What to use to dose Nitrate?

Orcus Varuna · Dec 18, 2017

Dosing nitrate is always a slippery slope ime. Much better off running a bunch of gfo changed frequently and not doing water changes for a bit. This lets the tank slowly balance out which it will in time.

Charles4400 · Dec 22, 2017

Thanks Randy for the sodium nitrate info and calculator!

I got in some sodium nitrate reagent grade and mixed a solution. Dosed and am 2.5 nitrate (straight from what I currently had which was .2)

So next question is. How much can I dose safely? Can I increase the dose to my target of 5 nitrate all in one day or is that a no no?

How much can you raise nitrate safely in 1 day?

Charles4400 · Dec 22, 2017

Orcus Varuna said:
Dosing nitrate is always a slippery slope ime. Much better off running a bunch of gfo changed frequently and not doing water changes for a bit. This lets the tank slowly balance out which it will in time.

I was hoping not to have to use another reactor so I've been avoiding using gfo. I noticed when dosing the nitrate my phosphate went down from .11 to .08 (hanna)
I had .02 nitrate and raised it to 2.5 .

If I can keep up the nitrate dosing to 5 it looks like it will also bring my target phosphate level to around .03 which would be great.

Going to try dosing first, other than overdosing, what would be the drawbacks to dosing nitrate?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 22, 2017

I don't think there is much info around on what rate of increase of nitrate is best, or whether it matters.

IMO, 2.5 ppm nitrate is fine, so I might let it stay there a bit to allow adjustment of things like nitrate uptake proteins in corals so they don't suck up too much (if that even happens).

Charles4400 · Dec 22, 2017

Great , I'll let it sit and test again tommorow. Interested to see how much uptake there is in 24hrs in my tank. Thanks Randy for the advice as usual!!!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 22, 2017

You're welcome.

Good luck!

Sagecritter4life · Dec 22, 2017

Im using "Refine" for NO3 by the folks who make Vibrant and seems to be pretty easy to keep my tank around 2-3 ppm. Probably cheaper options out there like Randy and the others can suggest but just another option.

Orcus Varuna · Dec 22, 2017

Charles4400 said:
I was hoping not to have to use another reactor so I've been avoiding using gfo. I noticed when dosing the nitrate my phosphate went down from .11 to .08 (hanna)
I had .02 nitrate and raised it to 2.5 .

If I can keep up the nitrate dosing to 5 it looks like it will also bring my target phosphate level to around .03 which would be great.

Going to try dosing first, other than overdosing, what would be the drawbacks to dosing nitrate?

The overdose is the drawback. A spike in nutrients can cause mass coral death leading to a tank “crash” for lack of a better term. If you don’t want to set up another reactor lanthanum chloride works great as well. I dose it to the body of my skimmer once a week and the flocculant is removed in a few seconds by the skimmer. Seen no ill effects and keeps my phosphorus around 10-15 ppb (according to my Hannah checker).

pwilliaml · Feb 8, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Here's a calculator for dosing:

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

I'd suggest using a food grade product since they are not expensive and may be higher quality.

The Planted Tank website only has Potassium Nitrate in the drop down menu for making a solution. Would those numbers work for Sodium Nitrate or would they be off since Sodium and Potassium have different chemical weights? Thanks.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 8, 2018

pwilliaml said:
The Planted Tank website only has Potassium Nitrate in the drop down menu for making a solution. Would those numbers work for Sodium Nitrate or would they be off since Sodium and Potassium have different chemical weights? Thanks.

Sodium nitrate is very close, but if you want to be perfect, use the potassium nitrate entry and dose 16% less (e.g., 0.84 grams instead of 1.0 grams)

shnapper20 · May 8, 2018

sorry my question has been answered

shnapper20 · May 8, 2018

sorry my question has been answered

editour2 · Feb 22, 2019

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_it...MIvaz1x4PQ4AIVB43ICh3lTAglEAQYAiABEgKS4_D_BwE

Is this an acceptable product as far as purity goes?

Also regarding Randy's earlier posts....I am assuming that Sodium nitrate is 16% stronger than potassium nitrate (since the post stated to use 16% less of the sodium nitrate). If true then less is required when mixing with the same amount of RODI water in preparing a solution. Based on earlier posts and using the potassium nitrate plant calculator (multiplied by 86% to account for conversion to sodium nitrate) I come up with a solution using 95 grams sodium nitrate mixed with 1 quart of RODI water. This solution for my 300 gal system will result in needing to dose 15 ml in order to increase my water volume nitrates by 1.03 ppm...... if my calculations are correct.

editour2 · Feb 22, 2019

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_it...MI9sX93ofQ4AIViYrICh3ETQboEAYYASABEgJLzfD_BwE
5lbs sodium nitrate $8.39. Is this an acceptable product?

Based on reading through this thread and Randy's statement regarding sodium nitrate vs potassium nitrate....I am assuming that sodium nitrate is 16% stronger than the potassium nitrate and as such 16% less is required. If that is true combined with the plant calculator link provided I make the following statement: if I mix 95 grams (113 grams in the Loudwolf bottle x .84 = 95 grams) with 1 quart of water (946ml) then for every 15ml dosed in my 300 gal system the nitrates will rise by 1.03 ppm.

editour2 · Feb 22, 2019

Sorry for the double post....I thought I lost the first post an re-wrote it ....LOL

Fam5dad · May 10, 2021

My DT is 2 months old and starting red cyanobacteria. I have a QT set up for 5 months that is loaded with red cyanobacteria, so much I can roll up mats of it off the bottom every 5 days or so. I'm reading that nitrate build up over time will help because I am at 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates. Should I be patient and wait this out or is this why you all are talking about dosing nitrate? I ask because this is the worst I have ever had in a saltwater tank. My fish only always had red cyano on the back glass and never went away.

Townes_Van_Camp · May 10, 2021

You can have some of my tank water.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 10, 2021

Fam5dad said:
My DT is 2 months old and starting red cyanobacteria. I have a QT set up for 5 months that is loaded with red cyanobacteria, so much I can roll up mats of it off the bottom every 5 days or so. I'm reading that nitrate build up over time will help because I am at 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates. Should I be patient and wait this out or is this why you all are talking about dosing nitrate? I ask because this is the worst I have ever had in a saltwater tank. My fish only always had red cyano on the back glass and never went away.

I do not think it likely that dosing nitrate will deter cyano. It might grow faster. But it is easy to experiment with.

Manual removal, and an antibiotic treatment as a last resort are options.

Aaron Soliz · Jun 24, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I don't think there is much info around on what rate of increase of nitrate is best, or whether it matters.

IMO, 2.5 ppm nitrate is fine, so I might let it stay there a bit to allow adjustment of things like nitrate uptake proteins in corals so they don't suck up too much (if that even happens).

Hey Randy. I’m speaking up an old conversation because I read of purchasing ME Nitrate to higher nitrate in my system. I only have a 20 gallon but struggle so so much with keeping it in there. I have used ESV Nitrate but it started to higher my calcium and alk so i stopped using it.

Would Me Nitrate not cause my alk and calcium to rise? I’ve done just about everything besides this method to up my nitrate.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 24, 2024

All nitrate dosing raises alk the same amount per unit of nitrate added.

It may be better to use ammonium carbonate ( alk neutral) or ammonium chloride (depletes alk) to boost N.