how to increase nitrates

it is in my display refugium... the tang is in the DT

 

Most excellent. Wish you didn't live so far away. I'm always looking for peeps to give Ulva too.

 

lol are you somewhat close?
i have enough ulva as it is and my tang refuses to eat it so i just feed it to snails lol

 

WHAT! That spoiled little tang. I have a big 5 gallon bucket of it...

I'm in California.

 

Wow this is a new one.

 

Haha I just pictured Dingo stocking up on fertilizer and having the Dept of Homeland Security breaking his door down. Terrorist! "What? It's for my Algae" " Thats the most BS excuse we've ever heard! Thats it, it's off to Guantanimo for you, scum."

But anyway, I have started using -gasp-tap water to feed my macros. If I didnt they'd have very little to use because I only have a few fish to feed and they don't eat much. It has about 10 ppm in it, enough that a 10 percent water change will only add enough to be consumed in less than a week. I don't know if your tap water is as clean as mine is though. Some places have really bad stuff in it but mine tested 0 for any other bad stuff I was looking for and my tank has been doing just fine using it. I dunno, might be easier than dosing fertilizers, but like I said make absolutely sure theres no copper or anything in there.

 

I have to say, I'm not to keen on adding "nitrates". Nutrient import/export is the name of the game with our tanks.

People go out of their way to reduce NO3/PO4 with DSBs, Macro algae, big skimmers, live rock, sugar dosing, water changes.... all to keep nutrients low.

Now the whole point of that is to deal with excess nutrients...however, those with ultra low nutrient systems.... do so so they can feed more. That is the whole point, feeding more and getting more growth and having a system that can handle the excess byproducts.

The only nutrient import is food... that is processed by everything in the tank. So my point would be not to wory about "adding nitrates", but to feed more. Everything benefits. If you don't have a lot of fish, get bigger clean up crews.

Even then.... if you are growing macro to feed Tangs..... then you are not "exporting" nutrients, you are recycling them. The core components never leave. So if there is not enough growth for you from your macros, feed more.... export the cheato.... recycle the others with the Tangs. Does that make sense?

 

this makes perfect sense... i was looking at the ULNS the wrong way. i was thinking that since i dont have enough of anything to cause macro growth that i should increase the amounts while controlling for everything else to keep it constant. now from your perspective it is easy to see that with increased import there will also be increased export
thanks a lot for the lightbulb

 

No sweat Bud.

And to go further.... that is another thing a big skimmer affords. A good skimmer will work better at removing waste.... as a result though... as a benefit.... we get to feed more. Now fish will only eat what they can and we don't want them fat. But feeding the tank more feeds the coral more. My fish are fine, I want to feed my coral more for more growth, so I have a fuge, and a good skimmer and started the bio pellets.... not to have super sterile water, but to feed my tank more.

 

What about feeding a little phytofeast. It'll feed some of your corals and the remainder will break down into nitrates to feed your plants. It's safe and will probably help out your corals.. Just a thought