DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would make sure to get your phosphate up first before starting the ammonia dosing to be on the safe side.

Yes, that's a good point. :)

 

[reefsanz]

Las instrucciones de dosificación son:

"Para agregar 0,1 mg/L de amoníaco a un acuario, necesitarías agregar 2,3 mL de cualquiera de las soluciones madre a un tanque de 100 L".

Entonces, en un volumen total de 550 L, agregarías 12,7 ml por cada aumento de dosis de 0,1 ppm.

Esto agrega 0,1 ppm una vez.

Para comenzar en un tanque sin nitratos, lo haría una vez por la mañana y otra por la tarde. También estaría bien dividirlo aún más si lo desea (por ejemplo, 6,3 ml en cada uno de los 4 momentos diferentes, etc.).

Muchas gracias por la aclaración.

 

[reefsanz]

Me aseguraría de aumentar el fosfato primero antes de comenzar con la dosificación de amoníaco para estar seguro.

¿Cuánto sería recomendable aumentar el fósforo?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How much would it be advisable to increase phosphorus?

I'd recommend it be at least 0.03 ppm.

 

[rishma]

I received and mixed up my ammonium bisulfate. It just occurred to me that hooking this up to a doser is potentially a disaster if I accidentally left the doser on. I control my dosing from an Apex (DOS). While unlikely, in my nearly 3 decades of reefing I’ve proven that if it can happen, it will eventually. I could tell some stories…
I always try to have redundancy to prevent disaster.

With Kalk, for example, I have programming that switches it off of pH gets too high. Would the ammonium bicarbonate impact pH? If it did, I am afraid the damage would already be done.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

 

[drawman]

I received and mixed up my ammonium bisulfate. It just occurred to me that hooking this up to a doser is potentially a disaster if I accidentally left the doser on. I control my dosing from an Apex (DOS). While unlikely, in my nearly 3 decades of reefing I’ve proven that if it can happen, it will eventually. I could tell some stories…
I always try to have redundancy to prevent disaster.

With Kalk, for example, I have programming that switches it off of pH gets too high. Would the ammonium bicarbonate impact pH? If it did, I am afraid the damage would already be done.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

Same here I don't want to hook it up to a doser in case something goes wrong. Only way around it that I can think of is just having enough in the dosing container so that if it all goes in it's not catastrophic. That may mean you have to fill the container every day though...

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I received and mixed up my ammonium bisulfate. It just occurred to me that hooking this up to a doser is potentially a disaster if I accidentally left the doser on. I control my dosing from an Apex (DOS). While unlikely, in my nearly 3 decades of reefing I’ve proven that if it can happen, it will eventually. I could tell some stories…
I always try to have redundancy to prevent disaster.

With Kalk, for example, I have programming that switches it off of pH gets too high. Would the ammonium bicarbonate impact pH? If it did, I am afraid the damage would already be done.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

If using a dos, use the power adaptor plugged into an eb832 and aqua link instead of 1link and use power monitoring in your code. You could also use solenoids that are normally closed and program them to only open for the length of time of your dosing schedule. Maybe even the level sensor in your dosing container into a fmm and monitor fluid drop. There are a few ways to be redundant, just have to be creative.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I received and mixed up my ammonium bisulfate. It just occurred to me that hooking this up to a doser is potentially a disaster if I accidentally left the doser on. I control my dosing from an Apex (DOS). While unlikely, in my nearly 3 decades of reefing I’ve proven that if it can happen, it will eventually. I could tell some stories…
I always try to have redundancy to prevent disaster.

With Kalk, for example, I have programming that switches it off of pH gets too high. Would the ammonium bicarbonate impact pH? If it did, I am afraid the damage would already be done.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

I agree that using a doser is often a risk, including with this product, and should come with fail-safes of various sorts. Options include a pump that is on much of the time so that a stuck on pump is not dosing so much of an excess. The product can be diluted as much as you want to attain that goal. And diluted less as you desire to ramp up dosing.

 

[rishma]

If using a dos, use the power adaptor plugged into an eb832 and aqua link instead of 1link and use power monitoring in your code. You could also use solenoids that are normally closed and program them to only open for the length of time of your dosing schedule. Maybe even the level sensor in your dosing container into a fmm and monitor fluid drop. There are a few ways to be redundant, just have to be creative.

