DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the update! :)

 

[Nerdist Aquarist]

Are there any recommendations for a target Nitrate number when dosing ammonia? I usually dose Nitrates and target about 15-20 ppm. But since corals prefer ammonia, would a lower Nitrate value be better in this case?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t have any particular nitrate value as a special target when dosing ammonia, but it may well be lower than when not dosing it.

 

[BriDroid]

Are there any recommendations for a target Nitrate number when dosing ammonia? I usually dose Nitrates and target about 15-20 ppm. But since corals prefer ammonia, would a lower Nitrate value be better in this case?

I haven't come up with a way to correlate the two. It's one of the main reasons I went back to dosing sodium nitrate, along with a few others. I would reach the point where I was dosing so much ammonium bicarbonate, my NO3 was still very low, and my corals would start to darken. With sodium nitrate, I can target a specific NO3 and hold it there easily with a stock solution. My corals have all their colors back too.

 

[Nerdist Aquarist]

I've been steadily dosing ammonia 100 ml/day in my 200 gallon, I'm up to 12 ppm nitrates and my gonioporas are really perking up. I've been dosing hourly 24/7.

My question is if it's useless dosing at nights? Let's assume ammonia toxicity level is not a concern, once I reach my target nitrates I'll be cutting the dosage in half anyway.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've been steadily dosing ammonia 100 ml/day in my 200 gallon, I'm up to 12 ppm nitrates and my gonioporas are really perking up. I've been dosing hourly 24/7.

My question is if it's useless dosing at nights? Let's assume ammonia toxicity level is not a concern, once I reach my target nitrates I'll be cutting the dosage in half anyway.

There’s not a lot of good data on uptake of ammonia vs time of day. What there is suggests more during the day, but not none at night. I dose during the day.

 

[Seansea]

Got my icp test back and it showed high copper nickel and tungsten. Tungsten is one of those elements i always ignored in icp cuz i never thought it would show up. Figured it had to be a magnet but dismantled all my stuff and found nothing. Changed my ro membrane as well.

But any how i just bought polyfilter to remove the metals and it says it removes ammonnia. Is this gonna affect my dosing. I figured i would stop dosing for a couple weeks while i run this stuff. I have never used it before but have heard good things. Does anyone know how this stuff works with ammonium bicarbonate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Got my icp test back and it showed high copper nickel and tungsten. Tungsten is one of those elements i always ignored in icp cuz i never thought it would show up. Figured it had to be a magnet but dismantled all my stuff and found nothing. Changed my ro membrane as well.

But any how i just bought polyfilter to remove the metals and it says it removes ammonnia. Is this gonna affect my dosing. I figured i would stop dosing for a couple weeks while i run this stuff. I have never used it before but have heard good things. Does anyone know how this stuff works with ammonium bicarbonate?

You mean a polyfilter and ammonia binding? Not any concern.

What levels of these ions did you see?

 

[Seansea]

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would not be overly worried about those levels unless the corals look poorly. The polyfilter is likely an ok plan.

 

[Seansea]

Only 1 coral looks rough. My jf tnt anacropora completely bleached. Everything else seems fine. But taking cautious approach. Especially that tungsten reading has me baffled. Also raising iodine levels. My zoas looked rough and since i started dosing captiv8 isol mt they have perked back up. Ok ill keep dosing the ammonium even with my polyfilter in.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Only 1 coral looks rough. My jf tnt anacropora completely bleached. Everything else seems fine. But taking cautious approach. Especially that tungsten reading has me baffled. Also raising iodine levels. My zoas looked rough and since i started dosing captiv8 isol mt they have perked back up. Ok ill keep dosing the ammonium even with my polyfilter in.

Let us know how things go!

Question about the captiv8 dosing. What was in it?

 

[Seansea]

Adds these elements. Have been adding about 3 drops to my top off water for about 3 years. Added a larger algae scrubber about 4 months ago and it stripped my iodine but good. Now im adding another 3 drops per top off water to get it back up. Its pretty potent stuff.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok, thanks. I was trying to assess whether the benefit could be attributed to just iodine, but that’s not the case. :)