Zero Nitrate causing my Acros to just be Brown?

[Chris Spaulding]

Hello all and thank you in advance for the replies. The issue I am having is my Acros I have only a few of them are all looking the same just a brown and are not coloring up except . My monies are colored up and showing good growth, My Acros are showing growth and Polyp extension is very good . things are just brown. All parameters are good and lighting I do not believe is the problem.

Through testing my Nitrates are at ZERO and I can not seem to get them up with additional
feeding.
Could the Nitrates being at ZERO undetectable be the issue ?
I does Brightwell ReefBiofule 5ml daily
MicroBacter7 5 ml daily
Tropic Marin k+ 2 ml Daily
Tropic Marin All-for -Reef 13.8 ml daily ( keeps ALK ,Calc and Mag Level and Constant with only one dosing pump Spread out over 24 hr period)

Red Sea 250
V3 sump running the Fuge with Marien pure bioplate and bio cubes and Cheto
Aquamax RS 80 skimmer
2 Icecap 3k Gyers
3 AI Sol Blues ( will be upgrading soon )
ALK steady 8.0-8.1
Calc 440 (hanna Checker )
Mag 1400
Po4 0.01 ( Hanna Checker)
Amo 0
Nitrite 0
NITRATE 0

 

[zack801]

What lights are you using? Also microbacter7 is probably why your nitrates are not detectable. Why are you dosing daily with that as well? I only add it to my new water change water

 

[Chris Spaulding]

I have 3 AI Sol Blue Leds Just started a slow ramp up as after getting ahold of a Par meter and taking measurements looked like I was running a little low . about 25% lower then when we want them to be currently about 200 par throughout the tank plus or minus depending on depth.
As far as MicroBacter7 I have been doing this on other tanks in the past without this happening. Do you think I should stop that but continue with the reef biofuel?

 

[zack801]

I’m not sure what biofuel is. Is it some sort of amino? I would stop microbacter7 if you want to maybe see an increase in nitrates. Just add like a capful will water changes depending how often you do them. 200 par might be too low for the pieces you have. Doubtful but you could try cranking it up. I’ve got some that are in 400+ and are happy as can be.

 

[Chris Spaulding]

Reef Bio Fuel is carbon dosing aka Vodka . I also have AWC doing 1 gallon a day for 7 gallons a week that's about 12% a week of system volume. In the mean time I have been turning up the lights about 2.5% a week I didn't want to turn it up too fast. BTW the Tank is only 8 months old

 

[Auto-pilot]

Sounds like a lack of nutrients to me! I know that lack of nutrients can really harm and kill some corals. I was dosing carbon really hard and had everything really low for a month and my LPS corals really suffered. I had a large Acanthophyllia that started to bleach and then I added nitrates Via KNO3 and it really helped. You might want to cut back on the carbon dosing for a while and see if your nutrients rise, if not you might want to dose some back into your system. I personally keep my nitrates 2-8 range, sometimes it can really fluctuate and my phosphates at .5 ish. When my nutrients start to rise ill carbon dose in 2ml increments(NOPOX) to bring them down slowly and then add KNO3 if my nitrates are around 0 but phosphates are still high.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Can you show some pics so we can see what your talking about?

 

[Chris Spaulding]

Not the best pictures as I am not good with pictures under the lighting

 

[Hemmdog]

Not the best pictures as I am not good with pictures under the lighting

They look pretty blue to me

 

[Chris Spaulding]

I will try to get better pics when lights ramp up tomorrow

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Hello all and thank you in advance for the replies. The issue I am having is my Acros I have only a few of them are all looking the same just a brown and are not coloring up except . My monies are colored up and showing good growth, My Acros are showing growth and Polyp extension is very good . things are just brown. All parameters are good and lighting I do not believe is the problem.

