Just talked to one of the staff members at BRS about an order I placed. They were very helpfull and made things really easy for me :). I have finally took a leap into the saltwater reef tank community. I believe that if it were not for BRS I would probably have never started this new and exciting journey. I cant wait to get my tank and supplies I ordered from them :). Thanks again BRS team you truly are the best :).
Thanks for your explanation of the "Redfield Ratio". I've heard it mentioned many times and just didn't quite understand it. Somehow I knew you would be getting into it when you started talking about the ratio of Nitrate to Phosphorous. I'll do a bit more research into the subject now that I have an idiots understanding of the basic concept. Kudos BRS team.
yes! please do a brs investigates on nitrate test kits. my experience is they never match each other and the differences are usually dramatic. I had one test around 40, do another test with the same water and it's 10. I'd super curious which brand (s) of kits are accurate.
Well BRS, I'm glad you're finally explaining the Redfield Ratio to describe nutrient imbalance and management. Thank you! I had to spend a week or two trying to research on this topic and when I finally understood this some people thought I was nuts in thinking I needed more Phosphates for my tank!
I love your videos. So much good and helpful information in them. I can tell you put a lot of effort and research into them. Thank you so much for all the help past, present, and future. I love doing business with you guys too, always fast shipments, and great products.
Just like others, no refuge on my new build tried out NoPox, killed my nitrates but phosphates rose when I removed my gfo because it said no phosphate media, now diatoms started, back to gfo and nopox!!
The most common cause (in my opinion) is due to Purigen. Purigen does an excellent job at removing nitrates and ammonia but doesn't even touch phosphate. It took me 3 months to realized that Purigen has to be used with phosguard or it will create an imbalance.
Awesome topic BRS crew great work... Trendy BB tanks tend to have minimal anaerobic zones which leads to poor nitrate to nitrogen export abilities. Adding dark rubble zones, refugiums, or even ULTRA HIGH surface area media seems to help this issue in the absence of a sand bed for more balanced denitrification. If you use GFO, the key is having some anaerobic zones somewhere I think. Its only natural right?
The analysis of nitrate tests would be awesome. I am color blind which makes it worse. I have done some repeatability tests and I am not that impressed with my results. I am a ChE with years of lab experience. Just can't find a kit that reminds me of lab quality results.
omg this is happening to me rn I just started up a tank about 2 months ago a 20 gallon nuvo fusion. The phosphate levels are at .17 ppm for phosphate and nitrates are over 4 ppm. I am doing the red sea reef program and i have finished it now :(. What can i do to get the nitrates down? I have no fish or livestock in the tank still because I am waiting for the nitrates to drop before I add anything to the tank. Any advice helps thx :).
Always ahead of the rest!!! I would love to see the comparison between the test kits. I am currently in the market for these. Thanks for all the hard work BRS!!!
I once had a failed steel tube heater that was leaking current into the tank, and likely other things. My nitrates would skyrocket out of nowhere. Like do a 100% water change and have nitrates of 0 one day, check the next day and have nitrates of 50 with two different test kits. This was after years of no nitrate or phosphate problems. Took me weeks to figure out what the problem was. I never did figure out the mechanism of the heater-nitrate problem. But I removed the heater, and nitrates stopped rising.
Not unless my hand got really close to it in the larger system (~110 gal total volume), or I put my hand in water of a smaller tank with the heater in it (~20 gallon). I would get the light "buzzing" feeling on scrapes or small cuts similar to when other things leak current.
I am dosing NoPox from RedSea, my Nitrates were brought down from 80ppm to undetectable in 12 days. Algae has begun to disappear and some coral are starting to grow again. I can't test phosphates at the moment, but how much slower do Phosphates get reduced than Nitrates with NoPox?
Definitely would like to see the standards testing on the hanna checkers. I have the phos, calcium and alk testers but recent events have thrown a shadow over whether the results are accurate on my testers comparing them to a number of test kits which get similar readings to each other but are way off what the hanna checkers say.
would be very interesting. I have trust the checkers mind but after comparing test results with salifert and red sea the checkers were a totally different result where the salifert and red sea came close to each other.
