Tinned Reef

Well..... i got my new test kits yesterday and i tested both of my tanks ..


50 Cube -
Alk - 8.3
Calc - 400
Mag - 1520

Nitrate ( using red sea kit ) - 0
Phosphates ( using PHOSPHORUS ULTRA LOW RANGE COLORIMETER ) - 0

nutrients on this tank didnt come as a suprise to me (although didnt expect 0 phosphates) but then

the little tank the 10 gallon nuvo

Nitrates - 0.25 ( lesser actually color isnt as pink for 0.25)
phosphates - 0

this has me bummed. .. i feed that tank (lps in it ) every other day and i dont have any form of nutrient export except 3 gallons out of 7-8 gallons in there every 3 weeks ? i have a ton of Xenia in there though ..

how the heck do i get my nutrients up now :(

Ryan is gonna help me double check tonite but i think results will be similar (unless my last nights heavy feedings make a difference )
 
stump remover (potassium nitrate) to get your NO3 up...you can get PO4 from feeding but you can also use brightwell neophos to bump it up if you need to...i have it but don't dose it...if my corals pale due to low PO4 then i'll dose the neophos but just dosing the KNO3 up to 5ppm has gotten my colors really nice and deep
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
stump remover (potassium nitrate) to get your NO3 up...you can get PO4 from feeding but you can also use brightwell neophos to bump it up if you need to...i have it but don't dose it...if my corals pale due to low PO4 then i'll dose the neophos but just dosing the KNO3 up to 5ppm has gotten my colors really nice and deep
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well thats what i dont understand (and the reason to ask Ryan to double check my results) none of my acros are pale at all, they are all really brightly colored .. if both nitrate and phos are 0 shouldnt they be pale with the amount of light i give .. .. i do feed reefroids every other night and feed my fish every other day . at this point i have no algae at all and the algae scrubber didnt form any algae in weeks..
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
stump remover (potassium nitrate) to get your NO3 up...you can get PO4 from feeding but you can also use brightwell neophos to bump it up if you need to...i have it but don't dose it...if my corals pale due to low PO4 then i'll dose the neophos but just dosing the KNO3 up to 5ppm has gotten my colors really nice and deep
Click to expand...

Could you use Marine Snow as a more nutritious way to raise nitrates?
 
i can dictate exactly where my NO3 is by dosing the correct amount...sure you can feed more to raise nitrates but what doesn't get eaten just ends up rotting in your tank
 
Paulip said:
Could you use Marine Snow as a more nutritious way to raise nitrates?
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i dont really trust those marine/reef snows ;) i feed my tank too much already .. reef roids is a very fine powdered same thing for sps .. i recieved reef chili also yesterday so ill be feeding that too .. :)
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
i can dictate exactly where my NO3 is by dosing the correct amount...sure you can feed more to raise nitrates but what doesn't get eaten just ends up rotting in your tank
Click to expand...

ThePorkchopExpress said:
yea that's the one...1TB to 1 cup of RODI...i started low at 2.5ml and slowly raised to 5ml until i reached 5ppm...then i stopped dosing and noticed it doesn't really decrease that fast so i test NO3 every few days and dose accordingly
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i think ill probably go this route .. ill get one this weekend .. is there table as to how much to dose to raise how much ?

i think i will be happy with them around 3 or so .. and then i can move my scolies and chalices back in :marchmellow:
 
tinman said:
i dont really trust those marine/reef snows ;) i feed my tank too much already .. reef roids is a very fine powdered same thing for sps .. i recieved reef chili also yesterday so ill be feeding that too .. :)
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same here...i was literally throwing way too much food into my tank just trying to get NO3 up and most of it left uneaten just to end up as detritus or in my sock/skimmer...and even then my NO3 would not budge...KNO3 did it, it really works and my NO3 has been steadfast at 5...what's shitty is that i now have to clean my glass every other day...before it was like twice a week! it's an ok tradeoff to having rich, deep colors :)

tinman said:
i think ill probably go this route .. ill get one this weekend .. is there table as to how much to dose to raise how much ?

