Low Nitrate

So the problem you are having is that you want higher nitrates?

first advice, slow down! You’re setting yourself up for a tank crash. Heavy feeding + 3 times a day is wayyy too much in my opinion, especially if you aren’t able to track where your nitrates are going.

What are your Ammonia and Nitrites? I imagine zero, otherwise everything would probably be dead already based on your feeding. But test anyways. If they are zero, adding bacteria will probably not help.

This is a ‘law of conservation of matter’ problem. You’re inputting nitrogen when you feed. And you need to find out where it’s going. Do you have algae growing in your tank or sump?
 
Reefried said:
Ok I am looking for suggestions, I started a want to buy thread to add some live rock but several have suggested that that will not help. I started the tank with dry rock and it is probably best not to take the chance of adding unwanted pests from another tank. I dont quite understand how I am still not showing any measurable nitrates. I have been keeping the filter sock in long after it gets dirty hoping to raise the nitrates and heavy feeding 3 times a day. The aminos sure helped the coral coloring all of the corals look really good now. I am starting to see dinos and I want to get control of that issue before it gets control of my tank. I am going to add another fish that is bigger than the small ones that I have but there is a limit to what fish I am willing to put in my small 65 gallon. Will a bacterial additive help the issue? I started the cycle with Microbacter 7. I guess I will look to add a UV which might take care of the dinos and there is no negative of adding the UV. I am open to suggestions. Thanks in advance.
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When I was battling my dinos I stopped doing water changes, stopped running my refugium light and took out about 75% of the cheato in the fuge, I added a UV, and did a three day period of a lights out(not full blackout just didn't turn on my lights).
 
ActiveAngel said:
So the problem you are having is that you want higher nitrates?

first advice, slow down! You’re setting yourself up for a tank crash. Heavy feeding + 3 times a day is wayyy too much in my opinion, especially if you aren’t able to track where your nitrates are going.

What are your Ammonia and Nitrites? I imagine zero, otherwise everything would probably be dead already based on your feeding. But test anyways. If they are zero, adding bacteria will probably not help.

This is a ‘law of conservation of matter’ problem. You’re inputting nitrogen when you feed. And you need to find out where it’s going. Do you have algae growing in your tank or sump?
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I do have a recent algae bloom which is due to the phosphate level going up as I was overfeeding with frozen so I did slow down with that. My idea of heavy feeding is probably less than most people would consider heavy. My ammonia and nitrite are 0 and I keep testing on occasion just to be sure. I feed 2 to 3 times a day with mostly flakes and not any more that the fish consume in about 1 minute. I took water sample to Pure Reef to confirm my test results and nitrate and phosphate were both very low that was before the recent algae bloom. I changed out the GFO and it is reducing the algae.
 
Reefried said:
I do have a recent algae bloom which is due to the phosphate level going up as I was overfeeding with frozen so I did slow down with that. My idea of heavy feeding is probably less than most people would consider heavy. My ammonia and nitrite are 0 and I keep testing on occasion just to be sure. I feed 2 to 3 times a day with mostly flakes and not any more that the fish consume in about 1 minute. I took water sample to Pure Reef to confirm my test results and nitrate and phosphate were both very low that was before the recent algae bloom. I changed out the GFO and it is reducing the algae.
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I wouldn't run GFO bc that's just going to continue to get rid of your phosphates that you are trying to raise.
 
When I started dosing nitrates, the first sign of change was a GHA outbreak. I kept up the dosing (very small amount) and eventually I started detecting nitrates in the system. It took about 6 weeks of adding nitrates before it really started to show up on my Salifert test. I'm assuming what I was adding was just taken up by corals and algae but now things are starting to balance out. I'm surprised at how long it took but I as dosing a very small amount of nitrates so I wouldn't cause some major swing one way or the other.
 
ZapataInc said:
When I was battling my dinos I stopped doing water changes, stopped running my refugium light and took out about 75% of the cheato in the fuge, I added a UV, and did a three day period of a lights out(not full blackout just didn't turn on my lights).
Click to expand...
I haven't done a water change in a couple of weeks and I did consider a blackout of 3 days many people have had luck with that. I don't want to make any drastic change to anything without being sure that it is the right move. I think the 1st step is to add the UV which has no possibility of any negative effects. Thank you for the response. Were you able to get rid of the dino issue?
 
Invest in a better test kit like the Red Sea kit for phosphate and nitrate, I’d do this before doing anything else. It’s really important to know what your dealing with.