None of them are worth trusting for accuracy. Better to use the same kit over and over and just know if its going up or down. Watch your corald to know if its too high or too low
I use Kalk and have a small amount of caulerpa in my sump and i have almost undetectable nitrate (2-5ppm) yet without using GFO my PO4 climbs. I tested by taking the GFO out and using the Hanna ULR it went from .04 to .2 in roughly 40 days but the nitrate stayed at 2-5ppm Think my caulerpa is good at using NO3 but not so good a using PO4
BulkReefSupplyCom I have the same issue. My Cheato is huge and running a H380 I bought from you. Nitrate is not detectable (using redsea) but phosphate is .01 to .1 depending on the day. Are you showing similar results in the initial FOWLR tank Cheato testing? My tank is upside down on these two components... I feed LRS
does this apply to freshwater tanks as well? if I test for phosphates will that means low nitrates? sounds like thats a no in the reefing world but I've never had a saltwater tank to compare to. And I wonder if thats why using you're GFO that you showed in the video explains why my nitrates are so high like off the charts on 2 diff tests and thats after cleaning the canister, taking out all the sand and leaving only gravel along with about a 75% water change of the past week and the nitrates are still skyrocket high. I only used like half a cup of the GFO because I wasn't sure how much was going to be needed the first time. I also haven't feed much at all over the past week. I'm just having trouble getting these nitrates under control and all the rest is spot on. Thx to anyone that can answer or help out ! thank you
Awsome video. Kalkwasser was my issue so I switched 2 weeks ago to your 2 part. Now my issue is my calcium stays at around 420 but my alkalinity drops every other day from 9 to 7. I have checked my levels but it has been this way for 2 weeks. What could cause this?
Awesome, love the videos keep up the good work! btw I noticed your hanna checkers lids are never fully closed when you show testing with them, does this not affect the result? Thanks.
Unrelated to this video, what is the difference between carbon dosing and wanting to remove carbon from your system with those new reactors I see around? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of carbon dosing?
So I have been using chemipure elite in my sock and marine pure balls for nitrates. I have a crazy imbalance now that I added to many corals at once and feeding them reef roids. My nitrates shot up to 60 and my phosphates are between zero and 0.25. I actually have a lot more frags coming since I won them and need to get nirtaes down I was going to use nopox but I hheard that will phosphates too so what do I do? Does vodka lower phophates? I can remove the bag of chemipure, but likely take w while to build up and I need them lowered aap. i am not going to feed the corals anymore, until this is corrected. My alk drop from 8.5 or something down to 6 something as well. Do I add soda ash to up it and keep it up with kalkwasser? I just hooked up my skimmer, will this help with either? Did you say zeolite only does nitrates? What about media called denitrate by seachem andI also know of lots of people using chemipure elite, purigan, poly bio pads and filter flow in skimmerless nano's and thats what i have been doing in my 10 gallon and my phophates are 10 at the higest and thats the day before weekly water change. Dont know why this method hasnt worked well in my 36 gallon and marine pure sucks!
***** Thanks. On liveaquaria, they look less bright and not nearly as fluorescent as the ones at 0:23. Is this normal? And additionally, when will BRS start selling livestock??
I have a bio cube 29 and added de nitrate ceramic pellets. How often do you recommend me changing the water? Might consider on doing a 50% change and hope nothing happens to my coral and fish
i need help...mine are both zero... 0 nitrate 0 phosphate... and my zoas are not open as much ..most half way closed...all other parameters are good...thoughts????
I already have a marine pure block in my 75g system, along with a fuge and a biopellet reactor (feeding into my skimmer). And i still have issues. This hobby can drive people mad.
I had this similar problem a few years ago. Running less GFO and lowering my alk from 9.5 to 8.3 is what fixed mine. Don't know your tank but I hope may open a door to a solution maybe.
