Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

[Varig]

Did you Hanna show any color at all in the vial? Mine is usually a very obvious shade of light orange (I think, I'm colorblind, but that's what it looks like to me) when there is nitrate in the test. If the vial still looked totally clear, I guess I'd try again and see if you still get the discrepancy between the 2 tests?

 

[Fishfoo]

Couple of things. First, really interesting if the different kalk powders result in different pH boosts. I’m not sure what chemically would be going on there, but interesting.

Regarding nitrate/phosphate:

1) Be really careful running nitrate at 0 for too long. Current wisdom (right or not I guess we don’t know), that seems to be one of the common threads for the beginning of a Dino outbreak.

2)I noticed my own tank that if nitrate gets low/0 then it is a limiter for chaeto growth and this a limiter for additional phosphate removal. When I started dosing nitrate to get it off 0, I noticed that my phosphate dropped more. I assumed that was the chaeto growing again because it had both nutrients, but I don’t have “proof.” Just my observation.

YMMV

1) bottomed out phosphates also leads to Dino’s, I can attest

2) I forget the exact science, but nitrates and phosphates have a direct relationship. Basically if you raise one you lower the other and vice versa.

I don’t know for sure, but if reef chili is anything like reef roids, it’s like straight phosphate. I actually purposely feed the corals in my QT tank extra reef roids when the phosphates are low instead of dosing neophos. Perhaps part of your problem?

This is spot on. Think of pellet/flake food as mainly phosphate additive, not nitrate. Think of reef roids/chili as straight phosphate.

Started dosing NeoNitro last night around 6pm. This morning I decided to test. Hanna still says zero. Salifert I do get some color and looking through the side at the color chart it looks to be around 10 On the high side of the chart. Not sure why Hanna shows zero If salifert definitely has some color.

I think your best solution is to dose pure NO3 like you are. Neonitro works but wasn’t very cost effective for me, so I ended up buying a bag of postassium nitrate powder. Will last me for years and years, plus adds a little postassium as well, which always seems to be low in my tank.

 

[reef junkie]

1) bottomed out phosphates also leads to Dino’s, I can attest

2) I forget the exact science, but nitrates and phosphates have a direct relationship. Basically if you raise one you lower the other and vice versa.

This is spot on. Think of pellet/flake food as mainly phosphate additive, not nitrate. Think of reef roids/chili as straight phosphate.

I think your best solution is to dose pure NO3 like you are. Neonitro works but wasn’t very cost effective for me, so I ended up buying a bag of postassium nitrate powder. Will last me for years and years, plus adds a little postassium as well, which always seems to be low in my tank.

Thanks for the feedback. were did you get the potassium powder? If i’m going to end up needing to do this long term might be nice to find a cheaper option. How are you adding it? Dosing pump or manually?

 

[Fishfoo]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094JZSN51/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then use this to calculate how much

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

I manually dosed it to reach ~10-15 ppm when the tank was nutrient deprived. Lately I haven't needed to (NO3 around 25 lately). I wouldn't raise it by more than 5-8ppm per day though just to be cautious.

 

[reef junkie]

Did you Hanna show any color at all in the vial? Mine is usually a very obvious shade of light orange (I think, I'm colorblind, but that's what it looks like to me) when there is nitrate in the test. If the vial still looked totally clear, I guess I'd try again and see if you still get the discrepancy between the 2 tests?

I never even looked. Lol. I’ll check next time I test.

 

[reef junkie]

Dosed 14ml yesterday evening. Tested this am was at zero. Dosed another 14ml this evening. Tested 4hr later Was at .2

 

[Varig]

I don’t recall for sure, but isn’t neonitro something like tank volume x desired rise x .1261 = dose in mL? Don’t you have 40-60 gallons of water volume with your sump (I’ve forgotten how big your tank is). But if so isn’t 14mL only like 1 or 2 ppm of nitrate? Maybe go for 5-6ppm change per dose (as Fishfoo mentioned) to see if you can get it to move?

 

[reef junkie]

I don’t recall for sure, but isn’t neonitro something like tank volume x desired rise x .1261 = dose in mL? Don’t you have 40-60 gallons of water volume with your sump (I’ve forgotten how big your tank is). But if so isn’t 14mL only like 1 or 2 ppm of nitrate? Maybe go for 5-6ppm change per dose (as Fishfoo mentioned) to see if you can get it to move?

