Muttley000 Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 Anyone doing it? My nitrates test zero with a Red Sea pro kit. I have never been able to measure them, and my ATI send in test listed them as zero also. What do you all think? Flounder 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Feed more. Lol. That’ll bring them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 I started thinking about it this last week. Over the last month or so, I have seen them drop from 5 to almost 0 (Salifert). I feed a lot every day, and still cant seem to get them up any more. Some of my zoas have been closed up, and I am wondering if this is the reason why. I removed some of my bio pellets in an attempt to help bring them up. I might turn them off all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flounder Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 I could be in for a group experiment. Also have been reading 0 Nitrates and would like to see something. Would you have an interest in testing different products, or same product with different dosing schedules, or run the exact same to compare results? I imagine we could have completely different outcomes with running the same program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley000 Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 2 hours ago, Joe said: Feed more. Lol. That’ll bring them up. Im feeding all they want now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley000 Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 2 hours ago, crimsonvice said: I started thinking about it this last week. Over the last month or so, I have seen them drop from 5 to almost 0 (Salifert). I feed a lot every day, and still cant seem to get them up any more. Some of my zoas have been closed up, and I am wondering if this is the reason why. I removed some of my bio pellets in an attempt to help bring them up. I might turn them off all together. I’m turning mine off this weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 1 hour ago, Flounder said: I could be in for a group experiment. Also have been reading 0 Nitrates and would like to see something. Would you have an interest in testing different products, or same product with different dosing schedules, or run the exact same to compare results? I imagine we could have completely different outcomes with running the same program. What test are you using? Any product recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flounder Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 I am not using anything at the moment to increase Nitrates, outside of over feeding the 6, 1inch fish I have. With only a couple months under my belt, just happy to see stability Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Yes, turning off the nitrate removing pellet reactor would be my first step. Just saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Turned mine off last night. I am interested in seeing how fast they do or do not climb. Nitrates tested at < 2 ppm. Joe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley000 Posted May 5, 2018 Author Share Posted May 5, 2018 (edited) Removed the biopellet reactor today nitrates still measure zero (Red Sea) after the heaviest feeding week in my systems history, phosphates measure .01 (Hanna ULR) cheato not growing at all. Will see what happens for a couple weeks and then look at reducing lighting period on my ATS Edited May 5, 2018 by Muttley000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 I was thinking about my setup this morning. Started to notice nitrates reducing after I added the Kessil H80. Then about 1 maybe 2 weeks ago, I got tired of cleaning filter socks, so I just started running without them. I was changing one 7" sock, once a week with my water change. Maybe with the socks gone and the addition of the H80, it was enough to drop my nitrates. Biopellets will be off for 48 hours tonight. I will test and see where they are sitting. Still have been feeding heavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Nitrates have gone from .2 to.5 hopefully they will keep going up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley000 Posted May 5, 2018 Author Share Posted May 5, 2018 53 minutes ago, crimsonvice said: Nitrates have gone from .2 to.5 hopefully they will keep going up. Wow. Did your biopellets ever really shrink? Are you watching your phosphate to see if it goes up along with nitrates? Over 6 months I bet my level of biopellets only went down a half inch! I always expected they would shrink if they were doing something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 18 minutes ago, Muttley000 said: Wow. Did your biopellets ever really shrink? Are you watching your phosphate to see if it goes up along with nitrates? Over 6 months I bet my level of biopellets only went down a half inch! I always expected they would shrink if they were doing something. Yes I did see them go down in size. I didn't really notice it until I went to add a few more. There was a big difference between the size of the new pellets and the ones that had been in there for 6 months. It wasn't a fast size change though. I will monitor Po4 as well, but not as close. I am not totally sold on the devastating effects of phosphates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flounder Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 On 5/5/2018 at 5:48 PM, crimsonvice said: I will monitor Po4 as well, but not as close. I am not totally sold on the devastating effects of phosphates. What gives you this idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley000 Posted May 7, 2018 Author Share Posted May 7, 2018 1 hour ago, Flounder said: What gives you this idea? Phosphates are necessary for corals to thrive. Many people drive phosphates too low by overusing chemical filtration like GFO. There is supposedly a point where high phosphates will interfere with calcification, but I do not know what that number is. My question was more out of curiosity to see how much the rise in phosphates would match the rise in nitrates, wondering how much the biopellets really remove. Flounder and crimsonvice 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 ^This. Also, GFO and other phosphate removing tools have not been around for horribly long (?10+ years?). I mean that is longer than I have been in the hobby... but people were keeping healthy reefs before this, without really paying attention to phosphates. I have no statistical information or other data to back up my theory, just have read and looked at the husbandry of other reefers and my personal experience. I do test for phosphates, not on a consistent basis, but I do. I have run GFO and Biopellets, but mostly in efforts to help reduce nitrates to eliminate algae issues, not necessarily phosphates. So like @Muttley000 said, this is a good opportunity to see if the elimination of both filter socks and biopellets will elevate nitrates and phosphates concurrently, or if there will be no relation. I will test every two days for the next two weeks and see what the results say. Flounder 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 Tested today. 4 days no biopellets. Nitrates are .2 and po4 is .12. So far no significant changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 On 5/7/2018 at 6:42 PM, crimsonvice said: Tested today. 4 days no biopellets. Nitrates are .2 and po4 is .12. So far no significant changes. They thing with PO4 is that sometimes it slacks into the rock and reads low in the water column. Does not mean it’s not there. Also .2 from 0 in 4 days, is progress in my book. No matter how little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 8 hours ago, Joe said: They thing with PO4 is that sometimes it slacks into the rock and reads low in the water column. Does not mean it’s not there. Also .2 from 0 in 4 days, is progress in my book. No matter how little. Nitrates were never 0. They seem to have stayed right around .2 to .5. I would like to see them more between 2.0 and 5.0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 15 hours ago, crimsonvice said: Nitrates were never 0. They seem to have stayed right around .2 to .5. I would like to see them more between 2.0 and 5.0. Got yea. So do make a product like nitrate up? lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Turn off the skimmer for a day or two.? Maybe that’ll help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Tested last night and they are up to 1. However the phosphates are down at .04 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonvice Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 I wonder if the variation in phosphate is the variant of the Hanna Checker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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