Potassium nitrate (Spectracide stump remover) dosing steps

The-Russ · Feb 22, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you are concerned about potassium getting too high, I'd just use food grade sodium nitrate. Google shopping has several options.

What about calcium nitrate?

Vaughn17 · Feb 22, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you are concerned about potassium getting too high, I'd just use food grade sodium nitrate. Google shopping has several options.

Thanks, Randy!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 22, 2016

The-Russ said:
What about calcium nitrate?

If you can find it at a good purity, that would be fine.

AustinAquaculture · Feb 23, 2016

I began dosing today. I have a 64g (total volume) tank. I dosed 3ML, and got my NO3 up to 1ppm from undetectable using Red Sea test kits.

PO4 is at .01-.02

I feel like I actually saw a difference in polyp extension in my corals after a couple of hours. I may just be jumping the gun on that, but it sure does look like a difference was made!

The-Russ · Feb 25, 2016

AustinAquaculture said:
I began dosing today. I have a 64g (total volume) tank. I dosed 3ML, and got my NO3 up to 1ppm from undetectable using Red Sea test kits.

PO4 is at .01-.02

I feel like I actually saw a difference in polyp extension in my corals after a couple of hours. I may just be jumping the gun on that, but it sure does look like a difference was made!

So... Hw goes it?

BrooksReef · Feb 25, 2016

The-Russ said:
So... Hw goes it?

Its going very well. My PO4 is a little higher than I'd like it to be, at .08ppm. I am waiting on my in-sump refugium chamber to arrive so I can stuff it full of macroalgae.

Regardless of the PO4 being a bit higher, my corals are looking great. Granted, some of them have been browned out because they're all relatively new to my tank and new to LEDs (which I just sold and bought an ATI T5 fixture). The polyp extension is CRAZY. Its weird, I feel like they respond immediately after I dose.

Big E · Feb 26, 2016

What is the max amount to safely raise? From the initial post I saw about 1.5ppm in an hour. What about in a 24hr period?

I'm a zero in my current frag tank.........I guessing 1-1.5ppm may get sucked up in 24 hours.

jumplittlechloe · Feb 26, 2016

This is week two of dosing 5ml a day. My beginning dosage got the tank up to 5ppm. It was holding at 2.5ppm but looks like it is getting consumed at a higher rate. Going to increase dosage. From two weeks of dosing corals have held some color but I think it will get better as nitrate is only 1ppm currently. I have noticed a dramatic difference in the rock work as all signs of algae is gone. It was such a difference that I have stopped testing for phosphate and have not had to add any gfo back in my reactor.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 27, 2016

jumplittlechloe said:
This is week two of dosing 5ml a day. My beginning dosage got the tank up to 5ppm. It was holding at 2.5ppm but looks like it is getting consumed at a higher rate. Going to increase dosage. From two weeks of dosing corals have held some color but I think it will get better as nitrate is only 1ppm currently. I have noticed a dramatic difference in the rock work as all signs of algae is gone. It was such a difference that I have stopped testing for phosphate and have not had to add any gfo back in my reactor.

Are you using some sort of export method for phosphate that might have been nitrate limited? Like an ATS or macroalgae or organic carbon dosing?

jumplittlechloe · Feb 27, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Are you using some sort of export method for phosphate that might have been nitrate limited? Like an ATS or macroalgae or organic carbon dosing?

I sure am [emoji6] I use organic carbon dosing. I also dose bacteria and run zeolite stones. There are only three fish in the system. I have always had this issue with my tanks as I have always used carbon dosing (i.e. Zeovit, RedSea NO3POX and Aquaforest). The nitrates would drop to 0 on test kit and the algae/cyano issues would start. Dosing nitrates seems to be helping with nitrate/phosphate ratio.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 27, 2016

jumplittlechloe said:
I sure am ; ) I use organic carbon dosing. I also dose bacteria and run zeolite stones. There are only three fish in the system. I have always had this issue with my tanks as I have always used carbon dosing (i.e. Zeovit, RedSea NO3POX and Aquaforest). The nitrates would drop to 0 on test kit and the algae/cyano issues would start. Dosing nitrates seems to be helping with nitrate/phosphate ratio.

OK, thanks. That makes sense.

jumplittlechloe · Feb 27, 2016

I did have what I think was a bacterial bloom for about a week when I started dosing nitrates. Guess the carbon/nitrogen/phosphate ratio was finding a balance.

jumplittlechloe · Mar 1, 2016

Have noticed my first issue with dosing. I have some SPS /LPS that are showing some signs of stress (burnt tips, retracted euphyllia and lack of polyp extension). I did check alk and it has not changed 7.4dkh. Nitrate is holding 2.5 - 5.0ppm. Any thoughts?

Jonathan Presseau · Mar 1, 2016

What is your PO4?

jumplittlechloe · Mar 1, 2016

That is a good question. I stopped measuring it once I pulled GFO and algae subsided. I have never heard of PO4 causing issues like that. What was your thought regarding PO4?

BrooksReef · Mar 2, 2016

So... I tested my NO3 today and yesterday, and it said it must be higher than 64ppm... 2-3 days prior it was testing at less than 4ppm... I'm using a Red Sea test... surely that has to be incorrect.

The-Russ · Mar 3, 2016

BrooksReef said:
So... I tested my NO3 today and yesterday, and it said it must be higher than 64ppm... 2-3 days prior it was testing at less than 4ppm... I'm using a Red Sea test... surely that has to be incorrect.

I would STOP dosing and take some water to your LFS to get them to test it.

You should probably do a water change and immediately lower it. It will stabilize.

How long have you been dosing. I test 2x a day if I am dosing because I cannot get my readings stabilized as accurately as I would like.

BrooksReef · Mar 3, 2016

The-Russ said:
I would STOP dosing and take some water to your LFS to get them to test it.

You should probably do a water change and immediately lower it. It will stabilize.

How long have you been dosing. I test 2x a day if I am dosing because I cannot get my readings stabilized as accurately as I would like.

I haven't dosed in about 6 days. I did the high range test with water from my refrigerator... then did it with actual RODI water... whoops. It came to 8-12ppm.

I did a 30% water change anyhow.

PO4 dropped to .04

redwingrob40 · Mar 5, 2016

Great article. I am thinking that I may start dosing some of the spectracide. Currently many of my corals are kinda faded in coloring and my nitrate level by nyos test kit is less than 1. Phosphates are currently .006 by hanna ulr phosphorous. I do have some red turf algae growing in the tank so I suspect phosphate may actually be higher then the Hanna reads?

As far as tank info I have approx 160 gal total volume. The only things I currently dose are BRS 2 part. The system has never run GFO, GAC or any type of carbon dosing. Right now stock is pretty light but I feed quite a bit. Any thoughts or suggestions before I get started?