dosing nitrate

[tristan123]

hey all hope everyone is doing well.. i have a question i am testing my water regularly i can never get a nitrate reading my corals are eating it up i think i need to start dosing nitrate because my zoanthids love it what is the best nitrate dosing bottle that everyone is using and having positive results please let me know thank you

 

[LDog74]

Loudwolf is high quality

 

[Greg P]

Just to get you started with the easy dosing stuff, although pricey, you can use Seachem Nitrogen for planted tanks. Just to get your bearings.
Then you can move on to the powders once you're comfortable with dosing.

 

[blasterman]

Food grade sodium nitrate. Cheap. Can get if off amazon. Just dose with a measuring spoon.

I dont see the advantage with liquid nitrate given you are paying mostly for water.

 

[taricha]

Just to get you started with the easy dosing stuff, although pricey, you can use Seachem Nitrogen for planted tanks. Just to get your bearings.
Then you can move on to the powders once you're comfortable with dosing.

Agree. Dosing formula right on the bottle, once you get used to how your tank processes N, then you can do the solid NaNO3.

 

[homer1475]

For starting out, nothing easier then brightwells neo-nitro. Not cheap, sure, but it's pretty fool proof and a good way to get your feet wet into nitrate dosing.

 

[Fam5dad]

I have a 3 and 5 month-old tank both with 0 ppm nitrate and 0.25 PPM phosphates. I have cyano like crazy in the smaller one and it's increasing in the larger 3-month-old tank. Lots of flow in each and I am feeding flake once a day and frozen brine shrimp once a day hoping the nitrates will start to show up. Each tank is lightly stocked. The standard advice I'm reading is to keep up maintenance but if I'm doing water changes I wouldn't expect nitrates to increase. I've read about the Redfield ratio and I am starting to think I need to dose nitrate to get things leveled out and kick the cyano. I'm asking the folks here who have dosed nitrate if I'm on the right track or if I should be patient and wait out the ugly phase on its own? Thoughts?

 

[Rmckoy]

Esv bionic calcium nitrate .

east to follow directions .
increase nitrates 1ppm per day for 5 days .

 

[Fam5dad]

Esv bionic calcium nitrate .

east to follow directions .
increase nitrates 1ppm per day for 5 days .

Rmckoy- Do you think what I am reading about a new nitrate limited system that leads to cyano is correct?

 

[Rmckoy]

Rmckoy- Do you think what I am reading about a new nitrate limited system that leads to cyano is correct?

I don’t know for sure if it would lead to cyano .
but I did experience nitrate limited where phosphates were high and couldn’t lower them any other way except to dose nitrates to bring them up a little before lowering both nutrients .
I dosed enough nitrate by calculating the total volume to increase nitrates by 1ppm per day for 5 days . At the end of the 5 days I had 5ppm. Nitrates and was able to lower phosphates .

 

[Rmckoy]

I don’t know for sure if it would lead to cyano .
but I did experience nitrate limited where phosphates were high and couldn’t lower them any other way except to dose nitrates to bring them up a little before lowering both nutrients .
I dosed enough nitrate by calculating the total volume to increase nitrates by 1ppm per day for 5 days . At the end of the 5 days I had 5ppm. Nitrates and was able to lower phosphates .

It never made sense ..
transferring everything over from a leaking 90 gal to the new 230 gal
I had 0 nitrates . But thought being a lot of new water that was the reason .
With the tank filed with sps I was also experiencing 0 alk or cal consumption which was weird .

 

[Rmckoy]

Dosing Nitrates to Eliminate Cyano? - ReefBum

In theory, adding nitrates via an additive will make it possible for bacteria to consume phosphate and drive it down, a possible solution for eliminating cyano.

reefbum.com

read this article .
it refers to a “ redfield ratio “

but does mention dosing nitrates

 

[Rmckoy]

I have a 3 and 5 month-old tank both with 0 ppm nitrate and 0.25 PPM phosphates. I have cyano like crazy in the smaller one and it's increasing in the larger 3-month-old tank. Lots of flow in each and I am feeding flake once a day and frozen brine shrimp once a day hoping the nitrates will start to show up. Each tank is lightly stocked. The standard advice I'm reading is to keep up maintenance but if I'm doing water changes I wouldn't expect nitrates to increase. I've read about the Redfield ratio and I am starting to think I need to dose nitrate to get things leveled out and kick the cyano. I'm asking the folks here who have dosed nitrate if I'm on the right track or if I should be patient and wait out the ugly phase on its own? Thoughts?

Being a newer tank ,
I’d wait the uglies stage out as long as possible . It might be too early to start worrying about dosing knowing you have months of unstable conditions ahead .

stability is king but uglies are required to move forward

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I dose potassium nitrate via my ATO. I need to dial it back a little as I am dosing a bit too much but Cyano and dinos finally under control. Before I starting dosing my nitrates we’re effectively zero but phosphates slightly elevated. As such, I dosed nitrates to feed my cheato and they started just sucking up the phosphates and leaving some nitrates. Just takes a while for the cheato to get through the excess nitrate do you my dosing being a bit high.