I'm looking for information on how to chemically increase nitrates. Please share your information and experiences here. I'm looking into dosing stump remover. What are the dosing instructions?
How to chemically increase nitrates
- Thread starter Pete polyp
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howaboutme
Active Member
I occasionally use stump remover or KNO3. There aren't a lot of concrete instructions out there. A few are on the other forum but even that is questionable. What I do is to dose small amounts each time, then measure NO3 the next day (or a few hours later) and so on, very similar to how we start dosing Alk or Ca. I use something similar to a salifert spoon (I think it's 1mL). When I am at NO3 of 0, I dose up to 6 of those spoons at one time. (I have a 29G.) This can raise it to maybe 1 or 2ppm. Hope this helps.
TJ's Reef
Valuable Member
Pete, why not just feed your fish more ??? Fish poop seems to be a more natural form/source of Coral food, my Blochii Tang is a 'Fertilizing Machine' let me tell you.... almost Oscar like... lol
Cheers, Todd
Cheers, Todd
OP
OP
I'm already feeding my tank about 5 times what I should be.....
This is one of the 3 feedings of this tank the other day.... It's also a 40g. I already have 2 wrasse, 2 clowns, 3 firefish and one tang. Adding more fish can cause territory issues. Dosing seems to be the only option at this point.
OP
OP
I'm looking at either potassium nitrate or calcium nitrate. I like the idea of potassium more than calcium as to not throw off the CA/alk balance.
howaboutme
Active Member
Feeding more is one way to increasing NO3, true. But the problem w/ that is it also increases PO4. We usually want to lower it.
OP
OP
This is one reason I want to increase nitrate. It will help decrease phosphate.
howaboutme
Active Member
Yep, redfield ratio. You're at 0 NO3?
mcarroll
10K Club member
Are you wanting to dose nitrates to support a carbon dosing routine? (I think I knew, but I forget.)
That's a bit circular, if so, since carbon dosing is mostly a way to jack up the rate of denitrification (NO3->N2). Seems cutting back on carbon would make more sense if you're already feeding as much as you want and you're still bottoming out at zero nitrates.
(If carbon isn't it, why more nitrates?)
To answer your question: run some tests on some old water change water. Add X amount of your selected form of nitrate and test to see how much nitrates change. (Remember you're changing potassium or calcium too, so test that as well.) If it's off the charts, dilute the stump remover by 50% (or more...keep the math easy tho) and repeat the experiment on a new water sample.
I hope this makes sense - make sure you post your experience!
-Matt
OP
OP
No carbon dosing here. I actually have my skimmer offline and still 0 nitrate. The reason I'm leaning towards potassium nitrate instead of calcium nitrate is because I already have to dose a little bit of potassium already. I'm feeding about ten times the amount that I would prefer (over an ounce of rods per week)
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OP
OP
What are you using for kno3?
mcarroll
10K Club member
Are you combating PO4 buildup (something else?), or simply trying to maintain some arbitrary nitrate level? Just curious!
I don't know for sure how you are using it, but you mentioned Redfield's ratio...that's more of an average of all life forms than a target or recommended level for anything. Any given organism can vary pretty widely from Redfield.
-Matt
Skimmer is off and your still not getting any nitrates? And no dosing. What are you actually using for nitrate removal? Its got to go somewhere.
Also that rods food is very clean. Maybe if you supplemented with some nice un-rinsed PEmysis it would help get you on board with some trates.
Also that rods food is very clean. Maybe if you supplemented with some nice un-rinsed PEmysis it would help get you on board with some trates.
joseserrano
2500 Club Member
Brightwell and Dr tims has nitrate in a bottle. Both work well.
yes, what is going on?? I know I've read you believe it is the rock and DSB correct? You should somehow replicate my system that I always have and I think always will struggle with nitrates - phosphates not so much
OP
OP
My 29 is extra clean and has the deep sand bed, but I can feed heavily and drive the nitrate up to 0.5. This is actually my barebottom. I have fuge with cheato and tukani live rock. The cheato won't pull out all the phosphate because there's no nitrates. This is also my sps tank, so having a small amount of nitrate is extremely important.
