Dosing Nitrate and phosphate

[Deitz]

Randy,
I’m looking for a diy or recipe for making nitrate, and phosphate additives to dose my ULN system. I’ve seen a lot out there, but you are the most trusted and respected reef chemist I know.
Currently I’m dosing Brightwell’s nitrate, and phosphate, and it’s getting expensive.

 

[Piranhapat]

You try just feeding more and reef roids. They will raise your nitrates and phoshate.

 

[Mhart032]

On the cheap for Nitrates i dose Stump remover from home depot. there is a thread about it here on R2R.

check the thread

Question about Spectracide Stump Remover dosing

I've seen a few threads on this topic in concerns to raising Nitrates. I picked up a bottle but haven't the slightest clue on how much to dose. Im not the best with math so the few calculations I have seen provided online don't allow me to come to my own conclusion.. afraid it will be off. So...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ScottB]

Go with what Randy says, but here are what I use. They work. ukplantedtank has the solution ratios.

 

[Mhart032]

Here's a recipe:

Dissolve 10 grams in 1 liter of fresh water. That 10 grams contains 6.14 grams of nitrate, so that solution is 6,140 ppm nitrate.

If you add 1 ml of the solution per 2 gallons of tank water volume, that will boost nitrate by 0.8 ppm nitrate.

 

[SliceGolfer]

Here’s what I use. $7 for the kit.

GLA Reef Tank Fertilizer Package (KNO3 & KH2PO4) - Bags

Green Leaf Aquariums Reef Fertilizer Kit (bag format) supplies essential nitrate and phosphate for reef aquarium tanks.

greenleafaquariums.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I suggest that this calculator is a good one to use:

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

I recommend food grade sodium nitrate (or a little less desirably unless you measure potassium, potassium nitrate), and sodium or potassium phosphate. For the sodium entries in the calculator, use the potassium entry and just use a little less (exact dose isn't critical anyway).

I'm not a fan of the products sold by hobby companies that do not include any recognized purity grade on the product.

 

[Deitz]

You try just feeding more and reef roids. They will raise your nitrates and phoshate.

Feeding more doesn’t help.

 

[Deitz]

Ok, that’s nitrates. What about phosphates?

 

[Deitz]

I suggest that this calculator is a good one to use:

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

I recommend food grade sodium nitrate (or a little less desirably unless you measure potassium, potassium nitrate), and sodium or potassium phosphate. For the sodium entries in the calculator, use the potassium entry and just use a little less (exact dose isn't critical anyway).

I'm not a fan of the products sold by hobby companies that do not include any recognized purity grade on the product.

Thanks Randy!
So it’s sodium nitrate for making a nitrate solution. And potassium phosphate for the phosphate solution? And go with the highest grade I can get?

 

[BlueZreef]

Hey, I am in the same boat now looking to DIY. I have a question for @Randy Holmes-Farley

I bought some sodium nitrate that @ScottB recommend above from amazon.

I was dosing ME Coral’s Nitrate solution and looking at the ingredients I see this:

Ingredients: RODI Water, Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate

Is there any reason to have a mix that includes all 3? Is there any known absorption benefits of one over the others? Would love to DIY this as dosing on my 210 gal tank takes a lot...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey, I am in the same boat now looking to DIY. I have a question for @Randy Holmes-Farley

I bought some sodium nitrate that @ScottB recommend above from amazon.

I was dosing ME Coral’s Nitrate solution and looking at the ingredients I see this:

Ingredients: RODI Water, Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate

Is there any reason to have a mix that includes all 3? Is there any known absorption benefits of one over the others? Would love to DIY this as dosing on my 210 gal tank takes a lot...

IMO, there’s no significant technical advantage to all three, especially if that is the order of highest to lowest.

Nitrate is only nitrate ion once dissolved. it has no memory from where it came.

 

[Marc2952]

I use trisodium phosphate and have found out that using 8 teaspoons of it in a gallon of RODI mix will increase the phosphate of a 90 gallon tank ( thats including the sump ) by 0.03 every 6ml. It all depends on your system though as the rocks can absorb a ton of it if they are fairly new.