Besides the skimmer are you doing anything else for nutrient export. How often do you perform water changes and how much.

as others have suggested, slow down on the feedings once a day is plenty. I’d also recommend staying away from GFO until you know what you’re dealing with. Buy the better test kit.
 
jcook54 said:
When I started dosing nitrates, the first sign of change was a GHA outbreak. I kept up the dosing (very small amount) and eventually I started detecting nitrates in the system. It took about 6 weeks of adding nitrates before it really started to show up on my Salifert test. I'm assuming what I was adding was just taken up by corals and algae but now things are starting to balance out. I'm surprised at how long it took but I as dosing a very small amount of nitrates so I wouldn't cause some major swing one way or the other.
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Thanks for the response, I was trying not to dose nitrate by uping my feeding but I might have to consider it. I am going to keep testing nitrate daily and might try dosing a small amount. What nitrate did you use?
 
dball711 said:
Invest in a better test kit like the Red Sea kit for phosphate and nitrate, I’d do this before doing anything else. It’s really important to know what your dealing with.

Besides the skimmer are you doing anything else for nutrient export. How often do you perform water changes and how much.

as others have suggested, slow down on the feedings once a day is plenty. I’d also recommend staying away from GFO until you know what you’re dealing with. Buy the better test kit.
Click to expand...
I am only running the skimmer and I was doing 5 gallon water change weekly but I have been holding off on them, I dont have alot of coral yet that will require what the salt will replenish. I have been using Sera test kits now and have had the store check my water a couple of times to confirm my results. Do you suggest one feeding a day or 2 smaller feedings morning and afternoon?
 
Reefried said:
I haven't done a water change in a couple of weeks and I did consider a blackout of 3 days many people have had luck with that. I don't want to make any drastic change to anything without being sure that it is the right move. I think the 1st step is to add the UV which has no possibility of any negative effects. Thank you for the response. Were you able to get rid of the dino issue?
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Yes I was. The UV was the last thing I added and that was what I believed was the last straw.
 
Also I haven't done a water change in almost a month and a half, two months. And the last time I checked my Nitrates and phosphates I got 5, and .02.
 
TLF acropower does not have to be refrigerated according to TLF as long as you don’t mix it with anything else.
 
Reefried said:
I am only running the skimmer and I was doing 5 gallon water change weekly but I have been holding off on them, I dont have alot of coral yet that will require what the salt will replenish. I have been using Sera test kits now and have had the store check my water a couple of times to confirm my results. Do you suggest one feeding a day or 2 smaller feedings morning and afternoon?
Click to expand...

If it was me I would do the water changes and even double up for a week or two because it can never hurt. And back off to just one feeding a day because that really is enough. And get a decent test kit so you can see down to the hundredth of parts per million and take it from there. Seriously doing less is better than doing too much and chasing numbers can lead to problems but that’s my $0.02.
 
For dosing nitrate I used Sodium Nitrate that I mixed in a solution of 25g per 300mL of RODI. The solution is somewhat arbitrary but it works and a 2 mL dose will raise nitrate approximately 0.25 ppm. I do not dose it every day, rather, I test for nitrate and if I'm below 1ppm, I add 2mL of solution. My goal is to get some stability in the system and not have to dose. I've added a few fish which should help and removed a piece or two of live rock that I had in the sump to reduce biofiltration. This is a frag tank so I've got some different options. All of the steps I've taken have occurred over the course of months. I'm seeking balance and I feared that if I took all of these steps at once, I would really throw things outta whack.
 
So I was battling dinos for a while. Blackouts, H2O2, water changes, no water changes, heavy feeding, light feeding, no skimmer, skimmer, etc. Nothing helped.

I bought a bottle of vibrant, 2 bottles of the bottled coralline algae, and added a UV. Did a water change to suck out as much as possible then started in with Vibrant amd coralline. Then UV a few hours later. They were cleared up in a week. Can't say for sure the bottled coralline made any difference or not. Maybe it was just the UV or the vibrant or the combo. But that's how I sorted my dinos out.

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk
 
popsbjd said:
So I was battling dinos for a while. Blackouts, H2O2, water changes, no water changes, heavy feeding, light feeding, no skimmer, skimmer, etc. Nothing helped.

I bought a bottle of vibrant, 2 bottles of the bottled coralline algae, and added a UV. Did a water change to suck out as much as possible then started in with Vibrant amd coralline. Then UV a few hours later. They were cleared up in a week. Can't say for sure the bottled coralline made any difference or not. Maybe it was just the UV or the vibrant or the combo. But that's how I sorted my dinos out.

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk
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That's where I am at nothing has helped. I am going to get a UV and hopefully that will do the trick. The UV cant hurt anything so that will be my first step
 
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