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Low Nutrient system with zero nitrate but high phospate Reading (1 Viewer)

CaptainGreg

CaptainGreg

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Mar 29, 2010
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Coon Rapids
I have this problem with my low nutrient system where I get zero nitrate reading and high phospate reading.

I have been adding amino acid to keep my coral healthy due to low nutrient. I did doing some research on Amino acid and found the chemical structure of amino acid contain carbon,hydrogen,Oxygen, and nitrogen.

Since bacteria and macro algae need more nitrogen than phospate to grow. I am thinking if I can add large amount of amino acid to provide nitrate and carbon source for the bacteria and macro algae to take out the phosphate.

Other people on RC suggested adding small amount of potasium nitrate instead because it is cheaper.....

I am currently dose potasium....and run GFO when Phosphate get a bit high.

Amino acid and GFO is expensive. I am looking to try to experiment with potasium nitrate.

Looking for some advice from bio chem pro
 
There are other options than gfo, some people dose po4 remover. Others use Turf algae scrubbersare that can be a solution to both your problems. as the algae consumes phosphate it releases amino acids into the water.
 
I am thinking of a turf algae scrubber too but it require maint. I don't want to add p04 remover... It is a reactive chem that I am uncertain of what would happen and don't know if chemichal composition.

I like the idea of adding something that help the bacteria consume phospate. I just want to know if adding Potasium Nitrate will work? If it does where can I get pure Potasium nitrate to dose in small increment. Also I like to dose stuff that I can measure.
 
you need seachem flourish nitrogen, cheap no3 source.
 
Order some today and will be dosing in small amount and test nitrate. Is 5 ppm is a good nitrate level?

I got the Red Sea pro test kit... Not sure what the +- (%error) for this test kit.

I got the phospate test device... will see if it have any affect on phospate. Be nice if I can get rid of GFO reactor.
 
Ok, added 3ml of Potassium nitrate. Phospate starting out at 0.2 (Feeding as usual and no water change)

Tested nitrate a few hours after and nitrate still read zero.

Next day added another 3ml of Potassium nitrate. Tested nitrate and it is still zero.

Just tested phospate now and phospate is at zero. Though some thing might be wrong with the first test. Try tested a second time. Phospate reading is still zero. Very good sign.

Just feed the coral with a large chunk of home made coral/fish food. Will test again tomorrow to see if phospate or nitrate goes up.

Pink monti cap taken on a little darker in color due to nitrate, but should be ok if growth increase.

six ml of potassium nitrate does a better job than thirty dolars worth of GFO.

No more addition of potassium nitrate for now. If phospate goes up again...will try this experiment again and see if I can repeat it. If this work... Control of nitrate and phospate level would be easy. Thank clownnut for the info on the potassium nitrate product.

Does not seem to be any strange affect on coral at all. PE is still good. See if coral growth get any better in a few weeks.
 
Still doing heavy feeding of coral and fish. With more data for 75 gal tank and constand heavy feeding. I found 2ml of potassium nitrate will consume .05 ppm of phospate. Keeping and eye on Potassium also as to not over dose. I am loving this... I finnally have control over nitrate and phospate.

Report... Coral growth have increased...Coral color get deeper and brighter on some coral and some coral develop a darker brown. Have decrease lighting as the number of algae in the coral tissues have increase hence the darker in color. This is done to reduce the chance of oxygen toxicity in the coral tissues due to high level of algae growth in the coral tissues. Will slowly introduce the light back to let the coral to have a chance to balance the number of algae in it tissues over a couple of week period.
 
Buy a whole pallet of potasium nitrate. Perhaps we will see eposide 2 of the TCMAS raids. :doh:

PS: Episode 1 was the kalkwasser mistaken for meth raid.
 
My name might be reported to the Gov already when I made the one pound purchase. They might give me hard time getting on plane. :banana:

I got to get this in RO water before some one think I am trying to making something that POP...
 
Stoneyj33 said:
Can you take an after pic? Really interested in seeing the results
Click to expand...

I don't have a very good camera. Everytime I take it the color look mess up.... I think it is the light. What does people do so that the light does not mess up the picture?
 
Some warning on dosing nitrate. It seem like there is a delay in how the test kit can detect nitrate in the system. I add nitrate and did not detect any nitrate for days and then about a week later, I start to detect nitrate in larger quantiy. There is a delay on when the added nitrate can be detected. However, Phospate remain low. In response to the problem, I have to do a 5% water change. Hope the nitrate will goes down as the bacteria consume it along with phospate. As now I have stop dosing and wait and see for a few days.

The nitrate test kit is from Red Sea Pro. Could it be that the test kit only detect free nitrate and not nitrate that tightly bond to potasium or calcium? The delay affect might be the decay of the potassium nitrate or calcium nitrate compound?

Need some advice from some chemical engineer pro.
 
Here is my latest status....

I switched over from potassium nitrate to calcium nitrate. My phospate is now fluctuating between 0 and .05 and my nitrate is at 2. I dose only once a week only after phospate test showing > 0.2 .... My last does was 1ml of calcium nitrate and it took phospate down from 0.2 to zero. And my nitrate went from 0.75 to 2.

I get some cyno but not that bad. My coral is growing and getting better color. I used to get pale looking coral due to not enought nitrate and other trace elements.

Carefull with the calcium nitrate... A little bit goes a long way.

***Getting low nitrate and phospate does not mean you don't do water changes. I do 5% every two weeks. It is better than 20% each weak and you don't have to run gfo.

And yes... I feed my coral and fish lot off food and amino acid every night. The same type of food we made at the food making party but I grind it to a very fine particle and added lot of GNC Amino Acid combo.

The amount is one inch by one inch by quart inch frozen chunck each night.

I am still experimenting and running through lot of phospate and nitrate test.. I am hopping to come up with a method of regular dosing. For now I am doing test each week and dosing after testing.

I have to conclude that it have been a positive experiment so far. Like the growth and color.

As for picture, My got junk camera... Saving up for a good camera to document the color and growth.
:agree:
 
:pics:

Need to see to believe. With all your experiments and not even a picture to document/prove how things changed in your tank, it is hard to convince people. Even with a crappy camera, you should take a few picture to show us how your tank's experiences actual work:look:
 
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