What do you think my nitrate is? Pic included.

[dzhuo]

Test is done with Salifert. My guess is either 5 or 2 or anywhere in between. What do you guys think?

Pic with flash:


Pic without flash:

[iamwrasseman]

though to tell but if its either 2 or 5 its still pretty low and is just fine . your always looking for a 0 reading but you usually have a low reading like you have .

[steelhead77]

Whatever it is , it's pretty close to perfect. If you have any type of bio-load in there, that's about as good as you can expect. I find it difficult to believe that anyone with more than 3 or 4 fish in their tank has nitrates lower than that.

[dzhuo]

My tank is 150g + 40g sump. There are 17 fish but all are small. I am looking to increase bio-load as my corals are starving (or at least that's what I believe). I am not very good at matching colors so it's good to have someone else confirm. I want to have a better idea of where my nitrate is so next time I can compare again to see if it's raising, about the same, falling etc. This will be my base line.

[snorvich]

Reef tanks seem to maintain their nitrate level fairly low when everything is in balance. Difficult to say in your case, but it is clearly on the lowish side.

[110galreef]

I'd go with closer to 2, but not 5...

so that equates to ~.3 which is very acceptable and plenty for your corals.
Where is you PO4 now?

I as you know have been kicking around in the ULNS as well and trying to get nutrients up a tad. My PO4 is on high now .033 & low of about .015 yet nitrates are 0 with salifert. You defintily have a lot of fish in a 150.

[shifty51008]

IIRC arn't you spposed to look from the top down to get a better reading for lower levels?

[somethingphishy]

Originally Posted by shifty51008

IIRC arn't you spposed to look from the top down to get a better reading for lower levels?

agreed

[110galreef]

top down if you have high readings....5+ probably.

Side magnify's color 10 fold for low readings, as you are looking thru more test sample. If he'd look down, he would be between 0 & 2..... Hard to pinpoint a low reading that way & 0-2 is vague.

Side view is 10x's more color. so since btween 2& 5 it's really measuring between .2 & .5!

Now closer to what we are at tha 0-2

[dzhuo]

Originally Posted by 110galreef

Where is you PO4 now?

It's still freaking 0.00 per Hana Checker. With the error margin, I guess it could be anywhere between 0.00 to 0.04. With all the readings I took in the last 2 months, there was only one occasion phosphate registered at 0.02. Other than that, it's always 0.00. I am starting to think this one time could just be a user error. The problem is with all the feedings I am doing: 5 times a day and multiple feedings of Oyster-Feast and Roti-Feast, I still can't get my phosphate high up enough. And this is after I took both GFO and ROX offline! I am down to just using a skimmer. A couple of my colonies continue to decline (STN) and most of them are still very pale and bleached. I am thinking with the bio-load I have, I would not be able to generate enough N & P for my corals? However, I am starting to notice small patches of algae growing again. In fact, I think there is a tiny patch (.2" so far) of bryopsis on the glass already. Hopefully, this is a sign of maturity?

17 fish seems lot but they are small. To give you an idea. Current FTS:

[dzhuo]

Originally Posted by 110galreef

Side magnify's color 10 fold for low readings, as you are looking thru more test sample. If he'd look down, he would be between 0 & 2..... Hard to pinpoint a low reading that way & 0-2 is vague.

That's my understanding according to the Salifert instruction. If you hope it against the chart and look side way, you are doing a low reading. Is this correct? I guess the normal high reading would be looking from the top then?

[110galreef]

Originally Posted by dzhuo

That's my understanding according to the Salifert instruction. If you hope it against the chart and look side way, you are doing a low reading. Is this correct? I guess the normal high reading would be looking from the top then?

yeah you are doing it right. reading from the side, you take what you see. Say 2 & then divide by 10.

So .2 nitrates.

Odd that you get 0.00 po4 consistently......

Get the HI 736 when you run out of reagents. I really like it.

And yeah small fish,

[dogstar74]

Originally Posted by dzhuo

Awe c'mon, now you're just making the rest of us with high Nitrates feel bad. No need to brag!

Nice tank, with a tank like that why are you even testing nitrates? seems like a waste of money.

Cheers,
Aaron

[dzhuo]

It's more as a baseline / reference point. I need to add more fish and feed a lot more because majority of my corals are declining. I want to slowly get my N & P up a little but need to monitor it closely. I am starting to see a little algae already so it's a delicate balance.

[dogstar74]

People using algal turf scrubbers are feeding quite heavily and continue to have excellent water quality. That may be your answer if you are choosing to feed heavily to add fish and keep corals happy. Don't fight the N and P just give it somewhere else to grow.

Check out the ATS thread in the Advanced Topics forum. It may be something that would help you achieve the results you're after.

[dzhuo]

I have been following the ATS development for a while now. I think the theory is sound but I don't think it's sustainable for me as a long term solution. Thx for the suggestion nevertheless!

I am looking to add 8 more chromis (would be 16 total) or a semi-large fish like a tang so that I can feed a little more. I don't know if the reason for my coral's decline is poor nutrient but so far I don't have another explanation.

[110galreef]

how are you skimming? I was skimming pretty wet & went a bit drier & that bumped PO4 up from ~.018 to about .0307

[dzhuo]

I think I am on the dry side. If given the choice, I would much prefer adding more fish.

[BowieReefer84]

with the hanna checker for P04 you should be using the PHOSPHORUS METER and NOT the phosphate IF you are close to zero (which is where we should all be). You need to than do the math to calculate phosphate. Much more accurate as it measures in ppb instead of ppm....

[BowieReefer84]

I am quoting someone else here,

"Keep in mind that, nominally, we'd like to keep phosphate (PO4) below 0.03 ppm. That corresponds to a reading of 10 on the Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker. (According to RHF's article, "Reef Aquarium Water Paramters," typical natural salt water Phosphate is around 0.005 ppm - a reading of 2 on the ULR P Checker.) The max range on the ULR P checker, I believe, is 200 ppb, or 0.6 ppm.

The number that I gave you above is simplified. The actual number is 95 / 31,000 = 0.003065, so there's a little bit of inaccuracy in the simplification. Here's how you arrive at the figure (for anybody who's interested):

The atomic weight of Phosphorus (P) is 31. The weight of Phosphate (PO4) is about 95. The ratio, then, of the weight of Phosphate to Phosphorus is 95/31. You could use this number as a multiplier with your ULR P Checker and get your Phosphate reading in ppb (parts per billion). But, we typically state these levels in PPM. Therefore, we divide this number by 1,000, arriving at the ratio 95 / 31,000 to convert the ULR P Checker's ppb reading to ppm Phosphate. Simplified, that's 0.003 ppm PO4 / ppb P. "

[dzhuo]

Thx BowieReefer! I am well aware of the NSW level and although I would like to match it, I don't think it's a realistic goal for a closed system. There are two many aspect of difference between an open system (NSW) vs. a closed one (our tank). Chasing one number is, IMO, no more harmful nor helpful than most of us trying to achive - just low enough is fine.

I don't believe my phosphate is as low as in 0.00 but I believe it's low enough to hurt my corals because the lack of other alternative food source such as roti or bacteria in our tank. I do, however, kick myself for not getting the phosphorus meters tho. But then it's only $40 so I can order one if necessary.