Dosing nitrate

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The basis for the successful growth of corals and fish in a closed circle is an attempt to understand and imitate the chemistry of sea water and the relationship between them and seek balance. For example, omega-3 and omega-6 are important but today we understand that what is more important is the relationship between them for a balanced diet.so is the ratio between Mg and Ca.and so on.
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
Haim said:
The basis for the successful growth of corals and fish in a closed circle is an attempt to understand and imitate the chemistry of sea water and the relationship between them and seek balance. For example, omega-3 and omega-6 are important but today we understand that what is more important is the relationship between them for a balanced diet.so is the ratio between Mg and Ca.and so on.
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I agree that replicating the ocean is desirable. I'm just not convinced that when it comes to N and P, that the Redfield ratio does so in the best way.

Targeting them individually to ocean values makes more sense to me than trying to control them as a ratio which does not necessarily replicate surface tropical reef seawater values. :)
 
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I agree that replicating the ocean is desirable. I'm just not convinced that when it comes to N and P, that the Redfield ratio does so in the best way.

Targeting them individually to ocean values makes more sense to me than trying to control them as a ratio which does not necessarily replicate surface tropical reef seawater values. :)
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Randy, I am battling Dino's and have upped my feeding to try and raise my nitrates and phosphates to a little above 0. I also did not do a water change for a month and a half, then i gave in and did one. I was still unable to raise the nutrient levels during that time.

My next step is dosing nitrates directly to see if the dino's will receed. towards the end of the month and a half of no water changes they seemed to slow down in growth. definitely not a decrease but did not have to clean them off of the glass and corals daily. the sand bed has always been the worst so I have moved all frags off the sand to avoid them being smothered. I just got in my jar of KNO3 from Green Leaf Aquariums. I am wondering if you would be able to help me find a good ratio of rodi water to the KNO3 powder to start dosing.

I have a 30G tank and am looking to dose the nitrates up slowly to 5-10 ppm. Just not sure where to start on the grams of kno3 to ounces of rodi water to mix then dose a few ML of that mixture daily while testing.

I found Rotala Butterfly calculator saying that 10 Grams of kno3 into 20oz of water should raise me up by almost 1ppm per 10ml of soultion I dose. I think I'll start there with one dose a day and test to see if I can get it to raise up or if my chaeto will magically start to grow again and I may have to dose more
 
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Top Shelf Aquatics
The problem with imitating the chemistry of sea water in a glass box is that coral in the wild (in particular, hermatypic corals such as Acropora spp.) feed heavily as food is plentiful on an ocean reef. Adding large amounts of food on a regular basis to an aquarium tends to result in poor water quality. IMO, maintaining NO3 and PO4 at levels higher than in the ocean, helps to compensate for an inability to provide coral with the quantities and types of food they are accustomed to consuming. Personally, I don't follow any ratio. I just try to keep nitrate higher that phosphates (much higher, lol).
 
Has anyone established a maintenance dose in ppm/day for their tank? Currently, I am dosing 1.5 ppm/day in 180 gallons, and NO3 is steady at 1 ppm. Does this amount seem reasonable?

I also carbon dose so my phosphate is almost undetectable at .006 with Hanna ULR.
 
Vaughn17 said:
I use Duda's sodium nitrate. I bought it on Amazon. I mix one tablespoon with 2 cups water. I dose about 10 ml daily in my 180 that has lots of growing acros and other sps.
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Will sodium nitrate raise phosphates?

Are you dosing 1ml to every 18galons of tank water?

My nitrates are 0ppm and PO4 is .12ppm and I have algae (green hair type and brown stringy/powderery types as well) my alk. is >6 and <7dkh ( working on raising dkh) I also dose NOPOX at 30ml/60g too. Using GFO ROWS too and carbon ROX .08. Thanks
 
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Deltec
I would look for food grade NaNO3. I actually use KNO3, potassium nitrate, in the form of Spectracide Stump Remover from Lowes.

Use this link to create a customized NO3 solution of either NaNO3 or KNO3. You can play around with the calculator to make a sol'n that you like.

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

When I made mine, I dissolved 232 grams KNO3 in 1000ml so that 5ml=1ppm NO3 in 180 gallons.

I started out dosing 2ppm in 180 gallon tank for two days. This increased my NO3 to 1ppm. Now, I dose 1ppm per day to maintain barely detectable nitrates. I also carbon dose in my ATO with vinegar, so together they keep my PO4 in check and barely detectable (.01 ppm).

Why are you starting to dose NO3? I started because my corals were pastel and didn't have the deep dark colors I wanted.
 
Randyp79 said:
I would look for food grade NaNO3. I actually use KNO3, potassium nitrate, in the form of Spectracide Stump Remover from Lowes.

Use this link to create a customized NO3 solution of either NaNO3 or KNO3. You can play around with the calculator to make a sol'n that you like.

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

When I made mine, I dissolved 232 grams KNO3 in 1000ml so that 5ml=1ppm NO3 in 180 gallons.

I started out dosing 2ppm in 180 gallon tank for two days. This increased my NO3 to 1ppm. Now, I dose 1ppm per day to maintain barely detectable nitrates. I also carbon dose in my ATO with vinegar, so together they keep my PO4 in check and barely detectable (.01 ppm).

Why are you starting to dose NO3? I started because my corals were pastel and didn't have the deep dark colors I wanted.
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I've been reading posts and articles such as the redfield ratio and why are corals faded/lack of growth due to starvation. Some commits I've read say that my NO3 needs to be between 2-5ppm. I have O ppm NO3 and .12ppm PO4.

Question; How do you have green hair algae and brown stringy/powdery algae with my nutrient levels???????
 
I used the calculator link above; 233 grams of Spectracide Stump Remover to one liter of water. 10ml increased nitrates from undetectable to 5ppm on a 74g system. Consumption has been roughly 2.5ppm the past two days. I started dosing nitrates in an effort to bring steadily increasing phosphates down (from .03 to .150 in about three weeks); to that point, phosphates have dropped from .150 two days ago to .089 this morning. If the trend continues, I should be back where I want these levels in the next few days.

One thing I did notice yesterday was some sliming from a couple of the acropora (haven't been able to attribute this to anything yet).
 
scardall said:
I've been reading posts and articles such as the redfield ratio and why are corals faded/lack of growth due to starvation. Some commits I've read say that my NO3 needs to be between 2-5ppm. I have O ppm NO3 and .12ppm PO4.

Question; How do you have green hair algae and brown stringy/powdery algae with my nutrient levels???????
Click to expand...

The algae may, in fact, be why the nitrate is low, if it is taking it up. :)
 
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