Cheap way to dose Nitrate?

[homer1475]

Interesting to say the least.

It had expired about a month ago, and only came back up after I posted?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Only problem I found with sodium nitrate, it raised my salinity. Not a huge amount, but enough to notice so I discontinued use and switched to potassium nitrate.

That will make no difference. In fact, potassium nitrate will raise salinity slightly more per unit of nitrate added.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That loudwolf product is expensive!

At only 99.6% pure, its more expensive, and less pure then what I posted.

Loudwolf = 4oz = 9.99$
seed ranch brand = 5lb = 17.99

Loudwolf 99.6% pure
Seed ranch 99.8% pure

Not that it makes a huge difference, but the price sure does.

Percent purity is not a good indication of actual suitability. Water in the product will reduce the percent, but not impact suitability. I'd prefer food grade (since it is tested for actual impurities), and the cost is not high unless the tank is huge because it lasts a long time.

 

[homer1475]

Percent purity is not a good indication of actual suitability. Water in the product will reduce the percent, but not impact suitability. I'd prefer food grade (since it is tested for actual impurities), and the cost is not high unless the tank is huge because it lasts a long time.

So what your saying is the product I linked to(used in food production saltpeter) is less pure then the reagent grade stuff from loudwolf? Regardless of price.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So what your saying is the product I linked to(used in food production saltpeter) is less pure then the reagent grade stuff from loudwolf? Regardless of price.

When I went to your link, all I could see specified was the percent purity number and "greenhouse grade". While there may be one, I'm not aware of any generally accepted standards for "greenhouse grade".

Food grade is not just percent purity. It is a set of tests for toxic impurities, even at very low levels. Arsenic, lead, and mercury, for example, down at 0-3 ppm levels. Something that is 99.6% pure has 0.4% (4,000 ppm) of something in it besides the intended product. The question is what that is.

So the material you post may be perfectly fine, but I'd prefer something that is guaranteed to be OK by testing to actually put into human food. [emoji4]

 

[iReefer12]

Sodium is just salt, is there a Sodium Nitrate product out there that’s safe to use also? I think it would be better to be dosing slight levels of Sodium than Potassium right?

Can correct salinity easy.

Do these products raise just Nitrate? I don’t want to increase Po4 when trying to increase No3.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sodium is just salt, is there a Sodium Nitrate product out there that’s safe to use also? I think it would be better to be dosing slight levels of Sodium than Potassium right?

Can correct salinity easy.

Do these products raise just Nitrate? I don’t want to increase Po4 when trying to increase No3.

There should be no raising of phosphate with sodium or potassium nitrate dosing (assuming reasonably purity). The nitrate dosing may decrease phosphate if you spur consumption of nitrate and take out phosphate along with it.

While it likely makes little difference for most tanks, I generally recommend sodium nitrate over potassium nitrate if you are not at least occasionally testing potassium. Loudwold sells sodium nitrate, as do some other resellers.

 

[homer1475]

Just nitrate, that's why you use a nitrate specific product.

Any nitrate is safe to use, as long as it's reagent or food grade.

There are certainly other products out there, just make sure its reagent, or food grade product and your safe. Heck people are dosing stump remover(potassium nitrate) with god knows what impurities, and their tanks are fine. Mine was even fine when using spetracide stump remover, I just did not like all the "floaties" in the mix.

 

[iReefer12]

Thanks everyone! This has helped a lot!

 

[Sod Buster]

Natural seawater is around 400 to 380 ppm of potassium. Some people think elevated levels of potassium done slowly over a period of time helps with yellow and green color in sps. I'd never do it, but a guy who spoke @ Macna a few years ago was around 900ppm. Close to natural water for my animals.

 

[MissyTwitch]

Just out of curiosity why not keep one your filter socks dirty and let it leak nitrates?

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Just an aside, but another name for sodium nitrate is "chile saltpeter" (because it's mined heavily in Chile). It's a food preservative, especially for meat to prevent the growth of clostridium botulinum. So getting food-grade sodium nitrate is quite easy. The only thing you might want to look for (and avoid) is the products with napthalene (specifically, dimethyl napthalene sulfonate) added as an anti-caking agent. A small amount of that is probably OK, but I wouldn't take that to the bank.

 

[iReefer12]

Just out of curiosity why not keep one your filter socks dirty and let it leak nitrates?

It would leak Phosphate too, and trying to raise Nitrate and lower Phosphate.

 

[iReefer12]

Just an aside, but another name for sodium nitrate is "chile saltpeter" (because it's mined heavily in Chile). It's a food preservative, especially for meat to prevent the growth of clostridium botulinum. So getting food-grade sodium nitrate is quite easy. The only thing you might want to look for (and avoid) is the products with napthalene (specifically, dimethyl napthalene sulfonate) added as an anti-caking agent. A small amount of that is probably OK, but I wouldn't take that to the bank.

Interesting. I bought the Loudwolf Sodium Nitrate & also the Potassium Nitrate so I can use either one.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Personally, I'd use the sodium nitrate unless you're specifically testing for (and controlling) potassium. To be honest, while I do test potassium occasionally, I rarely supplement it, so I don't really have any particular experience with the effects of potassium dosing on coral.

 

[H@rry]

I've heard people caution about using bio-balls in a reef tank because they say it will become a "nitrate factory". If that is true could you put bio-balls in your overflow to supplement nitrate?