UNLS - anyone here actually done it?

[NitrateKillah]

I hear corals need at least some NO3 and PO4, when I ran my NO3 to zero, I had algae problems.

Is there anyone here running everything at zero? any tips?

 

[Biglew11]

Nothing likes 0 nutrients ultra low is not the same as zero. You can however probably have enough growth in the system to take up nutrients before you can measure them. If you purposely try to completly strip your tank of nutrients you'll run into serious problems. The current trend seems to be about 5 - 10ppm nitrates, .03 - .05ppm phosphates

 

[NitrateKillah]

ty so much for the clarification.

 

[C. Eymann]

I did full the Zeovit system /regimen about 12 years ago, Nitrate was kept at 1ppm, but often would come up 0, PO4 was undetectable by the kits I was using, however I suspect some was present. Alk was maintained between 6.5-7.0


Growth rate was excellent, however coloration was decent but pastel and not vivid/deep.
I decided to stop because not only was it expensive but it was high maintenance having to hand dose KZ additives and manually having to "churn" the zeoliths as automatic shakers weren't available yet.

I credit the good growth rate I got was due to the 10k halides I was running over the tank and to the extremely low phosphate levels along with the constant availability of suspended food items, bacteria mostly

 

[Dlealrious]

I dont try and run ulns but due to large uptake with ammount of coral i have p04 is .009 and n03 .05 or less.
I only run fuge light for 4 hours and that's it for nutrient control. I think ppl us to many chemicals to try achieve low nutrients thats why they have issues