Dosing Potassium Nitrate

[Dexter_SA]

Wow such great response. Thanks guys. At the moment im just dosing a little bit of potassium Nitrate. Probably not enough yet to make a difference. But im taking it slowly. I really don't want to over do it. But at the moment it seems like my nitrate reactor is consuming more no3 than what im putting into the tank. Will be looking to move over to sodium nitrate as soon as the pottasium nitrate is finished. Its a bit of a mission to get it locally.
tank size is 750l

 

[CoralWealth]

https://www.amazon.com/Saltpetre-Po...011&rps=1&s=gateway&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-3

Can I use this potassium nitrate to raise my nitrates? I also wouldnt mind potassium going up a little either though I doubt it will, mine is 350.

 

[ss30]

I bought some food grade Potassium Nitrate and can't get it to mix well. I put 50g of potassium into 500ml of RODI water and no matter how long I mix it I can't get it to mix fully, I am always left with powder at the bottom of the bottle I used and I needed to add 50ml of solution to raise nitrates to 10ppm on a 422 ltr system.
Any suggestions?

Thanks

Paul

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I bought some food grade Potassium Nitrate and can't get it to mix well. I put 50g of potassium into 500ml of RODI water and no matter how long I mix it I can't get it to mix fully, I am always left with powder at the bottom of the bottle I used and I needed to add 50ml of solution to raise nitrates to 10ppm on a 422 ltr system.
Any suggestions?

Thanks

Paul

Potassium nitrate is quite soluble. 50 g will dissolve in 500 ml. Warming will help. If it still doesn’t dissolve, it must have other chemicals in it. They may be unimportant, or not.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can I use this potassium nitrate to raise my nitrates? I also wouldnt mind potassium going up a little either though I doubt it will, mine is 350.

FCC grade potassium nitrate that this claims to be will be fine.

 

[ss30]

Potassium nitrate is quite soluble. 50 g will dissolve in 500 ml. Warming will help. If it still doesn’t dissolve, it must have other chemicals in it. They may be unimportant, or not.

I was thinking might be impurities even though it good grade, managed to buy sodium nitrate so will give that a go, it's harder to buy in the UK in small amounts 25kg is easy to but 200g hard.

 

[Deaf clown]

Although adding vinegar will be carbon dosing, which will decrease the nutrients which you are trying to increase.

I was thinking that same thing.

 

[Lp1977]

I've been dosing Macronutrient Potassium Nitrate to supplement my nitrates for some time now. Triton and ICP for the last few tests are showing highly elevated Potassium levels in my tank. I'm going to change from Potassium Nitrate to ESV's New Calcium Nitrate and see if my levels drop after doing some water changes. I'm 90% sure that KNO3 is the culprit since weekly TMP water changes weren't dropping my potassium. I will post my results once I have numbers.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've been dosing Macronutrient Potassium Nitrate to supplement my nitrates for some time now. Triton and ICP for the last few tests are showing highly elevated Potassium levels in my tank. I'm going to change from Potassium Nitrate to ESV's New Calcium Nitrate and see if my levels drop after doing some water changes. I'm 90% sure that KNO3 is the culprit since weekly TMP water changes weren't dropping my potassium. I will post my results once I have numbers.

That sounds like a good plan. This is why I recommend sodium nitrate over potassium nitrate.