Ammonium Bicarbonate Dosing and Detectable Nitrates.

[luxe]

Hello all! So I started dosing AmmBicarb yesterday morning. I am doing this on my 24 gallon(volume) frag tank. I started with manually dosing 1 ml of stock solution every 2 hours, during the light cycle, to see if anything negative occured. Today I bumped it up to 2 ml this morning before work and 2 ml right now (1 pm). Everything seems to be doing well so I will continue with the 2 ml.
I will be setting up a Doser on my hydros to dose 2 ml throughout the day.
My questions are:
1. Is my math correct in assuming 2ml is the safe amount to dose per dose?
2. What daily dose counts would be the best, in terms of not letting ammonia build up before it is converted?
3. What is the general consensus on when nitrates should start to be detected. (Should I test regularly through the day after a certain amount of days dosing or every 2, 3, 4, etc. days)
And finally…
4. Once nitrates are detected should I adjust the dosing to keep them where I want?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ColorMeGone]

I dose 3ml a day in my 7 gallons of tank water but adjust according to my test readings I do every Sat. Every 2 hours seems like a lot to me so I would back down a bit and see what happens.

 

[luxe]

I dose 3ml a day in my 7 gallons of tank water but adjust according to my test readings I do every Sat. Every 2 hours seems like a lot to me so I would back down a bit and see what happens.

Ok. How long did it take to see nitrates? I’m under the impression that undetectable NO3 doesn’t mean there isn’t any available, but that the corals are taking it up. Once the corals “reach a limit” would that indicate there’s an excess that is detectable?

 

[ColorMeGone]

Looking back in my records with a 3-month-old tank it took about 2 weeks to get it up to 10 but as the tank got older and more corals added it would go down to 3-4. this would be with 2ml per day. I would adjust accordingly. If you have 0 nitrates it might take some time, but I would go slowly. I mix 20 grams of AB to 4.25 cups of water and dose using my doser. Sometimes I need more and sometimes less. Not sure how long it will take you to see N03 on your tank but mine seems to use a lot in my book.

 

[luxe]

Ok great. Thanks! I’ll scale back the dosing and keep testing weekly for NO3.

 

[ColorMeGone]

Not sure how many frags you have but taking it slow should do the trick as long as your corals are happy.

 

[luxe]

Not sure how many frags you have but taking it slow should do the trick as long as your corals are happy.

Please excuse the mess lol… I’m waiting on my Seapora 80 g frag tank. It’s a mix of spa, lps, and Zoa’s/paly’s.

 

[ColorMeGone]

Nice!
You have 3 times the water and 6 times the critters I have in my nano so I might be steering you wrong but the dose mixture I use seems to be on the weaker side. You also have fish, and I have none. Just keep a tight eye on things and carry on. Seems like you got this stuff going good.

 

[luxe]

Thanks. I have 2 black storm clowns, a black molly, a six line, and a lawnmower blenny. A peppermint shrimp, turbo and astrea snails. I’m also dosing Kalk @1.5 ml/min to keep pH at 8.2-8.3 which has made everything explode in growth.

 

[ColorMeGone]

Right now, I'm dosing about .5 ml of baking soda a day to keep my PH above 7.8. KH is 7.3. This just started a few days ago when I checked on Sat. 8-8.2 seemed the norm and all my corals are happy but since adding 5 heads of Acans I have noticed some reductions. I won't mess with it too much though but will keep a close eye on it.
I dose a lot of Baking Soda in my koi pond since I like to keep the KH around 12.

 

[luxe]

Yea my pH was 8.0 during the day and 7.8 at night. Kept ALK at 8.5 and CAL at 420 with 2 part. I stopped the 2 part when I started the Kalk and my KH spiked at 13.6 and now it’s going down, currently at 11.5, while CAL has stabilized at 420. Again, all the corals have been healthy and happy during the whole process. Planning on doing RMM in the near future to work on colors and more growth once the tank comes in.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hello all! So I started dosing AmmBicarb yesterday morning. I am doing this on my 24 gallon(volume) frag tank. I started with manually dosing 1 ml of stock solution every 2 hours, during the light cycle, to see if anything negative occured. Today I bumped it up to 2 ml this morning before work and 2 ml right now (1 pm). Everything seems to be doing well so I will continue with the 2 ml.
I will be setting up a Doser on my hydros to dose 2 ml throughout the day.
My questions are:
1. Is my math correct in assuming 2ml is the safe amount to dose per dose?
2. What daily dose counts would be the best, in terms of not letting ammonia build up before it is converted?
3. What is the general consensus on when nitrates should start to be detected. (Should I test regularly through the day after a certain amount of days dosing or every 2, 3, 4, etc. days)
And finally…
4. Once nitrates are detected should I adjust the dosing to keep them where I want?

