DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Try to use the calculator http://theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm
but i got 44g for 0.1ppm amonia instead of 20gr per 1L

edit, my mistake, should be dose 2.3ml

Are you still having a calculator issue, or is it all set now?

 

[KStatefan]

Try to use the calculator http://theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm
but i got 44g for 0.1ppm amonia instead of 20gr per 1L

edit, my mistake, should be dose 2.3ml

I should check my spelling more often

 

[yusufhadiwinata]

Good to hear. Do you know your nitrate level before dosing?

from salifert its show clear, my SPS become light pale and after dosing 0.1ppm per day or sometime 0.1pp x 2 per days it show grow rate increase and small increase color

 

[yusufhadiwinata]

Are you still having a calculator issue, or is it all set now?

is all set now, thnks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

from salifert its show clear, my SPS become light pale and after dosing 0.1ppm per day or sometime 0.1pp x 2 per days it show grow rate increase and small increase color

Ok, thanks!

 

[seahuy]

Had nitrate Hanna at 13ppm

I dose 4x 0.1ppm during lights on spread out over 3hrs starting at 7am

Checked nitrate 3 days later and it went up to 15ish which is manageable for me. Plus I want to add I’m running my skimmer overflowing so not skimming anything but running for gas exchange

Everything looks great, I’m seeing membranes overlapping old skeletons on my torch and frogspawn

 

[TheReaperOfMars]

Looking for a sanity check before I hook up the doser. Tank is 110ish gallons total system volume. Nitrate at 0.0. I’m doing 0.1ppm ammonia bicarbonate 3 times per day by hand. I’ve been doing it for a few days. Still 0.0 nitrate. What kind of dosing schedule would be safe to try to get this nitrate up?

0.1ppm every 3 hours into the return pump in the sump?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Looking for a sanity check before I hook up the doser. Tank is 110ish gallons total system volume. Nitrate at 0.0. I’m doing 0.1ppm ammonia bicarbonate 3 times per day by hand. I’ve been doing it for a few days. Still 0.0 nitrate. What kind of dosing schedule would be safe to try to get this nitrate up?

0.1ppm every 3 hours into the return pump in the sump?

3 times per day up to 8 per day?

I might have an intervening step, but 8 per day is an ok dose to get to.

 

[TheReaperOfMars]

3 times per day up to 8 per day?

I might have an intervening step, but 8 per day is an ok dose to get to.

I’m just trying to get some detectable nitrates. lol. My fish load is super low right now. A single clownfish and a 6” blue tang. And a very low coral load. Finishing up a dino battle right now so getting nitrates back to normal is hopefully going to be the killing blow.

I’m thinking I’ll just adjust the dose and maybe do it every 2 hours and just bump it up a little bit every few days. With the nitrates being at 0.0 my priority is making sure there is always some nitrogen in the water for the corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m just trying to get some detectable nitrates. lol. My fish load is super low right now. A single and a 6” blue tang. And a very low coral load. Finishing up a dino battle right now so getting nitrates back to normal is hopefully going to be the killing blow.

I’m thinking I’ll just adjust the dose and maybe do it every 2 hours and just bump it up a little bit every few days. With the nitrates being at 0.0 my priority is making sure there is always some nitrogen in the water for the corals.

My reason for not jumping right up is to allow organisms to get used to more ammonia.

 

[TheReaperOfMars]

My reason for not jumping right up is to allow organisms to get used to more ammonia.

Ok so I’m doing 0.3ppm per day right now. How much would you say to increase it per day until I find a good nitrate dose?

Side note, I have a Hanna Ammonia checker if that helps.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok so I’m doing 0.3ppm per day right now. How much would you say to increase it per day until I find a good nitrate dose?

Side note, I have a Hanna Ammonia checker if that helps.

Doubling is ok, in my opinion, then I’d give it a few days before doubling again.

 

[BriDroid]

Update: no question the corals lightened back up with brighter colors after about 2 months without ammonia. I noticed right when I walked in. All LPS. Nitrates are low but not zero, maybe 2 ppm. No observable change in health. Everything seems good. I like the brighter colors so I’ll probably not go back to dosing ammonium bicarbonate in this tank unless something changes.

No regrets, it was a great experiment!

I have also started to notice that my LPS, especially my little trachy, is starting to darken and lose a lot of the colors it had when I bought it a while back. They’re all super healthy and plump, but the colors are blah. I was battling hydroids, so I stopped all coral feedings and dosed coral snow to starve them out. That along with the tuxedo urchin has wiped them out completely. Because they’re now gone, I’m going to change my N and P dosing to Tropic Marin Amino-Organic for the N and Phos-Feed for the P.

