphates originally came from. Nitrates were always less then 10ppm once the cycle was done and I did a large water change.

I agree that the fuge is definitely bringing nitrates down. The problems is that I want it to keep removing phosphates without completely stripping nitrates to 0

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I was going to say the opposite. Dry rock seems to leach phosphate at first IME. Hmmmm. Dosing might be the move. I think you just have to get it up ASAP one way or another. Have you tested phosphate with separate kit? .5 wouldn’t freak me out.

 

[ZachP]

I was going to say the opposite. Dry rock seems to leach phosphate at first IME. Hmmmm. Dosing might be the move. I think you just have to get it up ASAP one way or another. Have you tested phosphate with separate kit? .5 wouldn’t freak me out.

I’ve only tested with Hanna checker phosphorous ULR. I’m pretty confident it’s accurate though because I’ve tested newly mixed water with a result of 0 and used it on a buddies tank with a normal reading in check with what he usually gets. Right now phosphate is sitting at .113 but it’s not going down at all anymore since nitrate zeroed out. I’m worried my chaeto is going to die or I’m going to get cyano or something

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Dang. That’s a good sized imbalance. My advice would be a massive water change, near 100% and then start dosing nitrate. Once things equalize just feed heavy. That’s just one move though. Wait and see what others say. I have struggled with nitrate too but my PO4 wasn’t that high. I also don’t run a fuge. I just feed like crazy and skim.

 

[ZachP]

Dang. That’s a good sized imbalance. My advice would be a massive water change, near 100% and then start dosing nitrate. Once things equalize just feed heavy. That’s just one move though. Wait and see what others say. I have struggled with nitrate too but my PO4 wasn’t that high. I also don’t run a fuge. I just feed like crazy and skim.

Ok thanks. I’ve been doing large water changes since the cycle finished. That’s mostly how I got it down, was originally at .5-.55 after the cycle. The fuge was helping a lot though once the chaeto started taking off. I’ll start researching nitrate dosing and get ready for that I think. I’m hoping I can dose nitrates until I get phosphates to a more reasonable level, then I can hopefully find a balance between the two

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Yea. Solid plan. Something is leaching phosphate.... dead snail in the sand? I dunno. Best of luck!

 

[ZachP]

Yea. Solid plan. Something is leaching phosphate.... dead snail in the sand? I dunno. Best of luck!

Bought new sand with the tank haha. Phosphates were high before I even added livestock at all. It has the be the rocks I bought. But I’m happy with my progress getting it down so far, just need to keep at it. Thanks for the help!

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Yea. It will subside eventually. Just a hassle for you. Haha. Happy reefing!

 

[Ippyroy]

How long is your fuge on for? Chaeto sucks up nitrates a lot faster than phosphates. Cutting down the light schedule for the fuge allowed my nitrates to come back up. I control my phosphates with my skimmer more than the fuge. I run my fuge for 1 hour then off for 30 minutes while the DT lights are off. This allows my PH to stay flat and not have the huge dip when all lights are off.I also harvest chaeto and only leave a small amount in.

PO4 will fluctuate for young tanks. Water changes do not help with bringing them down. PO4 will bind with the rocks and sand. When you take them out in the water, they just release from the rocks and sand. Chemipurelite is a better way to remove it.

 

[ZachP]

How long is your fuge on for? Chaeto sucks up nitrates a lot faster than phosphates. Cutting down the light schedule for the fuge allowed my nitrates to come back up. I control my phosphates with my skimmer more than the fuge. I run my fuge for 1 hour then off for 30 minutes while the DT lights are off. This allows my PH to stay flat and not have the huge dip when all lights are off.I also harvest chaeto and only leave a small amount in.

PO4 will fluctuate for young tanks. Water changes do not help with bringing them down. PO4 will bind with the rocks and sand. When you take them out in the water, they just release from the rocks and sand. Chemipurelite is a better way to remove it.

I run my fuge lights for 12hrs. Never thought of that, maybe I’ll run them less. I turned down the percentage tonight from 55% to 40% intensity

That makes sense about the water changes because I’ve done a large water change then tested the next day and had phosphates not even change.

 

[Ippyroy]

I run my fuge lights for 12hrs. Never thought of that, maybe I’ll run them less. I turned down the percentage tonight from 55% to 40% intensity

That makes sense about the water changes because I’ve done a large water change then tested the next day and had phosphates not even change.

