New 73 gallon tank setup

[Frogger]

I have decided to run an experiment with my new tank and to see what adding nitrates to the tank will do.

I have a new tank I started last fall. The tank is the 73 gallon reefer from red sea. The tank has been running for about 6 months. I am running a Tunze doc 9410 skimmer. I have 2 giro 230's running for water motion and have a 48" ATI hybrid for lighting. I am using GFO to control my phosphates. And I though all other perimeters are good. I am keeping primarily SPS. I have had reef tanks for more than 20 years so I have a little bit of experience.
I have a low bio load and had to work hard to keep the phosphates down. I do not feed a lot so I was wondering what was going on. I have no algae growth. I have hundreds of Strombus sp. snails that keep any algae growth under control.

I am noticing that my corals are growing well but they do not have great coloration. I have a 40 gallon reef tank that I have had set up for 15 years with a deep sand plenum. When the corals were in this tank they had great colors but once I moved them to the large tank the colors have faded. I am moving the 40 gallon tank downstairs and will make a frag tank out of it.
My nitrates are at 0 on my reefer. I have never had even a slight bit of colour on my test. I am using a Redsea Pro nitrate test kit.

Last week I was talking to Gregzz4 and he told me that my problem with the phosphates are due to my 0 nitrates. If I raise my nitrates my phosphates will drop and my corals will colour up better. Being old school I always thought that the goal of reef tanks was to keep the phosphates and the nitrates at 0.

I have been doing some research and there is a lot of good information on the web in regards to nitrate dosing. Because I have a low bio load and I do not feed much my system is using up the nitrates faster than I am adding them or the fish are producing them. This is not the case with most systems, most systems over feed and have high levels of nitrate, thus the need for nitrate reduction methods.

I have read up on the Redfield ratio. Basically most marine biomass have a C:N:P ratio of 106:16:1. Being an Arborist I understand these ratios and it all makes sense. My Nitrogen Phosphorus ration is way off. Most people suggest just feeding more or adding more fish to raise my nitrates. That would work except that I would also raise my phosphate. When the ratios are off and you have high nitrates and phosphates you get nuisance algae. The great thing about my system is because of the low fish bioload I can raise my nitrates without raising my phosphates.

My goal is to get a nitrate level of around .5 to .8ppm nitrate. There are several products that you can use to raise your nitrates. Amino Acids are nitrate based. But you would have to add a lot of Amino acids to get the nitrates up. I have decided to use KNO3. I still dose amino acids as well.
According to Randy Holmes-Farley "Dissolve 10 grams potassium nitrate in 1 liter of fresh water. That 10 grams contains 6.14 grams of nitrate, so that solution is 6,140 ppm nitrate.

If you add 1 ml of the solution per 2 gallons of tank water volume, that will boost nitrate by 0.8 ppm nitrate.
I have started by adding 5mls of this solution twice a day. I am monitoring my nitrate daily. I do not want to raise my nitrate levels too quickly. From what I have read is the corals respond very quickly to an increase of nitrogen. I would add some pictures of the tank and the corals as they are now but I haven't figured out how to do it.

[Tigweldpro]

If you want exact measurements for ferts try https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

I have used it for KNO3 for my planted tanks before, works great

[tang daddy]

Sounds weird but there are a lot of threads online about adding tree stump remover to raise nitrates, I've been doing some searching online in other forums and decided to order some from the states. My nitrates were undetectable until I dosed a lot of dirty food and left the skimmer off for a couple days (accidental) so now I am going to try and dose some slowly and raise the nitrates up abit.

[Tigweldpro]

If by raise your nitrates your mean add KNO3, it should be very easy to find in BC. Pretty sure its a controlled substance, importing may be difficult/risky

[tang daddy]

Originally Posted by Tigweldpro

If by raise your nitrates your mean add KNO3, it should be very easy to find in BC. Pretty sure its a controlled substance, importing may be difficult/risky

Not really since it's already at point Roberts just got to go drive it over. A friend was using the planted stuff to raise nitrates but had negative results it was seachem so I decided not to go that route.

[Frogger]

I purchased my KNO3 from Patrick at Canadian aquatics he lives in Richmond. Charges $5 a pound. He requires your drivers license and a reason for use. Has to record everyone that buys it.

It is a controlled substance in Canada and you might have problems at the border

[Myka]

I used to use Photobucket but now it's so loaded with ads that it bogs down my computer. Can't sand that site anymore. I switched to Flickr which is much faster, but lacks the handy multiple URL selection that you get off Photobucket. Flickr you have to go to each photo individually to get the URL to post here.

[tang daddy]

How's the feeding going?

Checked Param's again?

Do the corals look any better?

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

How's the feeding going?

Checked Param's again?

Do the corals look any better?

Feeding heavily, all kinds of foods

Checked the parameters last night phosphates still 0 nitrates 1.5ppm. the last 2 days reduced the nitrate I was adding by 50%. Today I am not going to add any nitrates. I have to get the phosphates up above 0. They have been 0 or close to 0 for a week or more.

Too early to tell about the corals, nothings dead yet but many of them are showing tip dieback and polyps are not extended or fully extended.

Lessons learned 0 phosphate or 0 nitrates are not a good thing. The ideal situation is having the correct balance. Looking at getting phosphates to add to tank.

[Frogger]

I have added 4 smaller pieces of live rock that I have been "cooking" for several months. I treated the rocks with a peroxide dip to remove any remaining unwantables. These rocks came from a phosphate rich tank. Hopefully they slowly leach some phosphate into the tank to help manage my 0 phosphate issues.

I will keep you posted, fingers crossed.