Dosing Calcium Nitrate

[roberthu526]

So after I lost all my fish due to velvet over a month ago, it has been fishless and I am really struggling to keep nitrate up. I dose 40ml of Acropower and red sea energy daily. Recently I started dosing KZ Coral vitalizer but nothing really seem to help. Half of the sticks are really pale. So this morning I started dosing Calcium Nitrate. I dissolved 40ml of dry pellets in one gallon of RODI water and dosed 100ml into the tank. I then tested the water after half an hour and got a reading of 0.25 ppm via Red Sea nitrate pro kit. Below is the product I bought from Amazon. Has anyone else used Calcium Nitrate? How fast should I increase the level?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would caution about it's purity. I believe most reefers use potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate. Don't know if I've heard of calcium nitrate before being used.

#reefsquad

 

[acro-ed]

I would also caution that many agronomic grades of Calcium Nitrate also contain a smaller amount of Ammonia nitrate (they are in ratio and the raw material is often "CAN" - calcium ammonium nitrate). I am not familiar with that particular brand or I would pull the data sheet. Just read it over carefully.

EDIT: I pulled the data sheet for this same grade from Yara (which is the main supplier for many/most products of this analysis; 15.5-0-0 "calcium nitrate") and it is listed as "nitric acid, ammonium calcium salt". I believe your brand "ASAP Hydroponics" may be a re-branded bag from Masterblend, and while I do not know definitively that they are using the Yara product it is a possibility.

 

[roberthu526]

Thank you both! I am going to do some research tonight. Since I am dosing a low volume into a 400G system hopefully it’s not a big deal.

 

[roberthu526]

A quick update: I have dosed 200ml in two days and I was able to test nitrate at 0.25-0.5 ppm within an hour of dosing. By the time I get home in the night, Red Sea Pro Kit shows 0 nitrate again.

 

[roberthu526]

Another update: dosed 200 ml today and tested an hour later with 1 PPM nitrate via Red Sea Pro

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Those results are not particularly surprising. The amount used so far may be adequate, but dosing more is also likely fine.

i agree with the ammonia concern and I'd personally look for a different product, unless you dose it very slowly.

 

[roberthu526]

Checked again this morning without dosing more and nitrate is still at 1 ppm. So I didn’t dose any today. I also moved all my fish in QT into the display today so hopefully I can stop dosing nitrate.

 

[roberthu526]

Those results are not particularly surprising. The amount used so far may be adequate, but dosing more is also likely fine.

i agree with the ammonia concern and I'd personally look for a different product, unless you dose it very slowly.

Thank you for chime in! I was dosing 100 ml a day into a 400 G system so I am thinking it is pretty slow? Anyway I am not going to dose for a few days and see how the levels move.