Where (in the sump) to dose nitrates?

[Brett S]

So I’m beginning to dose nitrates in my tank. I had been dosing manually for a little while, but that got old fast, so I got a dosing pump and I’m trying to figure out where to physically put the dosing line in the sump. Originally I put it before the fuge because I figured the chaeto would be a big consumer of nitrate and I’d let it get first dibs at what I dose. But then as I thought about it I realized that I’m not dosing much (less than 1ml every 20 minutes) and it occurred to me that the chaeto might completely consume that nitrate before it even gets to the corals and the rest of the tank, so now I’m thinking that putting the dosing line after the fuge might make more sense.

What do you guys think? Or am I just way overthinking this?

 

[Lovefish77]

I honestly tried dosing twice with bad results. Good for you.
To answer your question dose it in the display

 

[Brett S]

I honestly tried dosing twice with bad results. Good for you.
To answer your question dose it in the display

I’m not a huge fan of dosing things into the display... it may be less of an issue with nitrates, but I feel like the concentrated amounts of whatever is being dosed isn’t always good for the fish or corals if they encounter it before it gets mixed in. Plus I hate having extra lines and wires and such in the display.

What I would do instead is dose it in my sump after the fuge. This would be right before the return pumps so I think that it would be effectively the same as dosing into the display, but without exposed tubes and allowing it a bit of time to mix into the water before it hits the display.

 

[Lovefish77]

You can do that. I dosed into display but dont think it was the problem. It should be mixed with water though, right?

 

[Brett S]

You can do that. I dosed into display but dont think it was the problem. It should be mixed with water though, right?

Yeah, like I said, I don’t think that dosing nitrate into the DT would really be an issue, but I still prefer to dose into the sump in general.

Thanks for the answer to my question, though

 

[Gtinnel]

Originally I put it before the fuge because I figured the chaeto would be a big consumer of nitrate

It seems counterproductive to me to dose nitrates into a tank and continue using chaeto which will help remove it. Otherwise I think you're overthinking where it goes into the sump, although I'd probably go with the return pump chamber personally.