I’m going to run this for a few months and see if the colors come back, but more importantly, are the corals as happy and fat as they were on ammonium bicarbonate and trisodium phosphate.

I do LOVE the tinkering of this hobby!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have also started to notice that my LPS, especially my little trachy, is starting to darken and lose a lot of the colors it had when I bought it a while back. They’re all super healthy and plump, but the colors are blah. I was battling hydroids, so I stopped all coral feedings and dosed coral snow to starve them out. That along with the tuxedo urchin has wiped them out completely. Because they’re now gone, I’m going to change my N and P dosing to Tropic Marin Amino-Organic for the N and Phos-Feed for the P.

I’m going to run this for a few months and see if the colors come back, but more importantly, are the corals as happy and fat as they were on ammonium bicarbonate and trisodium phosphate.

I do LOVE the tinkering of this hobby!

Nothing wrong with experimenting, but what is the nitrate now?

 

[BriDroid]

Nothing wrong with experimenting, but what is the nitrate now?

It bounces between 0 and 2.5ppm on a Hanna HR tester. I don’t really worry about it too much since I’m putting in so much ammonia every day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It bounces between 0 and 2.5ppm on a Hanna HR tester. I don’t really worry about it too much since I’m putting in so much ammonia every day.

Backing off on the ammonia is another possible experiment. :)

Sounds a bit like what @rishma observed. he made some changes too, but I'm not sure on the latest in that context.

 

[seahuy]

I have also started to notice that my LPS, especially my little trachy, is starting to darken and lose a lot of the colors it had when I bought it a while back. They’re all super healthy and plump, but the colors are blah. I was battling hydroids, so I stopped all coral feedings and dosed coral snow to starve them out. That along with the tuxedo urchin has wiped them out completely. Because they’re now gone, I’m going to change my N and P dosing to Tropic Marin Amino-Organic for the N and Phos-Feed for the P.

I’m going to run this for a few months and see if the colors come back, but more importantly, are the corals as happy and fat as they were on ammonium bicarbonate and trisodium phosphate.

I do LOVE the tinkering of this hobby!

How long and schedule for coral snow battling hydroids?

 

[BriDroid]

How long and schedule for coral snow battling hydroids?

It’s been about 3 months. I stopped all coral feedings, added a tuxedo urchin and dosed coral snow every other day. I also did manual removal with a toothbrush before dosing coral snow. Keep the filter socks changed since the coral snow plugged them up quickly. The tuxedo urchin is the only thing that effectively eats them. The problem is he doesn’t go out of his way eat them, but if they’re where he’s eating, they’re gone!

Everyone said to give up and nuke the tank, but I refused! Some said they would go away on their own, but I helped them along.

 

[rishma]

Backing off on the ammonia is another possible experiment. :)

Sounds a bit like what @rishma observed. he made some changes too, but I'm not sure on the latest in that context.

agree, @BriDroid experience seems very similar to mine. Low-ish nitrate overall and darkening LPS colors with ammonia use. They were happy and fluffy.

The only change I made was stopping ammonia dosing. My nitrate dropped from 6-8ppm and now seems fairly stable around 2ppm. After 8 weeks, the colors of my LPS returned to their previous brightness. I will say they don’t seem as fluffy. I have been thinking this for last few weeks, though there could be other causes for sure.

I didn’t change anything else really. Phosphate is maintained around 0.06-0.1 ppm.

@BriDroid - I have not tried amino organic or phos-feed. I’m interested in what You observe. It would be cool if you only changed one variable at a time. What if you have amazing results!!?! I won’t know which product to try :).

I actually quite like TSP for phosphate support. It’s highly predictable and allows me to control in a very tight range.

 

[rishma]

Updated observation: today I was certain my corals were less fluffy, specifically the tentacles of my gonipora were less expanded. I had been thinking this for weeks, but became convinced today. I measured nitrate and it was 1 ppm.

I dosed a small amount of ammonium bicarbonate equivalent to 0.05ppm ammonia. Within 2 hours all my LPS were expanded quite significantly, better than I’ve seen since stopping ammonia dosing. Pretty dramatic.

So now I am back to wondering what I should do. I think I’ll add a small amount of ammonium bicarbonate to my daily TSP dose. I leave in a couple days so I cannot dial it in, but I think I’ll daily dose about 1/4 of what I did today. Probably not enough, but better than nothing. I’ll be able to observed the impacts in a month.

The experiment continues