i think i will be happy with them around 3 or so .. and then i can move my scolies and chalices back in :marchmellow:
Click to expand...

this is the link that [MENTION=454]maidia[/MENTION] shared with me...after seeing both him and @coral_reeftank using it, i figured it was safe and ok to use:

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/question-about-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing.213281/

like i said before though, dissolve 1TB to 1 cup of water...throw it in some kind of squirt bottle...then dose 2.5ml your first day and measure 24 hours later...it probably won't budge much so you will probably go up to 5ml...just keep doing that until you get to the level you want

at 5ml per day and about 100 gallons total volume, it took me 3 days to get to 5ppm so i'm assuming it'll take you less
 
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ThePorkchopExpress said:
same here...i was literally throwing way too much food into my tank just trying to get NO3 up and most of it left uneaten just to end up as detritus or in my sock/skimmer...and even then my NO3 would not budge...KNO3 did it, it really works and my NO3 has been steadfast at 5...what's shitty is that i now have to clean my glass every other day...before it was like twice a week! it's an ok tradeoff to having rich, deep colors :)



this is the link that [MENTION=454]maidia[/MENTION] shared with me...after seeing both him and @coral_reeftank using it, i figured it was safe and ok to use:

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/question-about-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing.213281/

like i said before though, dissolve 1TB to 1 cup of water...throw it in some kind of squirt bottle...then dose 2.5ml your first day and measure 24 hours later...it probably won't budge much so you will probably go up to 5ml...just keep doing that until you get to the level you want

at 5ml per day and about 100 gallons total volume, it took me 3 days to get to 5ppm so i'm assuming it'll take you less
Click to expand...

Thank you ..

hmmmm thinking again .. i used to have to clean glass every two days .. now its been since sunday and i dont see any algae on the glass ..

this all changed about 2 weeks and thats when my lps started to decline ... may be i caught the thing just before sps also went pale kaboom .. thanks haha
 
tinman said:
Thank you ..

hmmmm thinking again .. i used to have to clean glass every two days .. now its been since sunday and i dont see any algae on the glass ..

this all changed about 2 weeks and thats when my lps started to decline ... may be i caught the thing just before sps also went pale kaboom .. thanks haha
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yup! you know the reason i started thinking about low nutrients was because my chaeto all of a sudden started dying on me...i had very lush, deep green chaeto that would double in a week and all of a sudden they just started turning pale green and melting...tested water and sure enough NO3 and PO4 were undetectable...i'm sure my acros would start to pale if i left it alone for much longer...i think you're catching your problem before it becomes serious
 
Tin I'll stand behind this theory Bryan told me this a few weeks ago and I was testing 0 now I'm almost @ 3 and thing are looking better then ever, this is a hell of a better way to control the nitrate in the tank. Just do it and thank us later
 
rockhead said:
Tin I'll stand behind this theory Bryan told me this a few weeks ago and I was testing 0 now I'm almost @ 3 and thing are looking better then ever, this is a hell of a better way to control the nitrate in the tank. Just do it and thank us later
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:) yea im gonna grab a bottle at home depot this week ....

and im thinking may be get phosphates also some up ?



ohh and its pottasium nitrate right ? doesnt it increase the potassium concentration ?
 
the rise in K is negligible since you are only raising your NO3 by 3-5ppm...plus a little, not a whole lot, of K is good for your reds, pinks, and oranges

i think if you just keep feeding what you're feeding, PO4 is fine...i used to dose NeoPhos but didn't see any difference in anything and then i stopped and still no change...what made things look better was the KNO3

plus dosing PO4 is a b* to test with the hanna tester...one day i would be at .02 which is ideal but then next day undetectable...i stopped chasing it entirely

just let the redfield ratio do it's thing!
 
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