Questions on amino dosing

cnmcalpi · Dec 17, 2017

Anyone have any experience dosing aminos?

Once I put my CaRx online I had available dosing heads and started dosing (5ml/day-150gal) Acropower.

Increased vinegar dose from 45 ml/day to 55ml/day ballpark estimate to counteract the new nutrient load. P04 spiked to .18 - outpacing my GFO, caused an algae bloom and some seriously sticky white film on glass that's a PITA to get off.

Reduced Acropower to 2.5 ml/day and P04 dropped to 0.00 via the same GFO load. (Was not exhausted even at the .18 reading so I didn't change it.)

N03 and P04 are now sitting at 0.00 both, via carbon dosing and GFO. Id like to find a sweet spot where I could ride about 1-2 ppm N03 and 0 detectable P04.

Maybe reduce vinegar dose to allow N03 to rise??

Prior to these changes P04 and N03 were riding 0 solid.

Alk - 10-12 dkh
Cal - 430-450 ppm
T - 79-81
Ph - 8.15-8.3

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 17, 2017

Any combination of amino acid dosing, nitrate dosing, or less organic dosing can help increase the available nitrogen level.

I would let phosphate rise a tad too, assuming you are using a method sensitive enough that you believe it is less than 0.02 ppm phosphate.

cnmcalpi · Dec 17, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Any combination of amino acid dosing, nitrate dosing, or less organic dosing can help increase the available nitrogen level.

I would let phosphate rise a tad too, assuming you are using a method sensitive enough that you believe it is less than 0.02 ppm phosphate.

Thanks, Randy

I am using the Hanna Phosphate Checker, I believe its accuracy is +- .02ppm IIRC. This is why I was shooting for 0, as if it reads zero there is still likely some transient P04 available.

It seems as if either the carbon dosing is seriously skewed toward N reduction that allowed the P to rise with the amino dose, or there is an imbalance of P in the aminos themselves.

Considering Acropower is a commonly used and trusted product by Julian himself, I would venture to assume that its probably well balanced.

Maybe I should tune in the P by incrementally raising the AA dose and tune in the N by incrementally lowering my carbon dose?

A sound plan?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 17, 2017

cnmcalpi said:
It seems as if either the carbon dosing is seriously skewed toward N reduction that allowed the P to rise with the amino dose, or there is an imbalance of P in the aminos themselves.

It typically is skewed heavily toward nitrate reduction, although it does not usually make phosphate rise, just nitrate drop.

Amino acids would normally have much phosphate, but foods have a lot.

cnmcalpi said:
I am using the Hanna Phosphate Checker, I believe its accuracy is +- .02ppm IIRC. This is why I was shooting for 0, as if it reads zero there is still likely some transient P04 available.

Which Hanna?

cnmcalpi · Dec 17, 2017

As a side, the skimmate color went from dark to black after the amino dosing addition. The skimmate is also much "frothier". I assume the aminos somehow increased the surface tension, dissallowing the bubbles to form into a liquid in the skimmate collection cup?

The liquid is actually a kind of stratified combination of a clearer liquid with really dark particles......This is different than before where the skimmate was more or less homogeneous in makeup.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 17, 2017

cnmcalpi said:
As a side, the skimmate color went from dark to black after the amino dosing addition. The skimmate is also much "frothier". I assume the aminos somehow increased the surface tension, dissallowing the bubbles to form into a liquid in the skimmate collection cup?

The liquid is actually a kind of stratified combination of a clearer liquid with really dark particles......This is different than before where the skimmate was more or less homogeneous in makeup.

Some amino acids are skimmable, but the effect might be coming from bacterial growth driven by the increased amino acids/organic carbon in the tank.