Thanks, good thoughts. I’ll have to be extra creative with my very old Apex Jr…

 

[rishma]

I agree that using a doser is often a risk, including with this product, and should come with fail-safes of various sorts. Options include a pump that is on much of the time so that a stuck on pump is not dosing so much of an excess. The product can be diluted as much as you want to attain that goal. And diluted less as you desire to ramp up dosing.

This is good. Got me thinking. Diluting the solution definitely makes is safer. It’s more challenging in my little tank because dosing a bigger volume has its limits.

I’m home for a couple more weeks and will dose by hand. I likely will not automate until I have a safer approach.

 

[reefsanz]

I have another doubt, sorry
So if ammonia is not used, is it no longer necessary to feed the corals with food?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have another doubt, sorry
So if ammonia is not used, is it no longer necessary to feed the corals with food?

They need other things too, such as sources of P and trace elements.

 

[mythesis]

I would make sure to get your phosphate up first before starting the ammonia dosing to be on the safe side.

If both Nitrates & Phosphates have gone to 0, should I do this or something else? (2 month old tank, trying to avoid Dinos)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If both Nitrates & Phosphates have gone to 0, should I do this or something else? (2 month old tank, trying to avoid Dinos)

If you can just feed more, that's potentially easiest and fast, but dosing can be a good solution. I'd do something quickly rather than the slow ramping that might be needed with ammonia.

 

[reefsanz]

They need other things too, such as sources of P and trace elements.

Yes the trace element of course and the P well with fish feeding I will see if it is enough if not well chemistry thank you very much mate I will send you a photo to see if it is the correct one to place the order I don't want to make a mistake would it be the correct one?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes the trace element of course and the P well with fish feeding I will see if it is enough if not well chemistry thank you very much mate I will send you a photo to see if it is the correct one to place the order I don't want to make a mistake would it be the correct one?

It would be better to see a picture of the bottle itself to know if it claims food suitability.

 

[rishma]

If both Nitrates & Phosphates have gone to 0, should I do this or something else? (2 month old tank, trying to avoid Dinos)

Don’t know anything about your tank, but having been through my battles with dinos that chart makes me concerned.

If it were my tank, I would feed heavy immediately, reef roids if you have it but most any food will do.

I would turn off lights and spend the next couple of days getting nitrate and phosphate up. Phosphate being the most important IME. I would not fiddle with dosing ammonium dosing just because of the need to go slow with it and my lack of experience with it. Dose phosphate if you have a ready made solution, if not, add foods.

I recently had a carbon dosing error and crashed my N&P to zero like that. I didn’t have any N&P solutions to dose and I just did very heavy feeding for a couple days. I overshot my desired nutrients but that was not hard to correct. Dinos, on the other hand, are hard to correct.

 

[mythesis]

Don’t know anything about your tank, but having been through my battles with dinos that chart makes me concerned.

If it were my tank, I would feed heavy immediately, reef roids if you have it but most any food will do.

I would turn off lights and spend the next couple of days getting nitrate and phosphate up. Phosphate being the most important IME. I would not fiddle with dosing ammonium dosing just because of the need to go slow with it and my lack of experience with it. Dose phosphate if you have a ready made solution, if not, add foods.

I recently had a carbon dosing error and crashed my N&P to zero like that. I didn’t have any N&P solutions to dose and I just did very heavy feeding for a couple days. I overshot my desired nutrients but that was not hard to correct. Dinos, on the other hand, are hard to correct.

Roger that ---

Fed 2 cubes of frozen shrimp this morning.

I have some of the Red Sea AB+ I hadn't used yet and will put some of that in.

Turned lights off....


Thanks for your help (and confirmation to just feed extra @Randy)

 

[ataller]

Randy is there any benefit to spreading the dose out in multiple smaller doses over 24 hours?

Say my tank is up to 0.3ppm of ammonia a day, and say I need 15ml in my tank for the 0.3ppm.

Should I dose 3 times a day 5ml or would there be benefit to dosing 24 times a day 0.625ml?

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy is there any benefit to spreading the dose out in multiple smaller doses over 24 hours?

Say my tank is up to 0.3ppm of ammonia a day, and say I need 15ml in my tank for the 0.3ppm.

Should I dose 3 times a day 5ml or would there be benefit to dosing 24 times a day 0.625ml?

Thanks

It may be better to spread out doses above 0.2 ppm total, IMO. But 0.1 ppm at once vs 0.02 ppm? Not sure that's a difference. :)