Diy n03 supplement

christopher.lauwers · Apr 29, 2020

Can anyone point me to a article on making my own n03 supplement? I started dosing and want to make my own.

Lasse · Apr 30, 2020

At the grocery store (or from Amazon) you can get salpeter (KNO3) or Chile salpeter (NaNO3). I have a recipe that´s not exactly but works as a rule between the thumb and middle finger. 40 gram of one of them into 500 ml water. Shake.

1 ml of this stock solution will rise 100 l aquarium water with around 0.5 ppm NO3. Not exactly but it is close enough.

I use to use these two compounds in an alternative way in order not to rise my potassium concentration to much. If you have a refugium you can have a consumption of K (potassium) and KNO3 can be good to use. If you do not have any known K consumption and do not send in ICP test as a routine - NaNO3 is more safe. IME - too high concentrations of K can cause toxification of fish (I try not to go over 500 - 550 in K concentration - normal 400 ppm)

Sincerely Lasse

christopher.lauwers · Apr 30, 2020

Thanks for the feedback. Currently do not have a fuge going as my nutrients are so low. That being said I think NaNO3 - Chile salpeter would be the better option?

I was looking on amazon and found this?
Any advice when shopping for some? Are there brands or "uses" I should avoid?
Uses= Commercial grade or... rust remover ... something that could impact the live stock in the reef.
(hopefully I'm making sense)

christopher.lauwers · Apr 30, 2020

Also ... another thought.

Would using KNO3 help me sustain a fuge? I have some N04 in the tank just not much. 0 PPM n03(hence the thread) I like the idea of natural removal of nutrients.

Lasse · Apr 30, 2020

Can´t open the link. Food grade would be the lowest "Uses".

You mean PO4? Yes - macro algae need NO3 too

Sincerely Lasse

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 30, 2020

There are a number of food grade sodium nitrate products online:

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christopher.lauwers · Apr 30, 2020

yeah sorry p04... thinking to fast.
here is the amazon link

Link

Thanks Randy. ill look into this!

christopher.lauwers · May 3, 2020

I ordered some naNO3 over the weekend and should be here next week.
using an online Calculator I want to make a concentrated solution to raise the parts per million by 1 per 1ml. I was going going do this over the course of the day? any issues with this process? Could I just put it all in at once?
i was then going to make a smaller less concentrated batch for dosing.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 4, 2020

Once a day dosing of nitrate is almost certainly fine, but it also is fine to spread it out.

AZ_Reef · May 21, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Once a day dosing of nitrate is almost certainly fine, but it also is fine to spread it out.

Randy, I have been dosing Loudwold sodium for over a week, but nitrate still keeps bottoming out. I have also been dosing Red Sea energy a and b daily. Any advise? or just keeping dosing? I have a mixed tank with softies, LPS, SPS, and four fishes.

I mixed 9 teaspoon sodium nitrate with 500ml RODI water for 70 g tank using the calculator below , so 1 ml increases the nitrate in my tank by .25 ppm.

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 21, 2020

AndyZ89 said:
Randy, I have been dosing Loudwold sodium for over a week, but nitrate still keeps bottoming out. I have also been dosing Red Sea energy a and b daily. Any advise? or just keeping dosing? I have a mixed tank with softies, LPS, SPS, and four fishes.

I mixed 9 teaspoon sodium nitrate with 500ml RODI water for 70 g tank using the calculator below , so 1 ml increases the nitrate in my tank by .25 ppm.

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

If you have confidence in the kit, just dose more. A few ppm per day is not an unreasonable dose.