He says using kalkwasser takes out phosphates it has not been proven!!!!!! but many in the hobby believe it's true but it has not been proven this doesn't make no sense so that's like saying using kalkwasser is a bad thing
Just talked to one of the staff members at BRS about an order I placed. They were very helpfull and made things really easy for me :). I have finally took a leap into the saltwater reef tank community. I believe that if it were not for BRS I would probably have never started this new and exciting journey. I cant wait to get my tank and supplies I ordered from them :). Thanks again BRS team you truly are the best :).
Don't forget you can always just feed more, to get the lower nutrient up.
Doing a BRS TV investigates on nitrates would be awesome!
Awesome!
Thanks for your explanation of the "Redfield Ratio". I've heard it mentioned many times and just didn't quite understand it. Somehow I knew you would be getting into it when you started talking about the ratio of Nitrate to Phosphorous. I'll do a bit more research into the subject now that I have an idiots understanding of the basic concept. Kudos BRS team.
yes! please do a brs investigates on nitrate test kits. my experience is they never match each other and the differences are usually dramatic. I had one test around 40, do another test with the same water and it's 10. I'd super curious which brand (s) of kits are accurate.
Well BRS, I'm glad you're finally explaining the Redfield Ratio to describe nutrient imbalance and management. Thank you! I had to spend a week or two trying to research on this topic and when I finally understood this some people thought I was nuts in thinking I needed more Phosphates for my tank!
I love your videos. So much good and helpful information in them. I can tell you put a lot of effort and research into them. Thank you so much for all the help past, present, and future. I love doing business with you guys too, always fast shipments, and great products.
Just like others, no refuge on my new build tried out NoPox, killed my nitrates but phosphates rose when I removed my gfo because it said no phosphate media, now diatoms started, back to gfo and nopox!!
The most common cause (in my opinion) is due to Purigen. Purigen does an excellent job at removing nitrates and ammonia but doesn't even touch phosphate. It took me 3 months to realized that Purigen has to be used with phosguard or it will create an imbalance.
Yes to a Nitrate Test Kit Review
Id like to see a nitrate testkit test! :)
the corals are looking great in the tank!
Awesome topic BRS crew great work... Trendy BB tanks tend to have minimal anaerobic zones which leads to poor nitrate to nitrogen export abilities. Adding dark rubble zones, refugiums, or even ULTRA HIGH surface area media seems to help this issue in the absence of a sand bed for more balanced denitrification. If you use GFO, the key is having some anaerobic zones somewhere I think. Its only natural right?
For a BRStv Investigates episode, you should do an episode on if dosing unequal parts of 2 part is detrimental to your tank!
BulkReefSupplyCom thanks very much!
That gets me half way there... my problem is the my alk drops (slowly) but calcium always remains high. Ugh.
cthomas1026 if you don't rinse your test equipment with ro/di water you can get erroneous Ca results. Especially if you have hard water.
Luca Martino thanks Luca. That is a good call out... I did actually send out to Triton for testing as well and they confirmed my results though.
The analysis of nitrate tests would be awesome. I am color blind which makes it worse. I have done some repeatability tests and I am not that impressed with my results. I am a ChE with years of lab experience. Just can't find a kit that reminds me of lab quality results.
omg this is happening to me rn I just started up a tank about 2 months ago a 20 gallon nuvo fusion. The phosphate levels are at .17 ppm for phosphate and nitrates are over 4 ppm. I am doing the red sea reef program and i have finished it now :(. What can i do to get the nitrates down? I have no fish or livestock in the tank still because I am waiting for the nitrates to drop before I add anything to the tank. Any advice helps thx :).
What about low fosfate due to no buffer left in the rock?
I'd love for you guys to compare the analytical data of the red Sea test kit. not the pro version however. specifically for NO3 as well as pH.
Always ahead of the rest!!! I would love to see the comparison between the test kits. I am currently in the market for these. Thanks for all the hard work BRS!!!