 

[iko2thdk]

I don't know...maybe I don't get it. For the last several months my phosphates have been 0, nitrates about 10. Alk 8.1, Calc 440 all parameters pretty good?? My corals don't seem to thrive. Brownish green hair algae seems to be overwhelming the tank in the last week and now my phosphates are .03. The suggestion was my phosphates are too low so I removed my GFO from the reactor a few days ago. Corals look worse, so does the tank...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't know...maybe I don't get it. For the last several months my phosphates have been 0, nitrates about 10. Alk 8.1, Calc 440 all parameters pretty good?? My corals don't seem to thrive. Brownish green hair algae seems to be overwhelming the tank in the last week and now my phosphates are .03. The suggestion was my phosphates are too low so I removed my GFO from the reactor a few days ago. Corals look worse, so does the tank...

Have you measured phosphate since the GFO removal?

What about nitrate?

 

[iko2thdk]

Have you measured phosphate since the GFO removal?

What about nitrate?

Yes I have. Last night phosphates were .03. Nitrates (API) were about 10. Much harder to tell w this kit. My elegance coral which had been thriving is reacting poorly, tentacles with drawn. Ordered CUC critters (more of them) b/c LFS has very little stock. Only have 4 fish in a rsr 350. Very low bioload. Dose phosphates? Feed more? More water changes??

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes I have. Last night phosphates were .03. Nitrates (API) were about 10. Much harder to tell w this kit. My elegance coral which had been thriving is reacting poorly, tentacles with drawn. Ordered CUC critters (more of them) b/c LFS has very little stock. Only have 4 fish in a rsr 350. Very low bioload. Dose phosphates? Feed more? More water changes??

If those values are accurate, they are fine and I would not do anything new to change them.

I'd let things settle down and focus on other possible issues, such as organic toxins, fish bothering corals, flow, light, etc.

 

[Joedubyk]

I don't know...maybe I don't get it. For the last several months my phosphates have been 0, nitrates about 10. Alk 8.1, Calc 440 all parameters pretty good?? My corals don't seem to thrive. Brownish green hair algae seems to be overwhelming the tank in the last week and now my phosphates are .03. The suggestion was my phosphates are too low so I removed my GFO from the reactor a few days ago. Corals look worse, so does the tank...

Yeah you have dinos from bottoming out your phosphates. Depending on how long you've had your po4 bottomed out it could take a long time for them to recover. Trust me,I went through the same thing a few montths back (F U RED SEA PHOSPHATE TEST), nothing wrecks havoc more on tanks than bottomed out phosphate. It's not something that will fix itself right awy. may take weeks

 

[Jman76]

Following this thread, have a couple questions. @Randy Holmes-Farley Any issue with using greenhouse grade potassium nitrate? I know sodium nitrate is cheap and easy enough to get. I have lots of this stuff, curious if its good enough? Thanks a lot!

 

[Diver Down Corals]

On the cheap for Nitrates i dose Stump remover from home depot. there is a thread about it here on R2R.

check the thread

Question about Spectracide Stump Remover dosing

I've seen a few threads on this topic in concerns to raising Nitrates. I picked up a bottle but haven't the slightest clue on how much to dose. Im not the best with math so the few calculations I have seen provided online don't allow me to come to my own conclusion.. afraid it will be off. So...

www.reef2reef.com

After battling low to zero nitrates and phosphates in my frag tank resulting in a devastating cyano outbreak killing about 100 frags, I took the advice to buy and suppliment sodium nitrate and TSP (havent used yet). Using the calculator on the planted tank website I dosed Sodium Nitrate raising my Nitrates to 5-7 ppm resulting in an immediate irradication of Cyano and rebounding of remaining coral health.

Now to my question : Without dosing the TSP, 4 days after dosing the sodium nitrate, my phosphates are now at .06. Is this from the natural break down for the nitrates? Is there a need to dose phosphates in a low nutrient environment or should dosing nitrates alone naturally fix the problem?