Acropora & Nitrate

[PicassoTrigger]

My tank has been set up for 6 months now. I have two plating montiporas and several other corals that are doing really well and have nice color. My question is do I really need my nitrate to be at 1 ppm to successfully keep bright colored acros? I do a weekly 5% water change and my nitrate is always at 5 ppm (Salifert). My phosphate is 0.00-0.003 ppm. My tank is a 150 gallon and only has 5 fish. I'm hoping the nitrate will lower itself with time but just wanted to hear from some people that keep acros.

 

[Paragon]

I believe the answer is yes; you will want to get to measurable zero.

I don't have a lot of information about your setup, so I'll extrapolate a guess. Your tank is relatively new, and detrius levels will likely increase over time. They will drop down following water changes, but may still be on a net increase over time. I'm guessing if you're reading some phosphate levels that you either don't run a phosphate removal program (Phosban / Chemipure / Purigen) or you have a lot of feeding activity that keeps this number up. In addition to the phospate you can measure there's also organic phosphate that isn't readily dedected by test kit, but is is commonly present. Algae growth/prescence is a good indicator of it's levels. The prescense of both compounds will really put a damper on the Acropora. Phosphate, fwiw, inhibits calcification, and calcification is important to the viability of the Acropora.

I'm also not certain about your skimming, but good protien skimming is quite important to successful acropora cultivation.


I have two pieces of Acropora in my tank. One was added a year ago when I was reading zero / zero for Phos / Nitrate/Nitrite. The second was added a couple months ago. The first piece really struggled because of some of the issues above, and only began to show good growth and coloration once addressed. The second piece came in after I got the aforemention items better addressed, and thus far does very well.

I hope you find that helpful.

Para

 

[LuckyReefer123]

My answer is no. Although the ideal level in a reef aquarium for nitrates is 0, some coral actually do well when some are present. Zoas, leathers, soft coral, ect. Try to get a small frag and see what happens, but try to get it aquacultured as they are more leaniant on water quality not being perfect. Another thing to keep in mind, is bigger colonies can take more. Small frags might die, as mother colonies might grow. Monti's are more of the easier SPS to grow, but it wouldnt hurt to try another kind of acro. Try increasing your water changes to 10-15% a week if possible, to lower your nitrates if you would like. And as far as tank maturity, dont always believe that. If you have the top of the line tank, filtration, lighting, flow, and your water chemistry is perfect, you dont need to wait a year for SPS corals, imo. But like i said, try a small frag for cheap, even look on craigslist for one. Best of luck.