How to chemically increase nitrates

Pete polyp · Aug 2, 2014

It just makes the most sense to me to dose knoÂ³ because I'm already having to supplement k.... Am I wrong in thinking this way?

alan.reef · Aug 2, 2014

no wonder my caulerpa not growing.NO3 OO--PO4 00. but hair algae was growing over my power head and frag rack
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Pete polyp said:
My 29 is extra clean and has the deep sand bed, but I can feed heavily and drive the nitrate up to 0.5. This is actually my barebottom. I have fuge with cheato and tukani live rock. The cheato won't pull out all the phosphate because there's no nitrates. This is also my sps tank, so having a small amount of nitrate is extremely important.

alan.reef · Aug 2, 2014

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Pete polyp · Mar 27, 2015

I ended up going the stump remover route. I have been dosing for about 6 Months or so now with good results. I am not exactly sure how much stump remover I used when mixing., but it wasn't much. I mixed a gallon when I first started and I still have over half a gallon left, so a little goes a long ways. I can't really say how much I add or how often I add it because I just dump a little in every now and then. I really don't suggest doing that, but it has worked for me. Anyone with any experience please chime in with your experiences and detailed information. I have had several pm regarding this topic and have had to give the same answer each time... yes it worked for me, no I can't tell you exactly how to make the solution or dosing instructions. I really wish I would have kept a record of how I did everything so I could give a better description of what to mix and dose. I do want to say that dosing nitrate is going to help those that truly have extremely low nitrate. I believe many people think lack of nitrate is the problem with their tank when its not. The level in this tank was undetectable using red sea pro tests which are very low level tests. Those using something like api (which start at 5ppm) might want to try something that will test at a lower level. Red sea pro starts at 0.25ppm, so that's a huge difference.

I will say that dosing nitrate turned this tank around though. It went from killing every sps put in there to having them thrive. Within 2 weeks the cheato in the sump went from just sitting there to an explosion of growth (roughly 4x the size). There was a small algae bloom in the first week (film algae on glass and a tiny bit of hair algae on the powerheads) but nothing major. It quickly went away as the cheato grew into a monster. Ever since the initial growth of the cheato it has stopped growing as I assume it exported most of the phosphate.

zemuss · Mar 27, 2015

Can you take some parameters for us to see where you are at PHO4 and NO3 wise?

Pete polyp · Mar 27, 2015

Po4 no clue.....Undetectable by test kit (which means nothing to me) it's been a long time since I have tested nitrate, but I will soon and let you know. I want to say the last time I checked I was at 0.5ppm not and that was 3-4 months ago.

James w Lewis · Apr 13, 2015

Take a **** in your tank

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maroonman · Apr 13, 2015

So happy i stumbled onto this thread...i have been struggling with 0 nitrates and .03 p04 , but have GHA and my corals are suffering. I did make a post asking if i was starving my corals.