Try the on/off method and run the lights for 8 hours. Also try turning off your skimmer for a few hours. That will bring up your NO3 pretty quick, and just add a bag or 2 of Chemipure Elite. Watch your PO4 closely, it can drop fast. I don't worry about high PO4 BTW. I don't think it is as important to keep low as some people say. Being able to test it at the hobby level is fairly new. YOur PO4 and NO3 are way out of balance though. Your tank will tell you it's correct PO4 level with time. WWC barely worries about it. It gets up to 20 and they dump in some Phosphate E I think. I'd have to watch the BRS/WWC hybrid video again. Anyway, keep up the good work and good luck.

 

[ZachP]

Try the on/off method and run the lights for 8 hours. Also try turning off your skimmer for a few hours. That will bring up your NO3 pretty quick, and just add a bag or 2 of Chemipure Elite. Watch your PO4 closely, it can drop fast. I don't worry about high PO4 BTW. I don't think it is as important to keep low as some people say. Being able to test it at the hobby level is fairly new. YOur PO4 and NO3 are way out of balance though. Your tank will tell you it's correct PO4 level with time. WWC barely worries about it. It gets up to 20 and they dump in some Phosphate E I think. I'd have to watch the BRS/WWC hybrid video again. Anyway, keep up the good work and good luck.

Ok thanks for the tip!
And ya I’m more just trying to get everything balanced out for now. Not really nit picking numbers quite yet. But .1 phos and 0 nitrate is a bit too out of wack for me to be happy with haha

 

[Ippyroy]

Ok thanks for the tip!
And ya I’m more just trying to get everything balanced out for now. Not really nit picking numbers quite yet. But .1 phos and 0 nitrate is a bit too out of wack for me to be happy with haha

.1 PO4 is the high end of perfect. I wouldn't sweat it at all. I run .06 - .11 Depends on how heavy I feed and if I have harvested any chaeto. My NO3 is holding at 4. The on and off method of the fuge light holds my PH at 8.23-8.27 all day most days. I believe steady numbers are much more important than low numbers. PH is looking like it might be a lot more important than just about anything else. If you want to run a high Alk, I run 9.0, you will need a higher amount of nutrients for it to work. High Alk and PH of 8.3 is prooving to grow and color amazing corals.

 

[ZachP]

.1 PO4 is the high end of perfect. I wouldn't sweat it at all. I run .06 - .11 Depends on how heavy I feed and if I have harvested any chaeto. My NO3 is holding at 4. The on and off method of the fuge light holds my PH at 8.23-8.27 all day most days. I believe steady numbers are much more important than low numbers. PH is looking like it might be a lot more important than just about anything else. If you want to run a high Alk, I run 9.0, you will need a higher amount of nutrients for it to work. High Alk and PH of 8.3 is prooving to grow and color amazing corals.

Ok maybe I’ll just work on getting some nitrates to show up again then try to just make sure p04 doesn’t go up anymore then it is. Find my tanks balance. Thanks for the advice! Made me feel a lot better about it haha

 

[Ippyroy]

Ok maybe I’ll just work on getting some nitrates to show up again then try to just make sure p04 doesn’t go up anymore then it is. Find my tanks balance. Thanks for the advice! Made me feel a lot better about it haha

Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. Your fuge is a tunable filter. Take your time and find the balance. It has taken me 3 months and I am still not completely there, but I get closer every week. It takes a lot more work than I thought it would. The amount of time, flow, how much to harvest. I have made several mistakes, but I have been able to learn from them and correct them easily. I use mine as both mechanical and biological filtration. i removed my filter socks and use that area as a fuge with Chaeto and live sand. I have a bunch of bristle worms and several types of snails in it to to eat all of the detritus. It is the single best thing I did for my tank. Learning how to tune is the single hardest thing I have done on my tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok maybe I’ll just work on getting some nitrates to show up again then try to just make sure p04 doesn’t go up anymore then it is. Find my tanks balance. Thanks for the advice! Made me feel a lot better about it haha

That seems good. Dosing nitrate is easy and will also help avoid dinos.

 

[ZachP]

That seems good. Dosing nitrate is easy and will also help avoid dinos.

I ordered some Loudwolf sodium nitrate. If I can’t get nitrates to show up by the time that comes I think I’ll try dosing

 

[ZachP]

Just wanted to give an update on this. I did start dosing nitrates last Saturday. Since then my chaeto has started doing great and my refugium is functioning quite well. I have gotten my phosphates down from roughly .1 to about .05. I’m dosing about 2-3ppm nitrate daily. Looks like I may need to start dialing down my refugium until I get more fish In here (a problem id be happy to deal with lol). Thanks @Ippyroy and @Randy Holmes-Farley