High Tide Aquatics

Nitrate at .2

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L/B Block

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Well i was a bit surprised to find my nitrate at .2 after testing after a couple of months. Probably due to my faux algae scrubber aka all the algae in my sump.

With the recent addition of my kalk doser -I have shut down the refugium light and the algae is disappearing really quickly.

Little surprised as I do feed heavy. PO4 is at .5

Do I wait and see if nitrate comes back up by itself or do I give it a kick in the pants with some nitrate solution?

Any input on this? TIA.
 
derek_SR said:
What do you consider feeding heavy? And how many fish do you have?
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I am feeding in phyto, oyster feast, ROE, and artic pods in a total of 6 feedings a day (sometimes certain things are dosed same time) plus avast marine reef jerky 3x a day.
This all done consistently due to the doserator I built to hold refrigerated liquids

Nitrates used to come in 15-20.
Currently 9 fish.
 
Coral reefer said:
Most foods raise phosphates more than nitrates ime
If you believe that reading you are close to trouble. Might want to raise it a bit
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Will test again later again today/tomorrow -If really low -I’ll take action. I think it’s been like this for a bit but I concur -could lead to disaster
 
L/B Block said:
Well i was a bit surprised to find my nitrate at .2 after testing after a couple of months. Probably due to my faux algae scrubber aka all the algae in my sump.

With the recent addition of my kalk doser -I have shut down the refugium light and the algae is disappearing really quickly.

Little surprised as I do feed heavy. PO4 is at .5

Do I wait and see if nitrate comes back up by itself or do I give it a kick in the pants with some nitrate solution?

Any input on this? TIA.
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Careful turning off the fuge light, there was a balance of algae growing in the sump and now that you have completely turned it off, chances are algae will start growing elsewhere.

I would have suggested starting my cutting fuge lighting time by a quarter or half first.
 
I had done that initially and it didn’t really make a dent. So I went hardcore.

Not worry about algae on the rocks thanks to my awesome clean up crew. I do have some nasty algae on the back wall I need to contend with though that popped up while I was gone the last time.

On the whole corals are looking ok. Couple acros bleached out but would like to get chemistry back in balance. Fun never stops!
 
Recent photo..
 

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It’s common to have high P and low N. Feeding more of what caused the imbalance won’t fix it. Many people including myself need to supplement nitrate for this.
 
Point taken on that. I think all the massive algae in the sump consumed it. Prior to that NO3- not an issue- Now that it is disappearing (lights off) - rhetoric question -does nitrate come back or need supplement for this temporary or permanently..
 
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If stuff dies (like the algae not getting light) then N and P will be generated. As far as the change to the balance (high P, low N) I don’t know for sure but I’d guess you’ll still have the issue once the levels settle down again.
 
JVU said:
If stuff dies (like the algae not getting light) then N and P will be generated. As far as the change to the balance (high P, low N) I don’t know for sure but I’d guess you’ll still have the issue once the levels settle down again.
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NO3 went to 1 and then I got something commercially available in the immediate time being to at least get it up to 3-4.

I was on RFH’s aquatic chemistry site and I now have the recipe for using ammonium bicarbonate that should be in place in short order. Prior to this NO3 depletion that I attribute to running the light 24/7 -it was actually a good NO3/PO3 ratio of ~12:1

Will it return to that or is permanently altered- I shall find out in due time..
 
L/B Block said:
NO3 went to 1 and then I got something commercially available in the immediate time being to at least get it up to 3-4.

I was on RFH’s aquatic chemistry site and I now have the recipe for using ammonium bicarbonate that should be in place in short order. Prior to this NO3 depletion that I attribute to running the light 24/7 -it was actually a good NO3/PO3 ratio of ~12:1

Will it return to that or is permanently altered- I shall find out in due time..
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Careful dosing ammonium bicarb. You could kill your fish if you overdose.
 
Darkxerox said:
Careful dosing ammonium bicarb. You could kill your fish if you overdose.
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I am concerned about that. Although in a back and forth thread with RFH -he said as long as I stick to the formula there is a fairly large margin before I hit that threshold.
Couple of other threads people reported that ammonia was undetected testing for it.

Big thing is -
1) don’t directly expose a fish!
2) put into sump (assuming you have one) to dilute..
 
I’ve read that foods can greatly fluctuate in N: P ratio. Silversides came in at 10:1, where as mysis was 500:1. Could try switching up the food a bit.

Edit: today I learned that we have old school emojis that you can put in posts with the right commands lol
 
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psidriven said:
any update?

also, in case anyone wants kno3, loudwolf has 4 (4oz) bottles for $15. it's cheaper than their 2 (8oz) for $20.
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I have discontinued ammonium bicarbonate as my NO3 is back to around 20 without dosing.

On another -and maybe coincidence that I lost my wrasse around a week after I started. Could be other things..but still..
 
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