BulkReefSupplyCom- Thanks for the heads up, will check it out
i feed 2-3 cubes of krill a day in my 150 gal mixed reef tank and only run a skimmer and chempure elite. My salifert NO3 and PO4 always tests 0
I once had a failed steel tube heater that was leaking current into the tank, and likely other things. My nitrates would skyrocket out of nowhere. Like do a 100% water change and have nitrates of 0 one day, check the next day and have nitrates of 50 with two different test kits. This was after years of no nitrate or phosphate problems. Took me weeks to figure out what the problem was. I never did figure out the mechanism of the heater-nitrate problem. But I removed the heater, and nitrates stopped rising.
Not unless my hand got really close to it in the larger system (~110 gal total volume), or I put my hand in water of a smaller tank with the heater in it (~20 gallon). I would get the light "buzzing" feeling on scrapes or small cuts similar to when other things leak current.
thanks guys!
I am dosing NoPox from RedSea, my Nitrates were brought down from 80ppm to undetectable in 12 days. Algae has begun to disappear and some coral are starting to grow again.
I can't test phosphates at the moment, but how much slower do Phosphates get reduced than Nitrates with NoPox?
people said that nopox only function when no3 and po4 is high , if just no3 high and po4 0 , its doesnt effect
Definitely would like to see the standards testing on the hanna checkers. I have the phos, calcium and alk testers but recent events have thrown a shadow over whether the results are accurate on my testers comparing them to a number of test kits which get similar readings to each other but are way off what the hanna checkers say.
would be very interesting. I have trust the checkers mind but after comparing test results with salifert and red sea the checkers were a totally different result where the salifert and red sea came close to each other.
None of them are worth trusting for accuracy. Better to use the same kit over and over and just know if its going up or down. Watch your corald to know if its too high or too low
How are the twin spot gobies doing! All the corals are getting huge!
would like to see that
Fantastic video!
I use Kalk and have a small amount of caulerpa in my sump and i have almost undetectable nitrate (2-5ppm) yet without using GFO my PO4 climbs.
I tested by taking the GFO out and using the Hanna ULR it went from .04 to .2 in roughly 40 days but the nitrate stayed at 2-5ppm
Think my caulerpa is good at using NO3 but not so good a using PO4
BulkReefSupplyCom I have the same issue. My Cheato is huge and running a H380 I bought from you. Nitrate is not detectable (using redsea) but phosphate is .01 to .1 depending on the day.
Are you showing similar results in the initial FOWLR tank Cheato testing? My tank is upside down on these two components... I feed LRS
does this apply to freshwater tanks as well? if I test for phosphates will that means low nitrates? sounds like thats a no in the reefing world but I've never had a saltwater tank to compare to. And I wonder if thats why using you're GFO that you showed in the video explains why my nitrates are so high like off the charts on 2 diff tests and thats after cleaning the canister, taking out all the sand and leaving only gravel along with about a 75% water change of the past week and the nitrates are still skyrocket high. I only used like half a cup of the GFO because I wasn't sure how much was going to be needed the first time. I also haven't feed much at all over the past week. I'm just having trouble getting these nitrates under control and all the rest is spot on. Thx to anyone that can answer or help out ! thank you
Awsome video. Kalkwasser was my issue so I switched 2 weeks ago to your 2 part. Now my issue is my calcium stays at around 420 but my alkalinity drops every other day from 9 to 7. I have checked my levels but it has been this way for 2 weeks. What could cause this?
where is the zolit would love to see that one
Thanks
Dont find anywhere the opposit ... i have high phosphate 0 nitrate ... i would love to know what to do ( ofc gfo for phos ...but what about nitrate?)
Test kalkwassers ability to precipitate phosphates?
Awesome, love the videos keep up the good work! btw I noticed your hanna checkers lids are never fully closed when you show testing with them, does this not affect the result? Thanks.
Unrelated to this video, what is the difference between carbon dosing and wanting to remove carbon from your system with those new reactors I see around? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of carbon dosing?
I mean in regards to Co2 absorbing reactors
Yes 😆
I have the opposite issue...
