ATO for Nitrate Dosing?

[Emerson]

I'm not able to keep measurable levels of NO3 despite trying more feeding and fewer water changes. I've been dosing Brightwell Aqauatics NeoNitro with some sucess, but the consumption continues at about 0.5 ppm/day as far as adding the nitrogen supplement. I have a light population of small fish (7) in my 90 gal mixed reef with robust LPS and softie growth (trach, duncan, acans, frogspawn, hammer, zoas, leathers, and xenia) and a few SPS. I am coming back from a severe dino breakout that killed almost all my SPS by keeping my NO3 in the 2-3 ppm range and UV. I run a very small refugium with a tennis ball size bit of chaeto, a skimmer and carbon reactor; I dose 2 Part. Levels are: Ph 8.1-8.3, T 78-81 deg, Alk ~8.5 dKh, Ca ~420 ppm, Mg 1600 ppm (a little high, I know), PO4 0-0.04 ppm, NO3 0-3 ppm.

I travel frequently, and as such have been bouncing NO3 levels between trips, bringing levels to 2-3 ppm before I leave, and ending up at or near 0 ppm on return.

My question is this: Seeing that I need to keep dosing NO3, based on an average ATO water usage, can I put the NO3 supplement in the ATO reservoir?

I'm not concerned at this point in getting too much NO3, I measure all levels regularly and am specifically tracking NO3 almost daily. My bigger concern is having algae grow in the ATO reservoir, a clear Trigger 10 gal container, never in direct sunlight.

Any input appreciated, also any recipes for DIY NO3 supplements using food grade sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate. Thanks in advance to the community!

 

[Big G]

One area of concern using the ATO to dose your nitrates would be that the evaporation rate may not be constant.

 

[Emerson]

I agree with that, but over the course of the entire 10 gal AGO reservoir depleting, I'm only going to add my tank's equivalent of 6-7 ppm for the whole container.

I use .7 about gal/day of ATO water. True, it will vary, but my goal is to keep NO3 levels from bottoming out and giving dinos a chance to get a foothold again. I test for NO3 at least weekly, lately about every other day when I'm home, so have pretty good idea about daily NO3 depletion/consumption. If the whole 10 gal with 7 ppm went in I'd still have less than 10 ppm NO3. My standing issue is I can't keep measurable nitrates for an extended period of time without adding a supplement. I would be happy with any level between 1-5 ppm.

Dosing a small amount of NO3 (0.5-1.0 ppm/day) from the ATO shouldn't be that different from kalk in your ATO is what I was thinking. My big question is if I have nitrates but no phosphates in the ATO reservoir, I shouldn't get algae in it, should I? I don't have room to put in another dosing unit.