Nitrate Dosing

Vucious · Sep 25, 2014

Does anyone have experience with nitrate dosing? If you do, what are you using as your nitrate source?

The idea behind nitrate dosing is have a balanced tank according to the Redfield Ratio.

Redfield ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The problem I am trying to solve is that I have very high phosphate but 0 nitrate. I am currently carbon dosing with vodka which is supposed to encourage bacteria growth which consumes both nitrate and phosphate. However, since nitrate is the limiting nutrient (0 ppm), vodka dosing is not as effective to reduce phosphate. The same result may be achieved by dosing ammonia but this can be riskier since ammonia is toxic to fish and inverts.

JOKER · Sep 25, 2014

Are you running biopellets? I had that same problem with biopellets. I would try an algae scrubber If you aren't already. Ma
y help

D's Reef · Sep 25, 2014

What type of vodka are you using for doing?? I'm trying to get y nitrates under control, hope you don't mind me asking.

Reefing Madness · Sep 25, 2014

Problem is that vodka and all the other carbon dosing units don't eat up the phosphates like everyone thinks it does, it eats them up at a very slow rate. I'd recommend using SeaKlear to rid your tank of phosphates. I use it, and only use a capful a week in my 240g tank.

Vucious · Sep 25, 2014

D's Reef said:
What type of vodka are you using for doing?? I'm trying to get y nitrates under control, hope you don't mind me asking.

I'm just using cheapest vodka I can find. It really works to reduce nitrate to 0.

lionfish5740 · Sep 25, 2014

My nitrates are undetectable without dosing NO3- and I noticed only a select few corals bleaching from the lack of it (my assumption).
I use food grade NaNO3 now and it's helping a monti color back up. Could be a correlation but I couldn't tell you anything else that's changed lately.
I tried KNO3 but didn't like how some of my corals were looking after some time passed. I don't know how high my K got around that time.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 26, 2014

Many people have been successful taking down phosphate by helping organic carbon dosing along by adding nitrate.

Don't get too fixated on the Redfield ratio as it has little to do with the ratios of N and P used in an aquarium, but the idea that growing bacteria need both is appropriate. For example, nitrate used in denitrification in deep sand beds and live rock, for example, uses far more N than the Redfield ratio would suggest relative to P, because the bacteria are using it both as a source of N for tissue synthesis (as the Redfield ratio does) and as a source of oxygen (an electron acceptor) for oxidation of organics.

Folks have sometimes used potassium nitrate, which I think they sometimes find as a some sort of product to break down stumps.

Vucious · Sep 26, 2014

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Many people have been successful taking down phosphate by helping organic carbon dosing along by adding nitrate.

Don't get too fixated on the Redfield ratio as it has little to do with the ratios of N and P used in an aquarium, but the idea that growing bacteria need both is appropriate. For example, nitrate used in denitrification in deep sand beds and live rock, for example, uses far more N than the Redfield ratio would suggest relative to P, because the bacteria are using it both as a source of N for tissue synthesis (as the Redfield ratio does) and as a source of oxygen (an electron acceptor) for oxidation of organics.

Folks have sometimes used potassium nitrate, which I think they sometimes find as a some sort of product to break down stumps.

Thanks. I have also heard people dosing ammonia to achieve the desired effect of increasing nitrate. However, ammonia is risky unless you pay real close attention to fish.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 26, 2014

I personally wouldn't risk ammonia dosing since nitrate is almost risk free.

Vucious · Sep 26, 2014

Randy do you know if any specific nitrate products to use and suggested dosage?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 26, 2014

I'd dose 1 or 2 ppm nitrate at a time, but I don't have a specific product I recommend.

There are products sold for freshwater aquaria, but I cannot say with certainty how pure they are:

Potassium Nitrate | KNO3 | Green Leaf Aquariums

juggalogentry · Sep 26, 2014

this thread is nuts, im trying to lower my trates and here yall are talking about dosing em

Vucious · Sep 26, 2014

juggalogentry said:
this thread is nuts, im trying to lower my trates and here yall are talking about dosing em

Lol. Every tank is different. Some people try to increase nitrate since some softies like the water a little dirty.

Vucious · Sep 26, 2014

This is product that I found which is cheap and more importantly, free shipping. I may try this depending on if I am able to bring down phosphate the regular old fashion way.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

SloppyJ · Sep 26, 2014

What about just adding some GFO?

Vucious · Sep 26, 2014

SloppyJ said:
What about just adding some GFO?

Yes, when I said regular old fashion way, I mean GFO, phosgard, etc. However, this may not work for everyone due to cost and/or limited space in sump. I just wanted to get people's opinions/experiences with nitrate dosing as yet another method to bring down phosphate.

lionfish5740 · Sep 27, 2014

I have to retract my statement earlier about using sodium nitrate (NaNO3) in my tank. Apparently I wasn't paying attention when I bought the product and have been dosing sodium nitrite instead (NaNO2) and subsequently testing for nitrate. :squigglemouth: :doh:

Although I have seen no negative effects with any livestock, this made me do a quick search. Guess what the first article I found was?? LOL

Nitrite and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

I only test NO3 ~24hrs after dosing and have been aiming for 1-2ppm. I didn't test the first three days because I started with 1/2 doses and trusted my math to not overdose in the beginning. That might have been a good thing as I don't have a quantitative number on how fast NO2 is converted in my tank.

But again, my fish don't appear stressed and the corals are open wide. In fact, the corals are looking better than before I started dosing either KNO3 or NaNO2. This is the product I have been using and I'll keep using it as it's now become my experiment :tongue:

Amazon.com: 2 lb Sodium Nitrite Food Grade 99+% Pure Granular Free Flowing Food Processing & Manufacturing: Health & Personal Care

This is the product I was using before but didn't like how my corals were responding after the first few weeks.

Shop Spectracide 16-oz Stump Remover Granules at Lowes.com