So I have been using chemipure elite in my sock and marine pure balls for nitrates. I have a crazy imbalance now that I added to many corals at once and feeding them reef roids. My nitrates shot up to 60 and my phosphates are between zero and 0.25. I actually have a lot more frags coming since I won them and need to get nirtaes down I was going to use nopox but I hheard that will phosphates too so what do I do? Does vodka lower phophates? I can remove the bag of chemipure, but likely take w while to build up and I need them lowered aap. i am not going to feed the corals anymore, until this is corrected. My alk drop from 8.5 or something down to 6 something as well. Do I add soda ash to up it and keep it up with kalkwasser? I just hooked up my skimmer, will this help with either? Did you say zeolite only does nitrates? What about media called denitrate by seachem andI also know of lots of people using chemipure elite, purigan, poly bio pads and filter flow in skimmerless nano's and thats what i have been doing in my 10 gallon and my phophates are 10 at the higest and thats the day before weekly water change. Dont know why this method hasnt worked well in my 36 gallon and marine pure sucks!
I have 5 nitrates and 0 phosphate, what should I do to get 0,3 phosphate, cause thats what I need right? Thx!
at 0:23, what is the coral in the bottom right hand corner?
Thanks
Nigel Tims green star polyps
***** Thanks. On liveaquaria, they look less bright and not nearly as fluorescent as the ones at 0:23. Is this normal? And additionally, when will BRS start selling livestock??
My tank is now the other way round - low(ish) (2ppm) Nitrates, but high (3ppm) Phosphates. just started running Rowaphos in a small internal filter.
Your p⁰⁴ is fine raise n⁰³
does anyone know what kind of fish being fed at 3:48?
my situation is the complete opposite. phos very high and nitrate super low.
1 ppm phos
and 1.5 nitrate
Reilly Perovich use gfo or phosphate rx
what about gfo (that i have already) + biopellets (which i will install in the future)? i have 0,03 ppm phosphates (thanks to gfo) and 25 ppm nitrates
I am in the same boat. What did you do?
You might take out the gfo till the phosphate and nitrate become more balanced
test the test kits haha
I did a 20% water change and have low ph but my nitrate still high. Any suggestion
I have a bio cube 29 and added de nitrate ceramic pellets. How often do you recommend me changing the water? Might consider on doing a 50% change and hope nothing happens to my coral and fish
my filtering style promotes the complete opposite of this videos name lol Rowaphos and my Hanna ULR my gods :-D
i need help...mine are both zero... 0 nitrate 0 phosphate... and my zoas are not open as much ..most half way closed...all other parameters are good...thoughts????
Kevin Diaz water is too clean... some coral like it a bit 'dirty'
Kevin Diaz maybe your light settings
Does this mean if your phosphates are 1 your nitrate should be 16 in theory? Or does nitrate not account for all nitrogen
Blackbookproduct10ns yes that what it means, but if your phosphates are at one you have a bigger problem than the correct ratio
Jack Oreilly yes haha I was just using those numbers for easy math.
I don't have a great selection of local fish stores, what online fish/invert retailers does BRS trust?
Thanks, that helps a great deal!
Nate Bulger
yeeeees!
I have zero phos (hanna checker) amd 10 nitrates, and still get algae and cyano. I dont get it.
I already have a marine pure block in my 75g system, along with a fuge and a biopellet reactor (feeding into my skimmer). And i still have issues. This hobby can drive people mad.
I had this similar problem a few years ago. Running less GFO and lowering my alk from 9.5 to 8.3 is what fixed mine. Don't know your tank but I hope may open a door to a solution maybe.
What type of biopellets do you have? All In one? If so you must change for normal ones because is deprived of phospates
Dr. Tims Pearls
My tank is the other way around 0 nitrate higher phosphate
He says using kalkwasser takes out phosphates it has not been proven!!!!!! but many in the hobby believe it's true but it has not been proven this doesn't make no sense so that's like saying using kalkwasser is a bad thing
Let me know when does awesome clowns are big enough for pick up..😃
Nyos kit is like Dark Pee Yellow=Bad , Clear your good.
How are the baby clowns doing?
BulkReefSupplyCom post some video of the little guys if you get a chance. I've never seen baby clowns before.