Nitrates 100+ppm, Need help with Dosing Vodka

[Miami Reef]

Keep it up. You’ll start seeing changes with the numbers very soon. I like the current dose you are adding very much.

 

[DCR]

Have you considered just diluting your sample test water with freshly made saltwater to get a more accurate NO3 reading at the high range?

 

[BZOFIQ]

Have you considered just diluting your sample test water with freshly made saltwater to get a more accurate NO3 reading at the high range?

or employ a different test kit to confirm results.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Have you considered just diluting your sample test water with freshly made saltwater to get a more accurate NO3 reading at the high range?

Yeah I have been wanted to do that but after 5-7 days pass I just test regular since I thought by now it would drop a shade of color. I did that when my Hanna checker when my Phosphates were of the chart and it was nice to get a reading that I could double. Salifert test kit I may just dilute 50-50 RODI and tank water and run a test tomorrow.

It would be nice to get a reference since I have already dumbed 700ML of Vodka without any way to know how much Nitrates ive reduced, My guess is probably 50PPM reduction. I tested my Phosphates before starting Vodka and they showed 47PPB and today they were 6PPB (0.01ppm). Nice to see Carbon dosing take my Phosphate down some since LC dosing is not good for lowering them past I believe .10PPM. On the Lanthum chloride label it says to bring Phosphates down further use GFO. I have to be careful about bringing my Phosphates down I prefer to keep them above .10PPM so I feel comfortable going long periods of time not testing. Therefore I cut my LC dosing by 50% today and will see if they come up to at least 0.05-0.08 range. When they are hovering around zero I have no choice but to test them frequently, and buying Hanna reagent is not really cheap when your testing few times per week on multiple systems.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I just tested and my Alk is up to 8.3dkh. When I started it was at 7.4dkh. Reduced Kalk dosing significantly.

I tested my Phosphates and they are at 3ppb. This is after reduce LC by 75% in one day. Still enough for me to just stop dosing LC until levels go back up.


Lastly I diluted tank water with RODI. 25% of my tank water 75% RODi and still pretty dark on the Nitrate test kit. I guess it's safe to say my NO4 are at least 200+ppm

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I just tested and my Alk is up to 8.3dkh. When I started it was at 7.4dkh. Reduced Kalk dosing significantly.

I tested my Phosphates and they are at 3ppb. This is after reduce LC by 75% in one day. Still enough for me to just stop dosing LC until levels go back up.


Lastly I diluted tank water with RODI. 25% of my tank water 75% RODi and still pretty dark on the Nitrate test kit. I guess it's safe to say my NO4 are at least 200+ppm

If you do reduce nitrate by organic carbon dosing faster than its added alkalinity can be consumed, expect an alk rise.

Consuming 50 ppm nitrate will add 2.3 dKH of alkalinity.

 

[nicodim55]

I have a lot of experience with carbon dosing vodka and vinegar to my tank. I’ve used both separately.

I have not seen ANY ill effect of vodka (or vinegar). I’ve dosed as high as 80mL of vodka a day to my 260 gallon tank (spread out). No ill effects.

Here’s my recommendation to lower nitrates in your tank:

1) First, start with a good skimmer. Skim wet.

2) Next, start with 30mL of vodka per day.

3) After a few days, if everything looks good, go up to 60mL per day.

4) You should good high surface agitation for gas exchange, and dose the vodka by hand 1x per day any time during the tank’s photoperiod.

5) Good luck. Every 50ppm NO3 depleted will add 2.3dKH of alkalinity.

Weird, I’ve been dosing vodka/vinegar/brown sugar mix in my system for over 2 years now, but my alk actually went down. Any reason why I’m having the opposite effect of what you said?

 

[Miami Reef]

Weird, I’ve been dosing vodka/vinegar/brown sugar mix in my system for over 2 years now, but my alk actually went down. Any reason why I’m having the opposite effect of what you said?

Foods and ammonia dosing depletes alk

Depleting nitrates (through consumption) adds that same alk back.

It is net 0.

However, depleting nitrates will raise the current alkalinity, it is just getting lost in all the alk consuming processes (coral, coralline, precipitation etc).

