GLA Supplements for raising Nitrate and Phosphate

Carz · Mar 19, 2020

My system is about 250 gallons and I have been trying to keep my Nitrate and Phosphate above 0 for a few weeks now. I started dosing with Brightwell Neophos and Neonitro and I am finally getting readings above 0. I started dosing slow to introduce these products slowly and I moved up the dosage over some time. I can see that I am going to need to continue wit dosing to reach and maintain my target readings of 5-10 ppm for the nitrate and .03-.07 for the phosphate. I want to make my own dosing supplements using the GLA products and was looking for advice from you folks on how you mix it and how you dose it compared to the brightwell products. I looked at their calculators and just want to see if people are using different ratios.

I would need this for the Nitrate:

GLA Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) Aquarium Fertilizer - 1lb Jar

Green Leaf Aquariums Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) delivers vital nitrogen and potassium to fuel healthy, robust aquatic plant growth.

greenleafaquariums.com

and this one for the Phosphate??

GLA Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2PO4) Aquarium Fertilizer - 1lb Jar

Green Leaf Aquariums KH2PO4 provides phosphate and potassium to support strong root growth and photosynthesis in aquatic plants.

greenleafaquariums.com

Redfoxtang · Mar 19, 2020

Just curious why not just feed more frozen foods or add more fish instead of dosing N03 and P04? Was in the same boat you were and was dosing Brightwell just to keep N03 and P04 detectable. But in the mean time fed more and started adding more fish.

Carz · Mar 19, 2020

I think I can control it better by dosing

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

Dosing is fine, but why focus on products like those instead of buying a DIY of known purity, like food grade products?

Those products you list have no guarantee of purity and do not even claim suitability in a reef tank (at least that I could find) which has very different needs than a freshwater planted tank.

mtraylor · Mar 20, 2020

What are the reccomended food grade for this?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

mtraylor said:
What are the reccomended food grade for this?

Sodium or potassium nitrate, and any form of sodium or potassium phosphate. There are many brands, such as Loudwolf.

Carz · Mar 20, 2020

can you share a link of a product you would use or have used.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

I never needed to dose nutrients, but Loudwolf is very widely used.

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PatW · Mar 20, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Dosing is fine, but why focus on products like those instead of buying a DIY of known purity, like food grade products?

Those products you list have no guarantee of purity and do not even claim suitability in a reef tank (at least that I could find) which has very different needs than a freshwater planted tank.

I use analytical grade reagents or food grade for sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate. The cost I incur is far less than products formulated for reef aquariums. But if buying from a reputable reef supplier makes you feel better and you don’t mind the cost well fine.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

Here are some others:

Carz · Mar 20, 2020

well worth looking into. Have you used them in the past for dosing?

Redfoxtang · Mar 20, 2020

What also would be the recommendation for dosing for those products? Follow the same guidelines as Brightwell?

Carz · Mar 20, 2020

I am sure it would depend on how you mix the product with water. I am not sure how to mix these but the dosage would depend on the strength of the concentrate you make.

Now I am confused.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

Carz said:
well worth looking into. Have you used them in the past for dosing?

Me? No, I never needed to dose nutrients. But lots of people do use them.

Chemistry is not a hit or miss sort of thing. Not a "it worked for me" sort of thing. Sodium nitrate that is food grade is guaranteed to be sodium nitrate and to have limits on certain impurities that were verified in an analytical laboratory to a specific set of universally agreed upon standards.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

Redfoxtang said:
What also would be the recommendation for dosing for those products? Follow the same guidelines as Brightwell?

Forget Brightwell.

Use this planted tank calculator for dosing:

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

If you choose to dose sodium nitrate, which is not in the calculator, use the entry for potassium nitrate and use 15 % less (so if it says 10 mL, use 8.5 mL) since sodium nitrate is a little more potent than potassium nitrate.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 20, 2020

Carz said:
I am sure it would depend on how you mix the product with water. I am not sure how to mix these but the dosage would depend on the strength of the concentrate you make.

Now I am confused.

That is true. The calculator above guides you through the process.

Carz · Mar 20, 2020

Ok, I am going to order this for dosing nitrates:

and this for dosing the phosphates:

and I will mix both solutions according to the calculator that was suggested.

Belgian Anthias · Mar 21, 2020

The target is a nitrate/phosphate ratio in weight of +- 100/1. Why?
if O nitrate is measured a lot of nitrogen including nitrate may be processed daily. The same for phosphorus. One may assume growth is not limited by other essential nutrient availability. What is the problem to solve making these changes justified?
In my opinion, the present situation may be less worrying as when storing a nitrate and phosphate reserve in a 100/1 ratio, certainly when one has no idea of other essential nutrients availability. Only Nitrate and Phosphate seems to be the parameters taken into account.
An aquarium is very sensitive to and regularly subject to temperature fluctuations and then it is only the duration or magnitude of deviation that can cause deficiency diseases or worse in a situation of high nitrogen availability, certainly when not in balance with the availability of phosphorus, this may cause phosphorus starvation, not in the tank but in the microbial world where the action takes place.
Personally I like to have detectable levels of both safely stored nutrient reserves and I would try to avoid phosphorus may become the limiting factor.
I think feeding balanced high proteïn food ( >35%) may solve the nutrient balance. When nitrate and or phosphate increase and become elevated one may switch over to low protein food. The organic carbon availability will manage nutrient availability in a natural way.

If the tank has a healthy algae growth I would not bother at all as the cure in mind may be a lot worse as the disease in mind.
By managing the nutrient content via the provided balanced food source, of which the content is known, one will not completely mess up reached balances in the tank, which will be the case by adding only one essential nutrient without taking into account the availability of other essentials.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 21, 2020

Belgian Anthias said:
The target is a nitrate/phosphate ratio in weight of +- 100/1. Why?

IMO, a ratio is not an appropriate target and is not a useful concept. It supposes that if one is extraordinarily high or low, that the other should be, which makes no sense. If phosphate is 2 ppm, should nitrate be 500 ppm? Of course not.

Best bet, IMO, is to target each individually to a desirable target range, such as about 0.01 to 0.1 ppm phosphate and 0.5 to 10 ppm nitrate.

Belgian Anthias · Mar 21, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
IMO, a ratio is not an appropriate target and is not a useful concept. It supposes that if one is extraordinarily high or low, that the other should be, which makes no sense. If phosphate is 2 ppm, should nitrate be 500 ppm? Of course not.

Best bet, IMO, is to target each individually to a desirable target range, such as about 0.01 to 0.1 ppm phosphate and 0.5 to 10 ppm nitrate.

If phosphate is only 0.03 ppm, nitrate should be as low as possible. I agree ratio's are not a usefull consept but why targeting a nutrient reserve which may lead to nutrient insufficiency as that nitrate is not produced ? And even worse is the fact only nitrate or phosphate is added as these are normally the end product of delivering the energy for the remineralisation process. Doing so is turning nature upside down.