Disappearing Nitrates

[House_of_Coral]

Hello All,

Nitrate 0-2.0 ppm (margin of error)
Phosphate .02 (last read)
Temp 78.2
DKH 9
Calc 517
Mag 1392
PH 8.32

Dosing kalkwasser via Dos/Trident
CO2 scrubbing via skimmer with S/O switch at 8.4 PH
T5 lighting 8hrs daily
Par 70-180 depending on tank placement

I am currently struggling with balancing my nitrates and phosphates. I can get them balanced (NO3- 3-5ppm/PO4 .01-.06 ppm) but then the nitrates will drop off from 5 to 3 to 0 in about two days. Once that happens the phosphate will raise from .01 to about .06 with a similar stepping increase.
I use a Hannah checker HI782 single packet type for nitrate testing. I’ve also bumped a few of the readings against the RedSea test kit to confirm my device wasn’t broken. It produced the same (as best my eye could see) results. I also use a Hannah checker HI713 for phosphate testing.
To compensate for the lack of nitrate I have been dowsing brightwell’s neo nitro manually. I raise the tank nitrate approximately 1.5 ppm daily. Directions say not to exceed 1.0ppm but any less than 1.5 won’t result in a measurable reading. After 2-3 days I’ll start to get a consistent reading of 3-5 ppm. If I stop dowsing or miss a day it will plummet back down to undetectable.

question:

Should I just dose the neo nitro daily as part of my regimen and discontinue use if I start to get higher than desirable readings (15+ppm)?
Or
Should I invest in a low range Hannah checker?

also, insight to why this is happening would be appreciated.
I believe it’s accelerated healing and growth in the tank but I’m not sure if it could be bound up either.
Thank You,
Josh

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ignore any comment to not exceed 1 ppm nitrate. I'd dose 2 ppm nitrate each day and watch it for a while. Up the dose again if needed. I'd aim for 2-10 ppm 24 h after dosing.

Switch to food grade sodium or calcium nitrate when the Neonitro runs out. it is expensive, weak, and lacks any purity guarantee.

There's nothing unusual in what you are seeing. Phosphate and nitrate deplete very differently. Phosphate moves more slowly up or down due to bindign to rock and sand, and it may take a long time to deplete that reservoir of phosphate.

 

[House_of_Coral]

Thanks for responding!
I forgot why I shied away from the sodium or calcium nitrate. It may have just been good marketing on the brightwell. It may be I just didn’t completely understand how nitrate additives work so I opted for the marketed brand.

 

[biom]

Switch to food grade sodium or calcium nitrate when the Neonitro runs out. it is expensive, weak, and lacks any purity guarantee.

+1 and also I'm not sure it is nitrates only

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

+1 and also I'm not sure it is nitrates only

I don't know for sure what it is, and I don't trust these hobby companies to even get it right. Brightwell just says proprietary nitrogen salts, which might mean sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, or lots of other things.

On a related note, Seachem Fluorish Nitrogen contains both nitrate and urea (they state that), and they state that the urea is a complexed ammonium. Hard to imagine a more ludicrous description of urea as complexed ammonium. They don't quite seem to grasp the proper use of the term "complexed".

"It provides nitrogen in both the nitrate form and the plant–preferred ammonium form. However, no free ammonia is released because the ammonium in Flourish Nitrogen™ is complexed and unavailable until utilized by the plants. "

 

[House_of_Coral]

Ignore any comment to not exceed 1 ppm nitrate. I'd dose 2 ppm nitrate each day and watch it for a while. Up the dose again if needed. I'd aim for 2-10 ppm 24 h after dosing.

Switch to food grade sodium or calcium nitrate when the Neonitro runs out. it is expensive, weak, and lacks any purity guarantee.

There's nothing unusual in what you are seeing. Phosphate and nitrate deplete very differently. Phosphate moves more slowly up or down due to bindign to rock and sand, and it may take a long time to deplete that reservoir of phosphate.

Do you have a specific product recommendation with some formulas? It’s a bit overwhelming scouring the net for what might be an impure product. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you have a specific product recommendation with some formulas? It’s a bit overwhelming scouring the net for what might be an impure product. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Food grade sodium or calcium nitrates are good. There’s are calculators available.