Nitrate and phosphate at 0 - turn skimmer off?

[Lebowski_]

21 hours ago, Tired said:

I would personally stick with the solid lid, as that will reduce evaporation by quite a lot and help keep salinity stable. You can increase the light's settings, or move it a little lower, if you're worried. Shouldn't be a problem unless you have some extremely light-demanding corals, though.

 

FWIW, "a mature reef may seem to have low nutrients on testing while actually having a lot of nutrients involved in its ecosystem" is entirely right. Also, a skimmer won't directly remove pure nutrients, but it can remove things that will become nutrients, so it can have some impact on nutrient levels. It also removes a lot of materials that some corals and filter-feeders eat. 

 

The best thing to do for any reef tank is to feed as much as the animals need. The best thing for most systems is to only do water changes when it's warranted. If doing those two things is producing low nutrients and visibly displeased corals, then you would want to try shutting off the protein skimmer.

 

My only issue with solid lids is heat. The AI Prime's still produce a fair amount, and even with a mesh lid, I sometimes see my temps tick up during the peak time.

[TheKleinReef]

1 minute ago, Lebowski_ said:

Interesting! I didn't really think about alk. What do you think caused it?

the nitrate imbalance I think. Any nitrate source that made it into the tank from foods or  additives increased my alk. I had to stop dosing everything to figure it out. My tank still has random alk climbs 🤷🏼‍♂️

[seabass]

3 hours ago, Lebowski_ said:

I didn't really think about alk. What do you think caused it?

As part of the nitrogen cycle (oxidizing ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate), alkalinity is depleted.  And when nitrate is consumed, this same amount of alkalinity is added back.  However, when you dose nitrate, the initial loss of alkalinity is skipped, resulting in a net increase of alkalinity.

 

With consumption of alkalinity from corals and coralline algae, this source of alkalinity is usually not worrisome.  However, it shouldn't necessarily be discounted.

[Lebowski_]

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

As part of the nitrogen cycle (oxidizing ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate), alkalinity is depleted.  And when nitrate is consumed, this same amount of alkalinity is added back.  However, when you dose nitrate, the initial loss of alkalinity is skipped, resulting in a net increase of alkalinity.

 

With consumption of alkalinity from corals and coralline algae, this source of alkalinity is usually not worrisome.  However, it shouldn't necessarily be discounted.

Interesting. I've never seen an alk swing when dosing nitrates, even in tanks with slow growers. Learn something new everyday.

[TheKleinReef]

43 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

Interesting. I've never seen an alk swing when dosing nitrates, even in tanks with slow growers. Learn something new everyday.

you won't really. unless consumption of alk is 0, and your dosing nitrate. this is what happened to me.

 

normally this small increase in alk is hidden by a larger general consumption of alk via inhabitants.