Nitrate & Phosphate in your reef tank

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Күн бұрын

Both Nitrate and Phosphate play very important roles in our reef tanks, even more so when dealing with an algae bloom. We often try to keep nitrates and phosphates as close to zero as we can - but I think that's actually a bad idea! It's pretty well accepted that acropora and other corals have better color with some nitrates in the water - but how much is enough?
For that, we can use the Redfield Ratio as a general guide. Don't go crazy getting your nitrate and phosphate to exactly match this ratio, but use it as a ballpark figure to aim for.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfiel...
Look at how colorful my Strawberry Shortcake Acro is now, after years of slow growth as a generic brownish coral. I've only raised my nitrate level by 1ppm (which reduced my phosphate by about 25%!) and it has had a huge impact on my tank.
You can use this calculator to figure out how much nitrate or phosphate to add to adjust the levels in your tank.
www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calcu...
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Пікірлер: 30

@zaher.w 5 жыл бұрын

You’re funny and informative I hope you continue to do what you’re doing great job.

@WickedEfie 5 жыл бұрын

Great info!...Also, your strawberry shortcake acropora is a beauty!

@REEFPizza 4 жыл бұрын

Super interesting topic!

@philipwood8776 5 жыл бұрын

Very informative...ty

@rhombifer566 8 ай бұрын

Interesting 🤔

@TheTrevor40 5 жыл бұрын

Great video. It seems that the understanding of nutrients in reef tanks has come a long way in the last few years. I would watch people with pale colors get advice that they needed to add more GFO which of course did more damage. All about that sweet spot.

@ReefMan 5 жыл бұрын

Yea for sure! That sweet spot and then being consistent with all the parameters is key.

@darrenshore5853 4 жыл бұрын

My N03 is at 4 ppm and Phosphate is at 0.08. Would these be a good balance

@patterdalezipsuzilil 3 жыл бұрын

I have 3 phoshate and 30 nitrates 😆😆 my lps love but keep dkh at 10.5

@mihaia6026 4 жыл бұрын

@ReefMan What are your NO3 and PO4 now ?

@ReefMan 4 жыл бұрын

I haven't tested recently, but I will check and let you know!

@kristijanmanchevski6305 4 жыл бұрын

When you started dosing nitrates did you notice a drop on the orp?

@ReefMan 4 жыл бұрын

I've never had an ORP probe, sorry!

@420pigfarmer 5 жыл бұрын

Is there a method to raise phosphates but not nitrates? I'm currently testing at 3 to 4ppm nitrates but my phos is always readying .00 I've on occasion seen .01 but never any higher.. Thanks for any pointers!

@ReefMan 5 жыл бұрын

You might try just feeding more. Lots of frozen foods are high in phosphate. Beyond that you could dose small amounts of things like Potassium phosphate or Sodium phosphate. Make sure the chemicals are food or regent grade and make sure you have a good low range test for phosphate like the Hannah ULR Checker or similar.

@ReefMan 5 жыл бұрын

You can use the calculator in the description to figure out how much of these chemicals to dose

@420pigfarmer 5 жыл бұрын

Ive been trying the over feeding tech for a good 3 months now and still locked on .00 phosphates. I think i'll try the small dosing of potassium phosphate. Thank you!

@ReefMan 5 жыл бұрын

Sure! Just use the calculator and be careful not to go overboard or you'll be in algae city. I'd only bring it to 0.01 or 0.02 to start with.

@tasanastasi7799 5 жыл бұрын

My nitrates are 20- 25 and phosphates 0.25 just cannot get them lower ..however corals have adapted ;)

@ReefMan 5 жыл бұрын

Happy fish and coral is the goal! Sounds like you found a balance that works in your tank.

@patterdalezipsuzilil 2 жыл бұрын

😆I now have 2ppm nitrates and 0.10 phosphates using aquaforest np pro and probiotic s and its been my mushroom are spitting like crazy and I fragging all my sps I have lowered my dkh to 9.2 and my ph is 8.25 over night and 8.39 at peak light cycle I guess I had better stop slagging off aquaforest products

@ReefMan 2 жыл бұрын

I’m glad they’re working for you! That’s great!!

@patterdalezipsuzilil 2 жыл бұрын

Took a while I got rid of a 9inch naso tang it was eating a 8inch by 4 inch sheet of nori 😆

@jamesnoguera9313 4 жыл бұрын

What did you use to raise nitrates

@ReefMan 4 жыл бұрын

I actually dosed nitrates directly. You can mix up Potassium nitrate and use it to dose, just be careful and be sure you buy a pure chemical so you don't get contaminates.

@mohamedgendia4274 3 жыл бұрын

I got the same problems zero nitrate what ever i feed the tank phosphate goes up and no nitrate i was last time at 0 N03 and 0.12 po4 then i thought about dosing nitrate i got the reef start kit from redsea one bottle was written in the back contains potassium nitrate ! I said okay lets give that try and i added first day only 3ml liter after 24 hours i measured no3 and it was 0 then i started add more at that second time devil came to me and said lets double it no problem :) then i added 7ml more than devil said 😂 my tank is 200 liter and bottle said 10mil per 100 liter so i still in less than half dose .. after 24 hours measured again my tank reads nitrate in the first time !! It was about 2ppms and after 24 hours po4 goes to 0.07 and my no3 to about 1 or me be less this red sea no3 pro test still hard to read in low range even when i am using my wife eye instead if me lol ... So it worked for me i was so happy to see someone got the same results like me :) thank you for this information i became i fan of your channel

@tsurro8086 5 жыл бұрын

Think u mean .07 phosphate,?, yes my nitrates around 10, phos- .07-.10

@ReefMan 5 жыл бұрын

The idealized ratio would be around 14:1 so if you have 0.07 parts per million phosphate then you'd want around 1 part per million nitrate to match. I think I mixed ppm and ppb in the video, which might be confusing. Apologies!