Hi reefing friends! I've been battling low phos and nitrate. Corals and fish generally seems healthy. Certain corals are growing slowly, primarily acroporas tenius/millipora, montipora digitata, and acanthastrea lordhowensis. Stylos are kickin' butt! Other softies are doing well also. In the latest testing is: Alk-7.5, Ammonia-0.13, Calc-430, Mag-1350, Nitrate-0.0, pH-8.2, Phos-0.03, Sal 1.025. All these are typical parameters. I don't have any algea/bacteria blooms or anything out of control. Just some slow growing corals. I don't like the ammonia levels but, can't seem to get them to drop below 0.10, even with dosing Prime. I dose NeoNitro to raise nitrates but, to no avail. Bottle says is if phos and nitrates don't increase after 24hrs then tank is "carbon limited". Researched this with mixed results on information. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any knowledge which might help? Also, maybe I'm trying to fix something that isn't broken? Thank you reefing friends!
"Oh Neo-Nitro You Didn't"
- Thread starter CCRox
- Start date
nh4 reading is likely a test kit error... especially if you are using API. Even if it is not, ammonia is the best way to get nitrogen to corals since they cannot process nitrate without first expending a bunch of energy to turn it back into ammonia. Corals that are not thriving often do not have the energy to do this.
Once you have a trace of no3 and po4, then that is enough. More won't help you. This is perhaps one of the largest injustices that manufacturers have placed on the hobby to get people to believe this... then parroted by thumb suckers in the hobby. Corals cannot use no3. Inorganic po4 is also not an optimum use - organically bound P is way better than po4. If corals needed more po4, then you would never have a surplus and it would be at zero all of the time. Higher levels of waste products do inhibit calcification and disrupt cellular processes, but at different levels for different corals, often of the same type... some acros will start to die at even 2.0 no3 and .10 po4 whereas other acros don't care about levels 10x, or more, of that amount.
What is crazy to me is that lighting is truly something where more can do good, yet people cheap/skimp out with heavy blues and as little wattage as possible... yet think that more waste products like no3 and po4 can help.
Dosing small amounts of ammonia is a more available source of nitrogen than dosing no3. However, nobody can really sell you this since you can get it at Ace Hardware for cheap.
In the end, the best tanks have high amounts of full spectrum light, feed the fish a ton with fish waste being excellent source of coral nutrients and keep residual levels of waste products low. Your tank needs nothing out of a bottle... ever.
Once you have a trace of no3 and po4, then that is enough. More won't help you. This is perhaps one of the largest injustices that manufacturers have placed on the hobby to get people to believe this... then parroted by thumb suckers in the hobby. Corals cannot use no3. Inorganic po4 is also not an optimum use - organically bound P is way better than po4. If corals needed more po4, then you would never have a surplus and it would be at zero all of the time. Higher levels of waste products do inhibit calcification and disrupt cellular processes, but at different levels for different corals, often of the same type... some acros will start to die at even 2.0 no3 and .10 po4 whereas other acros don't care about levels 10x, or more, of that amount.
What is crazy to me is that lighting is truly something where more can do good, yet people cheap/skimp out with heavy blues and as little wattage as possible... yet think that more waste products like no3 and po4 can help.
Dosing small amounts of ammonia is a more available source of nitrogen than dosing no3. However, nobody can really sell you this since you can get it at Ace Hardware for cheap.
In the end, the best tanks have high amounts of full spectrum light, feed the fish a ton with fish waste being excellent source of coral nutrients and keep residual levels of waste products low. Your tank needs nothing out of a bottle... ever.
SynDen
Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
M.A.S.C Treasurer
M.A.S.C Webmaster
Ya I tend to agree with @jda123 here. Dosing the nitrate really is just a band-aid of sorts. Instead you should be looking to address the reason why your NO3 and Phos are so low in the first place, and then fix that.
And if your test kit is reading that much NH4 but NO3 remains stuck I think the test kit(s) is bad, and you should replace them. Or at least take a water sample into your LFS (in your case take it to Aquatic Arts) and have them run tests on it to see if they match up. While you are there invest in some newer Salifert or Hanna test kits. They are the best test kits for the job.
And if your test kit is reading that much NH4 but NO3 remains stuck I think the test kit(s) is bad, and you should replace them. Or at least take a water sample into your LFS (in your case take it to Aquatic Arts) and have them run tests on it to see if they match up. While you are there invest in some newer Salifert or Hanna test kits. They are the best test kits for the job.