Ammonia Bicarb dosing

[bcarl77]

Hi Guys,

Been dosing ammonium bicarbonate now for about a year. Dosing ~25ml over the course of the day in my 250g mixed reef. My nitrates hang between 5-10ppm. Has anyone noticed loss of color in coral dosing long term. Same torch, almost same location after 1 year of dosing.

This stuff definitely cleared up my dinos though!

 

[rishma]

my LPS darkened, so the colors got more drab. I decided that the best strategy was not to maintain 5-10ppm nitrate using ammonia.

When I’d stopped dosing ammonia the colors returned over time.

I am dosing again but not enough to maintain much nitrate. It’s near zero. results are good.

My personal opinion is going by coral appearance dosing ammonia bicarbonate is better than going by residual nitrate. It’s a much lower dose. I’m not sure how to find the optimal dose.

 

[bcarl77]

Interesting, I lost a significant amount of color after 3+ months of dosing and changed several things and have not had it return. For reference over the last 8 months I have been dosing around 30ML into a 250g.

 

[Jimbo327]

Maybe just stop dosing and see what happens.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No reason to not try nitrate dosing or no instead. :)

As an aside, the effect should be no different than adding one or more fish. I’ve not really seen anyone comment that adding fish altered color, but a few folks have noted color changes with ammonia dosing.

 

[bcarl77]

I am torn. The challenge is when I starter dosing I had nitrate around 20ppm. Now
I am at 5-7ppm and thinking of stopping. It could also be the color loss is associated with something else.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am torn. The challenge is when I starter dosing I had nitrate around 20ppm. Now
I am at 5-7ppm and thinking of stopping. It could also be the color loss is associated with something else.

Could be lots of things, including the now lower nitrate. Are you tracking phosphate?

 

[bcarl77]

Yes, that has been elevated for quite some time. Was anywhere between 0.4-0.2ppm. I now have it under 0.1ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, that has been elevated for quite some time. Was anywhere between 0.4-0.2ppm. I now have it under 0.1ppm.

Perhaps the lowering of phosphate contributed.

 

[rishma]

I’ve not really seen anyone comment that adding fish altered color,

I’m one who is pretty sure ammonia darkened my colors, but this is a darn good point

 

[Shirak]

I’m one who is pretty sure ammonia darkened my colors, but this is a darn good point

I cut back on dosing. The Gonis did get browner with the ammonia. I think this indicates healthy Zooxanthllae. Currently 10ml/day at the stock solution strength outlined by RHF. This is into a roughly 45g system with mostly Gonis and a few other LPS. No fish. Bare bottoms on the tanks, snails and some hermits. I do have one mermaids fan in the hang on refugium but there is very little algae growth. Some bubble algae which I need to figure out how to wipe out lol. Emerald crab coming but I dunno.. the last one didn't seem to care.

Nitrates currently at 11ppm but dropping slowly.