DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

dosing until I start to see a significant Nitrate rise, then will back off a bit and see how it settles out.
Still looking for input on thoughts of possible max dosing per day on 1000 gallons of a pretty heavily stocked SPS/LPS mixed reef.

Thanks for the info!

I don’t know what sort of upper limit there may be. If asked a different way, I still would not know: what is the max N consumption per day one can have in a tank. I’ve never seen anyone try to address that using some sort of N balance study.

 

[Shirak]

I am at 16ml/day into my 45g system. Calculator says .4ppm total. Dosing from 9am-6pm. Lights start to wind down shortly after but stay on for another couple hours or so.

Did some testing yesterday around the middle of the afternoon. PO4 .08ppm (feeding a little reef roids each day), NO3 22ppm. Still adding a little sodium nitrate periodically, Ammonia measured .16ppm so actual reading on the Hanna! Snails seem fine. Corals look good. I had just been pulling a bunch of hair algae from the walls and refugium. Still battling it but it's diminishing slowly. Coraline algae is starting to pop up big time.

I guess the question is what nitrate level is needed if there is ammonia going in? I have been keeping it around 15-20ppm NO3 for my goni garden but if they are using the ammonia then the nitrate shouldn't really be necessary? For now I will keep targeting PO4 .05-.1ppm, NO3 15-20ppm, Alk 8.0-8.5dkh using AFR primarily, and 16ml of ammonia dosing/day.

I bought some more reagent for the Hanna ammonia tester and would like to see how things go and see what I get for ammonia readings.

Also dosing few times a week:
drop or two of KZ iodine
drop or two of KZ iron
.5ml-1ml of Aquaforest Mn
2 or 3 drops KZ amino
drop or two Aquaforest AFVitality (vitamins)
AFR currently 2.5ml/day

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I guess the question is what nitrate level is needed if there is ammonia going in? I have been keeping it around 15-20ppm NO3 for my goni garden but if they are using the ammonia then the nitrate shouldn't really be necessary?

That is likely correct, and nitrate may just be an insurance policy, but I think one can only determine such a low limit value for nitrate for a given system and corals. I'd try stopping the nitrate dosing for a while and see what happens.

The ammonia value reported is no concern, IMO, but may be a reminder that if one does suddenly removing any significant part of the ammonia uptake system (such as algae), whether dosing ammonia or getting it from fish, one might see ammonia rise.

 

[ncjeepguy75]

This is great thanks for sharing, do you think its more beneficial to dose at lights on only, or would say its really necessary to dose during photo period only ?

So I am currently only dosing ammonia with lights on...I am trying to allow the corals to use as much of the ammonia as possible...

 

[ncjeepguy75]

That is likely correct, and nitrate may just be an insurance policy, but I think one can only determine such a low limit value for nitrate for a given system and corals. I'd try stopping the nitrate dosing for a while and see what happens.

The ammonia value reported is no concern, IMO, but may be a reminder that if one does suddenly removing any significant part of the ammonia uptake system (such as algae), whether dosing ammonia or getting it from fish, one might see ammonia rise.

@Shirak I would agree with @Randy Holmes-Farley ...I have totally stopped any nitrate dosing since I have been ammonia dosing...I have finally started to see nitrates hold fairly steady while dosing so am figuring I am around the point that my corals are getting what they need and the excess is being converted to nitrates...

 

[Shirak]

@Shirak I would agree with @Randy Holmes-Farley ...I have totally stopped any nitrate dosing since I have been ammonia dosing...I have finally started to see nitrates hold fairly steady while dosing so am figuring I am around the point that my corals are getting what they need and the excess is being converted to nitrates...

I have been monitoring nitrate. Will test again tomorrow. I am hoping once I get the hair algae pockets cleaned up things will stabilize. Does not appear to be colonizing new frag plugs. Just being really stubborn where it's established and it grows fast!

What level are you finding your nitrates holding steady? I am thinking as long as there is something showing in the 5ppm range that would indicate there is enough ammonia for the corals and whatever else might use it during the daylight hours.

 

[ncjeepguy75]

I have been monitoring nitrate. Will test again tomorrow. I am hoping once I get the hair algae pockets cleaned up things will stabilize. Does not appear to be colonizing new frag plugs. Just being really stubborn where it's established and it grows fast!

What level are you finding your nitrates holding steady? I am thinking as long as there is something showing in the 5ppm range that would indicate there is enough ammonia for the corals and whatever else might use it during the daylight hours.

@Shirak Yes...I am trying to keep nitrates around 5ppm...so far they are leveling out around 2.4ppm which isn't horrible and like you said at least there is some there just in case and not to bottom anything out...I "try" to test nitrates and phosphates each day but is more realistic for every other day...