Through testing my Nitrates are at ZERO and I can not seem to get them up with additional
feeding.
Could the Nitrates being at ZERO undetectable be the issue ?
I does Brightwell ReefBiofule 5ml daily
MicroBacter7 5 ml daily
Tropic Marin k+ 2 ml Daily
Tropic Marin All-for -Reef 13.8 ml daily ( keeps ALK ,Calc and Mag Level and Constant with only one dosing pump Spread out over 24 hr period)

Red Sea 250
V3 sump running the Fuge with Marien pure bioplate and bio cubes and Cheto
Aquamax RS 80 skimmer
2 Icecap 3k Gyers
3 AI Sol Blues ( will be upgrading soon )
ALK steady 8.0-8.1
Calc 440 (hanna Checker )
Mag 1400
Po4 0.01 ( Hanna Checker)
Amo 0
Nitrite 0
NITRATE 0

Dude seriously I have the exact same issue. Most of my acros have browned, montis look great, everything has great PE and is growing, good flow, good lighting 250w MH x2. My No3 has been 0.0 ppm since my cycle finished. I tried dosing no3 but it just increased green film on the glass and was consumed in 24 hours when dosed to 1 ppm. Increased feeding to a m point of being wasteful and still can't get a measurable no3 reading. Dosing EVS 2 part for alk and cal, tank size 75g.
Todays water test
Temp 78.4 Reef Keeper Lite
Ph 7.97 Reef Keeper Lite
Salinity 1.025 refractometer
Alk 7.8 Hanna checher
Cal 405 Red Sea Pro
Mag 1400 Red Sea Pro
No3 0.0 Red Sea Pro
Po4 between 0.08 and 0.04. Red Sea Pro

 

[Rockhead]

This is also why you can’t get nutrients up your pulling it out as fast as it’s produced

 

[Chris Spaulding]

So pulling out some of this might help then? Leets say like the bioplate. I thought you could never have enough surface area for biological filtration

 

[Rockhead]

So pulling out some of this might help then? Leets say like the bioplate. I thought you could never have enough surface area for biological filtration

Let’s see if anyone else has any thoughts , I had a eel and added a plate to try and keep down my nutrients , well I sold the eel and never took out the plate and with weeks everything was at 0 , I removed the plate and I’m slowly bringing things back up. My no3 is 8ppm and po4 .18 now.

 

[Chris Spaulding]

Ok I will pull the plate tonight when I get home from work. I will leave the cubes in and see if that helps . Then slowly remove the cubes . One thing at a time slowly before I try any other additives like doseing nitrate

 

[jda]

If anything is growing, then you have nitrate... you just cannot detect it with the test kits that we have available to us. This, in it's self is no issue - my nitrates are also undetectable, but I do have about .1 if I send off for a IC test. Naturally low nitrate works great. However, dosing any kind of organic carbon can cause the bacteria to outcompete the corals. Going too low with media, chemicals or organic carbon can be really bad. Low nitrates is not an issue, but how you get there can be.

Low nitrate naturally is fine, but low nitrate with media, organic carbon or the like needs a massive amount of input to balance it out. In the end, throughput it is the key, but the best systems that keep low building blocks AND use media or organic carbon (like ZeoVit) have a massive amount of input and feedings.

The BRS video on ZeoVit says is best... check out at 1:20 to 3:00:


I would cut back on any kind of organic carbon dosing and see what happens. My guess is that the corals will start to look better and you still will not be able to see any, or much, nitrate on a test kit.

You might get people who will tell you that Sol Blues are not great lights for SPS. I agree and they are right, but they should be doing better than this so I would look elsewhere until you get new lights.

 

[Chris Spaulding]

Thank You I will not do anymore carbon dosing and no more Microbacter7. My lights will be replaced soon looking at Reefbreaders V2+ as they fit into my budget and most of the reviews I have seen are positive. That or Kessil Ap 700

 

[jda]

IMO, neither of those lights are great for acropora. You can do better. They are better for other types of coral. Are you looking at reviews from people who grow SPS? Nearly all Kessil users add T5s quickly. Atlantik V4 is very good and not too different price than the AP700. Others will probably disagree.

 

[Chris Spaulding]

I have also looked at the Atlantic V4 and I like them from all I have read biggest downside is the gateway purchase separately

 

[cain720]

IMO, neither of those lights are great for acropora. You can do better. They are better for other types of coral. Are you looking at reviews from people who grow SPS? Nearly all Kessil users add T5s quickly. Atlantik V4 is very good and not too different price than the AP700. Others will probably disagree.

Adam at Battlecorals, one of the best acro vendors in the buisness, uses the Reefbreeders Photon V2 as a stand alone light.