I've been struggling for a while now to get any detectable nitrates in my tank. My test kit has been showing 0 for months. My phosphates always hold steady at 08. I've been feeding heavy, or at least it seems heavy to me, I pulled my skimmer offline a couple of months ago and broke down my refugium. Other than dosing neo-nitrile, which I started a couple of days ago I can't think of anything else
What gives with the nitrates??
- Thread starter Dmac
- Start date
What test kit are you using? Also what filtration medias are you using?
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Nitrate is going to your tank so there are really only two options. (1) Your test kit is wrong, confirm it like others have said (2) something is consuming/locking it up.
If you aren't doing anything to artificially reduce them, common reasons for the latter are algae in your tank or a very mature tank with lots of coral. Nothing you said indicated anything like that, so I would go with test kit confirmation first.
If you aren't doing anything to artificially reduce them, common reasons for the latter are algae in your tank or a very mature tank with lots of coral. Nothing you said indicated anything like that, so I would go with test kit confirmation first.
Do they look good (color, polyp extension, growth)?
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Honestly I don’t think your issue is nitrate, I think your api kit just can’t register what you have. Keep in mind most people try to keep any where from .5 to a max of 5, which is the lowest the api can register. It’s really really difficult to run nitrates at .5 or below. Zoas are going to be some of the easiest things to detect swings in alkalinity, if your bouncing around even from day to day they will react negatively.
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Check your alk daily and graph the results for a week or two, then make small adjustments at a time. you may be surprised at the difference flattening that line can make even if it’s just a little.
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Question: Why do you think you need to measure nitrates? In the nitrogen cycle, ammonia and Nitrates are the target parameters for most established tanks. Nitrites only spike when the tank cycles.
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Are you saying nitrates aren't an important parameter to measure in a successful reef tank? I agree that some people overemphasize and that you can be successful with a larger range than a lot of people realize. But to say they aren't important at all? If your nitrates are zero you will likely have suboptimal growth and potential dino issues. If they are too high you run the risk of nuisance algae and poor coral coloration. Not to mention extreme nitrate levels do pose issues with fish health.
If anything it's the other way around. Established tank owners should never have to worry about Ammonia and Nitrite. Nitrate should be tested regularly, particularly if you know you have issues one way or the other. Nitrite is an undervalued parameter, but to be frank most hobby grade test kits for it are crap so its largely not worth it.
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Nitrates are important now doubt about it, however you will drive your self mad trying to chase perfect nitrate. In a perfect work where I have complete and total control over my tank I would keep nitrates at .7 ppm which is the average level in the ocean. However I do not have perfect control over my reef and neither do you. So what you have to do is decide an acceptable range for the each parameter. For nitrates I consider that to be anywhere from .25 to 5.0.
Your avg api kit will show 0 at anywhere within that range. I would be willing to bet you are somewhere within that. If you really want to check use the Hanna nitrate, but honestly your talking about something that has a low impact to your reef as long as you are keeping it moderately stable within that range. As far as your alk what kit are you using? Alk is a different story where 1ppm swing doesn’t really make that much of a difference with nitrates (dissolved organic nutrients in sea water vary throughout the day with the tides)
A swing of .5 dkh is a significant swing, thankfully that’s also something you can control. That’s where you want your extremely accurate test kits and where to be “dialing in” the numbers to get best results.
Sometimes you gotta be realistic with what you can control what you can’t and is it worth it. If you really wanna stress about nitrate your looking at doing a few Thousand in equipment, essentially using a denitrification coil to strip out every single shred of nitrate, specialized reactors to run denitrification resins, and then dose it back in a controlled manner. That would give you that exact range you want with about only a .1 ppm variance. However that’s probably only going to give you a very small increase in growth, health, and color.
Look at the ones you can easily control, alkalinity, salinity, phosphate, salinity, calcium. Those are most likely to be the culprit of your issue and thankfully much easier to control.
I’m not completely against chasing numbers however, you have to give your self a variance for each parameter or you can go way far with it. To me and in most situations a variants of +_ 2ppm nitrate it’s more than fine.
However a variance of +_.5 dkh or .04 phosphate is unacceptable to me.
Trust me if your feeding and showing 0 on an api your in that range. If you were truly running 0 nitrates you would have had to go out of your way to do so. Your just causing your self unnecessary stress for a really small increase in results.
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Your avg api kit will show 0 at anywhere within that range. I would be willing to bet you are somewhere within that. If you really want to check use the Hanna nitrate, but honestly your talking about something that has a low impact to your reef as long as you are keeping it moderately stable within that range. As far as your alk what kit are you using? Alk is a different story where 1ppm swing doesn’t really make that much of a difference with nitrates (dissolved organic nutrients in sea water vary throughout the day with the tides)
A swing of .5 dkh is a significant swing, thankfully that’s also something you can control. That’s where you want your extremely accurate test kits and where to be “dialing in” the numbers to get best results.
Sometimes you gotta be realistic with what you can control what you can’t and is it worth it. If you really wanna stress about nitrate your looking at doing a few Thousand in equipment, essentially using a denitrification coil to strip out every single shred of nitrate, specialized reactors to run denitrification resins, and then dose it back in a controlled manner. That would give you that exact range you want with about only a .1 ppm variance. However that’s probably only going to give you a very small increase in growth, health, and color.
Look at the ones you can easily control, alkalinity, salinity, phosphate, salinity, calcium. Those are most likely to be the culprit of your issue and thankfully much easier to control.
I’m not completely against chasing numbers however, you have to give your self a variance for each parameter or you can go way far with it. To me and in most situations a variants of +_ 2ppm nitrate it’s more than fine.
However a variance of +_.5 dkh or .04 phosphate is unacceptable to me.
Trust me if your feeding and showing 0 on an api your in that range. If you were truly running 0 nitrates you would have had to go out of your way to do so. Your just causing your self unnecessary stress for a really small increase in results.
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100% agree. Variance is a problem, extreme parameters are a problem. Stability within acceptable is what you should be shooting for. Any changes to your baseline should be done deliberately and slowly. If you can't maintain stability at your new desired level, you would have been better off keeping it where it was.
That being said, API test kits isn't exactly known for its accuracy even within the realm of largely inaccurate hobby grade test kits. It wouldn't hurt trying a different kit to confirm his results. Redsea nitrate for example, while I have no doubt is wrong, has never given me a zero reading. Hanna LR does a decent job as well. To me its a 1 or 0 type situation, if he has any reading at all its probably just fine. But if he is truly at zero, he has an issue.
Just to clarify, I'm not chasing numbers, lol. I've had multiple outbreaks of dinos and have never had measurable nitrates in my tank. Couple that with slow growth and poor coloration at times , and that equals my being concerned over my nitrates.
Do you have any one close by you that has a Hanna nitrate kit? The api kit gives you just kinda ball park numbers not exact test. If you truly are having deficiency issues, we need a more accurate number to work with.
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I struggle with zero nitrates on two of my tanks. I am adding fish to see if that helps, otherwise I will be dosing nitrate as well. The third is registering 8-10ppm nitrates lately, but it also has a much higher phosphate level than the other two. I have the Nyos and it works great for 0-12ppm. There is a gap between 12 and 25 though.
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