With sump close to 70 gallons minus rock and equipment. Your formula is correct. I wanted to start out slow and make sure Im understaffing what im doing before dumping in to much. I was shooting for that 2ppm per day and slowly ramping up from there.

 

[Varig]

Got it, makes sense. I agree it's a bit strange that if you added it and checked just 4 hours later that you didn't see a bigger shift. I will admit that either I don't have the exact volume for my tank right or the formula isn't perfect, but it never seems to work out "right" for me. I guess just over months of dosing it I have empirically developed a formula that "works for my tank." I'm sure you'll get the same.

 

[reef junkie]

If I go by the correct calculation of 70x5x.1261= 44ml. This seems like a lot and a big jump at once. Am I over thinking this?

 

[Fishfoo]

nope, I believe that's correct. Hence why/how the neonitro can get expensive quickly

 

[reef junkie]

nope, I believe that's correct. Hence why/how the neonitro can get expensive quickly

Placing amazon order now!! LOl Thanks

 

[reef junkie]

At least got something figured right. This is the overflow collection cup coming off my co2 scrubber. Now that I have it sitting so much lower than before. It’s actually working the way it was intended. lol

 

[reef junkie]

Dosed 20ml of the NeoNitro last night. Tested this afternoon and we are at 4.9 on the Hanna. Only thing I tested for. I’m hoping that this will be my daily dose for now and will just keep tested every few days I guess to make sure I’m sitting around 5ppm.

 

[reef junkie]

Added another X1 dosing pump to dose the NeoNitro. Currently still dosing the 20ml per day but now spread out 1.7ml 12 times per day. 36 hours after turning on the pump This is where were at.

Might need to up the rowaphos just a bit to get the Po4 down just a little, but going to run like this a few more dayes and then check again.

Also going to up the all for reef dose a little to get up over 9dkh.

Ive noticed since adding the fudge. The cheto has really grown a lot. Im probably only a week or two away from needing to remove some. Im curious to if when I remove some if my nitrites will jump up because less cheto in the box.


Made a few other changes. Was able to get some par readings. Upper levels were in the 150 And lower was in the 50-75. So turned the primes up about 20%. Also turned the mp10’s up about 10% to get some flow going through.

 

[Pico bam]

Here's a little knowledge for you guys, just a little.

 

[Pico bam]

In my experience I don't have to dose nitrate continuously I just have to bump it up when it bottoms out. But then again I'm no @Fishfoo I grow more algae than corals most days.

 

[Varig]

In my experience I don't have to dose nitrate continuously I just have to bump it up when it bottoms out. But then again I'm no @Fishfoo I grow more algae than corals most days.

I can relate there for sure . But definitely I’ve seen about being nitrate limited.

I’ve also heard that you should aim to keep nitrates to phosphate at a 100:1 ratio. And I swear they also call that the Redfield ratio. I guess in either case, more nitrate than phosphate.

 

[Pico bam]

I can relate there for sure . But definitely I’ve seen about being nitrate limited.

I’ve also heard that you should aim to keep nitrates to phosphate at a 100:1 ratio. And I swear they also call that the Redfield ratio. I guess in either case, more nitrate than phosphate.

Yes I have heard a multitude of ratios to keep No3 and po4 at. The Redfield ratio is just about bacterial consumption of nitrate and phosphate i believe. At some point we have to step in and add some control. I see best results with higher nitrate, I don't like them under 15. I always struggle with phosphate though I can't justify spending a few hundred on gfo every year, So I use a liquid remover.

 

[reef junkie]

That’s all very interesting. And makes sense. I keep reading up on keeping nitrate way higher than I had ever imagined. And have never really chased numbers in the past or even cared to pay much attention. It does sort of drive you mad lol.

with the changes I’ve made and the monitoring I’ve been doing I’ve noticed a lot less stress on the newly added corals. But still only sps and lps. if this trend stays the course I might try adding some Zoas again. I’m surprised by not seeing any reaction that I can say I see from any of the corals during any of the add on‘s or changes. So that’s a positive. And other than the bubble algae still around. No other nuisance algae.