How can I naturally raise nitrate level?

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#1
I’m very hesistant to dose nitrate, I wonder what would be the best natural way to raise nitrate level? Phosphate is at 0.03-0.08, nitrate is always at 0 since August, that’s when started testing nitrate. The tank is only a little over a year, sps dominated tank but just mostly frags right now.


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#3
I feed them pellets twice day on auto feeder, 1cube of mysis shrimp in the afternoon and another cube before lights off and nori every couple of days. Ithink I feed them too much already i have to clean the glass every couple if days.
Fish list:
Blue tang
Purple tank
Sixline wrasse
2 pajama cardinal
Watchman goby
Green chromi
I will be adding (3) lyretail anthias and a flame hawkfish in 2 weeks (they are in qt now)

I was thinking of just running the skimmer on 2 days and off 2 days and/or shortening the fuge light to 5 hours (right now its on for 10 hours)


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Brady4000

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#4
I have some questions.

-How often do you do your WC and by what %.
-When do you test your nitrates?
-How large is your Refug? And why keep one if your having nitrate issues?
 

joseserrano

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#5
Frozen will increase nitrates fasts than pellet feeding. Pellets will increase phosphate more. Why do you think you need to increase nitrates? Below is a good video to watch.

 

drexel

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#6
If you have algae on the glass, then you have enough nutrients in the tank. Don't chase numbers. Are your corals pale, losing tissue? If not, then I wouldn't worry. I would suggest getting better frozen food like LRS or Rods, there's no rinsing and your fish will love you for it. I feed LRS 3 -4 times a day, pellets about the same and I also feed flakes and I barely register NO3. It's all about throughput, heavy in, heavy out.
 

Smite

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#7
Feed more
A sponge in the sump or a filter sock that doesn’t clogged

I agree with above. I stopped chasing nutrients. If somethings off or super pale I’ll up my feeding and phyto dosing. I’m not consistent enough dosing nutrients and I felt like in the end I was just causing a bunch of mini swings throughout the day.
 
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#8
I was not trying to chase numbers at all. I’m one of those old reefer that came back to the hobby after about 12 years away and I still apply the same reefing method I use to use back then. We were always told the cleaner the water the better. I realize now a lot of things I know back then are now obselete.

Reason i want to raise nitrate, I have several sps frags in the tank the when I got them they have very nice bright/ vibrant colors they will stay that way for a couple of weeks and then will start losing colors, some frags will keep the colors but will go from bright to pale colors. Same goes for the chalices and torches (though torches I suspect might be due to bleaching). The frags are encrusting and growing, its just colors would not come back. For what I have read this might be due to low nutrients.


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tripinpn01

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#9
I read people dosing something so they don't raise phosphates also. I'll try to find what the product is called later.

Edit: I'm an idiot. Skipped right over the first sentence of your original post lol
 
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#10
Frozen will increase nitrates fasts than pellet feeding. Pellets will increase phosphate more. Why do you think you need to increase nitrates? Below is a good video to watch.

Thank you that was a very helpful video.


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#11
I have some questions.

-How often do you do your WC and by what %.
-When do you test your nitrates?
-How large is your Refug? And why keep one if your having nitrate issues?
WC every two weeks
-testing nitrates 3x within that 2 weeks before water change.
-fuge size I think 6x18. I have always set up my tanks with fuge for algae control plus i like to have lots of fish I feel more comfy having a fuge.


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Brady4000

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#12
Maybe do some trimming on the chaeto and see if that helps. I wonder how your tank would function without the Refug. It’s an odd thing to think of dosing nitrates, or trying to bring nitrates up, while having a Refug.
 
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#14
Maybe do some trimming on the chaeto and see if that helps. I wonder how your tank would function without the Refug. It’s an odd thing to think of dosing nitrates, or trying to bring nitrates up, while having a Refug.
I have trimmed the chaeto, I will cut down the fuge light photo period. Then maybe I will turn the skimmer off every other day and see what happens. I don’t really want to dose nitrate and I want it to occur naturally, dosing nitrate will be my last resort.


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Brady4000

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#17
It was to my understanding the light is what actually regulates the PH… not the chaeto, please correct me if I am wrong.

What I do know is cutting the chaeto in 1/2 will absorb less nitrates and phosphates. Worth a try.
 

five.five-six

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#18
It was to my understanding the light is what actually regulates the PH… not the chaeto, please correct me if I am wrong.

What I do know is cutting the chaeto in 1/2 will absorb less nitrates and phosphates. Worth a try.

Photosynthesis is a huge regulator of pH. Simply put pH is a numeric relationship between acids and bases. Acids lower pH and bases raise pH In the captive reef aquarium, the acid we are talkiBG about is generally dissolved Co2 and the base is bicarbonate (Alkalinity). we know what happenes if you just dump bicarbonate win the tank, so the preferred way to raise pH is to lower dissolved Co2.

Photosynthesis (light phase) consumes Co2 to create sugars which the algae uses to build mass. The more light and more macro algae you have, the more photosynthesis you will have, removing more Co2, that’s why your see the pH swing throuought the day when the lights are on

A few weeks back my skimmer power supply broke, you can see that on Nov 21, I replaced it.
good aviation and nutrient export will also raise pH.

E32DA2E9-CF9E-42CD-849A-2B39413BD250.png
 

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