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Nutrients and acropora


Spschampion

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Hi,

       I was doing my weekly water  testing last night and noticed that my nitrates are high. Somewhere, between 25 and 50 ppm. It’s been somewhere around 25 ppm for about a month. I have read that high nitrates will cause acropora to “brown out”. Yet, I have approximately 25 different acropora frags and I don’t see any browning. In fact, since the nutrient levels have been higher the color and growth seem better? I’m starting to wonder if higher levels of nitrate are such a bad thing? P.S. I keep phosphate levels low, definitely see unhappy coral and algae growth when they creep up! Anyone else see the same thing? 

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Very low no3 and very low po4 are, from what I read in the past, is what one would think to aim for to keep colorful and happy sps. Not so true! It's very difficult to keep trates in check at such low levels. So, people just let it ride with great success. I personally keep my trates around 25 and po4 around .3, not. 03 but .3!
My acros love the high nutrient levels. They eat it up which in turn, brings out the bright beautiful colors and growth! I'd never thought to keep no3 so high but after chatting with Rudy, he told me his sps vat is running at 20ppm no3. His zoa vats are running at 40ppm! I keep my 8 ft zoa frag tank at 40ppm, as well. I must say, there is a balance between no3 and po4, though. Can't have an imbalance of both or else there'd be issues. Keep Alk high if you're gonna keep no3 high.
All this being said, it works for me, but it might not work for you. Once you find the sweet spot, keep it there!
Btw, I dose nitrates (stump remover) and phosphates (tri-sodium something) to keep levels up or else, my corals suck it up like no other...
HTH

Sent from Atlantis 🤙

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2 hours ago, Optimusprime3605 said:

Very low no3 and very low po4 are, from what I read in the past, is what one would think to aim for to keep colorful and happy sps. Not so true! It's very difficult to keep trates in check at such low levels. So, people just let it ride with great success. I personally keep my trates around 25 and po4 around .3, not. 03 but .3!
My acros love the high nutrient levels. They eat it up which in turn, brings out the bright beautiful colors and growth! I'd never thought to keep no3 so high but after chatting with Rudy, he told me his sps vat is running at 20ppm no3. His zoa vats are running at 40ppm! I keep my 8 ft zoa frag tank at 40ppm, as well. I must say, there is a balance between no3 and po4, though. Can't have an imbalance of both or else there'd be issues. Keep Alk high if you're gonna keep no3 high.
All this being said, it works for me, but it might not work for you. Once you find the sweet spot, keep it there!
Btw, I dose nitrates (stump remover) and phosphates (tri-sodium something) to keep levels up or else, my corals suck it up like no other...
HTH

Sent from Atlantis 🤙
 

I'm curious if you have any issues with nuisance algae with your higher NO3 and PO4?  The whole reason I try to keep mine lower is to avoid additional algae growth.  I keep my tank around 4ppm NO3 and 0.03ppm PO4.  My corals seem fine with these levels.

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22 minutes ago, MorseReef said:

What test kits are you guys using to test NO3 and PO4?

What is your favorite and why?

I love my Hanna ULR Phosphorus tester (model HI-736).  Simple to use and a digital readout that measures down to 0.01ppm PO4.

For NO3 I use Red Sea Nitrate Pro.  It's OK but I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing the various shades of pink.

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I'm curious if you have any issues with nuisance algae with your higher NO3 and PO4?  The whole reason I try to keep mine lower is to avoid additional algae growth.  I keep my tank around 4ppm NO3 and 0.03ppm PO4.  My corals seem fine with these levels.
Algae film on glass? Yes. Just like everyone else. I hand clean my glass every 3 to 4 days, though. Algae on rockscape? Yes, but it's not the stringy long stuff, it's the really small stuff that's hardly noticeable. Besides, my tangs just tear it up, like it's nothing. I'm sure, if I lowered my trates and phos, I could probably go 5 to 7 days without cleaning the glass, but I don't mind one bit. As long as my corals are colorful and growing, that's all that really matters. Cleaning is just part of good husbandry...
HTH's, John [emoji6]

Sent from Atlantis 🤙

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1 hour ago, SuncrestReef said:

I love my Hanna ULR Phosphorus tester (model HI-736).  Simple to use and a digital readout that measures down to 0.01ppm PO4.

For NO3 I use Red Sea Nitrate Pro.  It's OK but I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing the various shades of pink.

I find with the Hannah testers, esp Po4, it is very hard to duplicate the numbers thus leaving me not to trust it. With that said I do use the Hannah checker for ALK a and love it. I use salifert for nitrates because it is easy to distinguish the color change between pink and blue.

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I don’t trust the Hannah phosphate checker either. It requires that you get 100% of the reagent powder out of the pouch. I think this is hard to impossible. However, I have a hard time distinguishing the different shades of red with the salifert nitrate rest. I don’t seem to have nearly the issues with the blue from the phosphate test, so that’s what I have been doing. 

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Mi42 baby.   I gives repeatable results.  One weird thing about it is that if you don't wash the vials really well, and you take a test after a week the first result can be wildly wrong.  subsequent test however are spot on.  Maybe Sean can shed some light on that?  Its almost like the reagent reacts with the dried reagent from a former test?  OR it could be that I am not completely washing them.  I dunno, I have been really happy with them.  

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/mi412-low-range-phosphate-photometer-milwaukee.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3JXtBRC8ARIsAEBHg4mooHMTztueVsZTT28UGTBan_as5tiB0l9h8MJLHTs8u46CdnCIejEaAoL_EALw_wcB

I try to keep my numbers in the range that Suncrest does.  < 10 nitrates and <.5 phosphates.  

I loathe when people say "these are ideal numbers, but don't chase them".  What is that supposed to mean?   

To me, the observed levels in your tank are the net result of nutrient input, nutrient absorption through growth, and finally nutrient export.  Because these are constantly evolving and changing in your aquarium, then they are prone to float around a little.  This is exacerbated in tanks than say 1 year old as the biology is still catching up with your nutrient levels in the constant cycle of boom and bust as the oscillations in bacterial populations swing less and less as the approach an equilibrium. 

So you have inputs which are relatively stable (fish food and coral food).  

Your adsorption which is also relatively stable but is subject to lots of environmental variation.  It is basically your coral and alage growth rates which are effected by temperature, total amount of light, alkalinity, flow, ..everything. 

Now your exports.. which are typically microbial off gassing of nitrogen,  water changes,  running macro algae. 

So if you have high levels of nutrients then you have to A. feed a lot less or ditch some fish or B. increase export.  

The ways to increase nutrient export are A. more water changes (expensive)   B. Increasing bacterial populations through adding carbon (either vodka, vinegar or biopellets) or C. more powerful macro algae lights.  

If your nitrates are really up near 50, I would knock that down a little.  Just my 2 cents.  

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1 hour ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

One weird thing about it is that if you don't wash the vials really well, and you take a test after a week the first result can be wildly wrong.  subsequent test however are spot on.

OK, that is weird.  I would have to actually look into the chemistry of this particular test to even guess at a rationale for that.  Well, that and re-read all my college text books 😁. Not happening.

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