Thanks in advance!

You may not need to detect any nitrate to have enough N, but going over 5 ppm seems unnecessary to me.

 

[Dan_P]

Hello all! So I started dosing AmmBicarb yesterday morning. I am doing this on my 24 gallon(volume) frag tank. I started with manually dosing 1 ml of stock solution every 2 hours, during the light cycle, to see if anything negative occured. Today I bumped it up to 2 ml this morning before work and 2 ml right now (1 pm). Everything seems to be doing well so I will continue with the 2 ml.
I will be setting up a Doser on my hydros to dose 2 ml throughout the day.
My questions are:
1. Is my math correct in assuming 2ml is the safe amount to dose per dose?
2. What daily dose counts would be the best, in terms of not letting ammonia build up before it is converted?
3. What is the general consensus on when nitrates should start to be detected. (Should I test regularly through the day after a certain amount of days dosing or every 2, 3, 4, etc. days)
And finally…
4. Once nitrates are detected should I adjust the dosing to keep them where I want?

Thanks in advance!

Measure ammonia after you add and mix the ammonium carbonate in the aquarium and then one hour later. That will tell you how fast ammonia is being consumed. If it’s gone in one hour or less, you have room for a higher dose. When you see nitrate depends on adding enough ammonia so that is not rapidly consumed by micro algae, though if you don’t mind dosing ammonium carbonate, don’t worry about nitrate.

 

[ColorMeGone]

You may not need to detect any nitrate to have enough N, but going over 5 ppm seems unnecessary to me.

On my little nano it seems easier to hold around 10 to be safe. Stuff changes very quickly in 7 gallons of water as you know.

 

[luxe]

You may not need to detect any nitrate to have enough N, but going over 5 ppm seems unnecessary to me.

I’d be happy to keep it at 5, even 10 ppm. I just feel uneasy with it reading 0 lol. And I guess I did understand correctly that it being 0 doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no available N.

Measure ammonia after you add and mix the ammonium carbonate in the aquarium and then one hour later. That will tell you how fast ammonia is being consumed. If it’s gone in one hour or less, you have room for a higher dose. When you see nitrate depends on adding enough ammonia so that is not rapidly consumed by micro algae, though if you don’t mind dosing ammonium carbonate, don’t worry about nitrate.

I’m gonna have to look for my (hopefully not expired) ammonia test kit. Just to see the process occurring

 

[luxe]

So after about a month of dosing ammonium bicarbonate I figured I’d give an update.
I was testing 3x a week with my Hanna Nitrate HR and saw no sign of NO3. Decided to invest in a low range checker today and got a reading of .08. I’ve been manually dosing 1.5 ml 3x a day, 8 am, 2 pm, and 9 pm. Colors are starting to show nicely especially the blues.

The Nitrate LR is currently my most involved test so I’ll be checking weekly. I did remove some bio media in order to fit a tunze 8831 fuge light in one of the compartments so I have to take that into consideration while I monitor NO3

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

One reasonable hypothesis is that if you dose enough ammonia, you may not need to see any nitrate and the corals may still be getting enough N. :)

 

[Dan_P]

So after about a month of dosing ammonium bicarbonate I figured I’d give an update.
I was testing 3x a week with my Hanna Nitrate HR and saw no sign of NO3. Decided to invest in a low range checker today and got a reading of .08. I’ve been manually dosing 1.5 ml 3x a day, 8 am, 2 pm, and 9 pm. Colors are starting to show nicely especially the blues.

The Nitrate LR is currently my most involved test so I’ll be checking weekly. I did remove some bio media in order to fit a tunze 8831 fuge light in one of the compartments so I have to take that into consideration while I monitor NO3

Adding more light to your system might have driven up algae growth which could be consuming the ammonia. The improved coral coloration sounds hopeful though.

 

[luxe]

One reasonable hypothesis is that if you dose enough ammonia, you may not need to see any nitrate and the corals may still be getting enough N. :)

I’m extremely happy at how things are moving along.

 

[luxe]

Adding more light to your system might have driven up algae growth which could be consuming the ammonia. The improved coral coloration sounds hopeful though.

I just removed the media and added the light today. I barely have any algae maybe 2-3 little tufts of gha that I spot treat with hydrogen peroxide every now and then.