2.3dKH for every 50ppm isn’t that much, especially if it’s over a long period of time.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Weird, I’ve been dosing vodka/vinegar/brown sugar mix in my system for over 2 years now, but my alk actually went down. Any reason why I’m having the opposite effect of what you said?

Prob bc my NO4 is 400ppm+ and last 5 days or so I've ramped up to 55ml/day. More NO4 reduced greater Alk spike

 

[Ashish Patel]

If you do reduce nitrate by organic carbon dosing faster than its added alkalinity can be consumed, expect an alk rise.

Consuming 50 ppm nitrate will add 2.3 dKH of alkalinity.

It's kind of went up slowly at first intime for me catch it but last few days it went from 7.9 to 8.3. Since going to 55ml per day (5 days ago) my Ph has dropped alot.. peak yesterday was 8.06. Pre-vodka I was 8.22 peak.

I think I'm gonna stick to 55ml/day for awhile since my Phosphates are bottoming out. If the stopping of LC doesn't increase the phosphates I will have to reduce the daily dose further.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I reduce kalk dosing to 7000ml per day. I was at 10000ml per day before.

Based on my diluted NO4 test on salifert my best guess it's at 75ppm. When I times that by 4 that gives my tank a ball park figure of 300ppm NO4. YIKES.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I reduce kalk dosing to 7000ml per day. I was at 10000ml per day before.

Based on my diluted NO4 test on salifert my best guess it's at 75ppm. When I times that by 4 that gives my tank a ball park figure of 300ppm NO4. YIKES.

Big tang make big poop

 

[Ashish Patel]

Here's some not so Eye Candy from today

 

[Ashish Patel]

Big tang make big poop

Yeah and 12 almost tennis ball size turbos and urchins

 

[nicodim55]

Prob bc my NO4 is 400ppm+ and last 5 days or so I've ramped up to 55ml/day. More NO4 reduced greater Alk spike

Yeah, no I get the opposite result. Alk lowers instead of rising. My nitrates sits between 5-10ppm and phos- .10- .25

 

[Hot Sauce]

I dose sugar in a freshwater aquarium to keep nitrate at 1ppm. It was around 100ppm before I started dosing last month. I don't do water changes. I have to dose phosphoric acid as the carbon driven bacteria deplete PO4 rapidly. I would have thought the same would apply to saltwater. If your PO4 is 5ppb, then the bacteria you're trying to grow with ethanol will be phosphate blocked. Would that not result in an accumilation of ethanol in the water which could give the fish ethanol poisoning?

My first thought would be to dose chelated iron and phosphoric acid (or trisodium phosphate salt) very slowly. I bet your NO3 would deplete within a day or two. You'll have bacterial mulm covering everything, but your NO3 will drop. You'll need good surface agitation as the resulting bloom will deplete oxygen quickly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t think 5 ppb is low enough to prevent bacterial growth.

 

[Hot Sauce]

Surely it will stop him from creating a bacterial bloom large enough to utilise 400ppm of NO3. Dosen't he have to comply with the Redfield Ratio? I hit 55g of sucrose to drop my NO3 from 50ppm to 0ppm in one day. I was ramping up the daily dose by 10%. I had to keep dosing PO4 as it was depleting quickly. I'm down to 1 gram a day now. NH4 0 NO2 0.05 NO3 1.

Does the intended bloom not require extra PO4 for ATP?

 

[jda]

Here's some not so Eye Candy from today

Seen way worse tanks. That is not so bad. Cheer up!

Don't be surprised if some hairy type of algae springs up as you lower your no3. I know that not everybody agrees with me on this, but I have seen some algae types pretty much disappear in high no3... some do not and I know that the nuance is lost on some. In any case, if some algae does come, there are some effective clean up crew that works at lower no3 levels if your fish do not care to eat the algae.

 

[Miami Reef]

Seen way worse tanks. That is not so bad. Cheer up!

Don't be surprised if some hairy type of algae springs up as you lower your no3. I know that not everybody agrees with me on this, but I have seen some algae types pretty much disappear in high no3... some do not and I know that the nuance is lost on some. In any case, if some algae does come, there are some effective clean up crew that works at lower no3 levels if your fish do not care to eat the algae.

He has a lot of tangs. He shouldn’t need to worry about hair algae.

A Desjardini tang saved my tank from derbesia hair algae. No other herbivore (snails, urchins, crabs) touched it