DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dosed the amino acids for a week to see what happened. I didn’t observe anything. My ammonia/urea was offline an my nitrate was slowing falling toward zero.

I mixed some ammonia and aminos a dosed yesterday. I got a bacterial bloom! I noticed my pH went way down after dosing yesterday afternoon and the water got cloudy. I turned on my outdoor aeration and it arrested the decline.

Pretty interesting. The amount of ammonia I dosed (volume) was the same as I have been dosing for months except without urea. I had stopped dosing for about 10 days dues to cyano.

My guess is the sudden restart of ammonia and the fact that it was freshly mixed and full strength (no evaporation) triggered the bacterial bloom. I don’t think it had anything to do with the aminos mixed in.

I think today I’ll cut the dose in half and try again.

Merry Christmas!

Interesting.

How Low was nitrate getting?

I wonder if the combo of amino and ammonia allows more growth than aminos alone by providing more N for growth?

 

[rishma]

Interesting.

How Low was nitrate getting?

I wonder if the combo of amino and ammonia allows more growth than aminos alone by providing more N for growth?

Nitrate was 2.6ppm yesterday when I dosed.

Interestingly it was about the same this morning. I checked to be sure it had not bottomed out.

Will see what happens with a lower dose today

 

[rishma]

Interesting.

How Low was nitrate getting?

I wonder if the combo of amino and ammonia allows more growth than aminos alone by providing more N for growth?

After a couple of days at half the dose I have seen no other evidence of bacterial bloom. Nitrate is not falling. It seems unlikely the bloom was a fluke since nothing else changed and that is not something I have seen before. Since I don’t know the nitrogen contribution of the aminos and the fresh batch of ammonium bicarbonate I can’t conclude anything other than it seems I need less volume of this solution than the previous batch.

 

[spsick]

Ammonia people of the world: anyone see a direct correlation between ammonia dosing and bubble algae explosion?

I was dosing 2 years ago and saw the same explosion, but now after seeing nitrate tank and starting ammonium bicarbonate again I see an almost immediate explosion again. No other changes to my reefing methodology.

 

[rishma]

Ammonia people of the world: anyone see a direct correlation between ammonia dosing and bubble algae explosion?

I was dosing 2 years ago and saw the same explosion, but now after seeing nitrate tank and starting ammonium bicarbonate again I see an almost immediate explosion again. No other changes to my reefing methodology.

No explosions here, though I do have a little bubble algae. I would not expect ammonia to be more useful to bubble algae than other types of algae but I am sure algae uses it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ammonia people of the world: anyone see a direct correlation between ammonia dosing and bubble algae explosion?

I was dosing 2 years ago and saw the same explosion, but now after seeing nitrate tank and starting ammonium bicarbonate again I see an almost immediate explosion again. No other changes to my reefing methodology.

I have no bubble algae to explode, so I have seen no such effect.

 

[bradreef]

Ammonia people of the world: anyone see a direct correlation between ammonia dosing and bubble algae explosion?

I was dosing 2 years ago and saw the same explosion, but now after seeing nitrate tank and starting ammonium bicarbonate again I see an almost immediate explosion again. No other changes to my reefing methodology.

Ammonia is a fuel source so this would make sense, there are a bunch of ways to deal with it though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ammonia is a fuel source so this would make sense, there are a bunch of ways to deal with it though.

I’m not sure I’d call it fuel. For an algae it is just a source of N to build tissue.

 

[rishma]

I’ve been letting my nitrate trend down and the cyano has gotten decidedly worse! Pretty interesting.

I will test in the morning but I suspect nitrate is near 1ppm at this point. If things are as I expect, I’ll dose 5 ppm nitrate a maintain it with ammonia to see if that changes anything.

Pretty surprised it’s getting worse with less N additions. If the addition of N nitrate appears to make things better I may have to start arguing in support of ratios

Fun hobby.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Curious.

 

[rishma]

Nitrate measured 1.6ppm of this morning with Hanna HR, so could be zero. I dosed sodium nitrate and raised it to 9ppm.

 

[rishma]

I think the ammonia with aminos is not a

Interesting.

How Low was nitrate getting?

I wonder if the combo of amino and ammonia allows more growth than aminos alone by providing more N for growth?

i think the combo of ammonia and aminos is like superfood for the bacteria in this carbon dosed tank. I get a pH drop and just a hint of haze even with a small dose. It’s not what I wanted to accomplish and I imagine the aminos are all consumed by bacteria before the corals get any of it.

I dosed them separately without impact before, probably because the ammonia was costume by the time I added aminos manually.

So yes, you can mix them, but I’m not sure you want to.

 

[drawman]

Ammonia people of the world: anyone see a direct correlation between ammonia dosing and bubble algae explosion?

I was dosing 2 years ago and saw the same explosion, but now after seeing nitrate tank and starting ammonium bicarbonate again I see an almost immediate explosion again. No other changes to my reefing methodology.

I'm dosing ammonia and am having a ton of bubble algae so I would say so

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm dosing ammonia and am having a ton of bubble algae so I would say so

While it may be true, two fairly common things happening in the same tank does not demonstrate that one causes the other, especially when there are lots of counter examples.

All algae likely use ammonia, and if valonia, like any algae, is prone to grow in a given tank, providing more of what it needs might certainly boosts its growth.

 

[drawman]

While it may be true, two fairly common things happening in the same tank does not demonstrate that one causes the other, especially when there are lots of counter examples.

All algae likely use ammonia, and if valonia, like any algae, is prone to grow in a given tank, providing more of what it needs might certainly boosts its growth.

I wasn't meaning to say it was causal that was a lazy take by me. Really I think bubble algae is just good at taking over in our tanks. I think it traps detritus well which seems to act as a localized food/nutrient source.

I really like ammonia dosing it works for me and algae won't keep me from doing it. Just need to keep up with the herbivores and maintenance.

 

[Spencer]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I have low nutrients and cyano, which seemed to slowly develop (over months) after "successfully" dosing FluxRX for hair algae. Suspected correlation.

For the past week, I've dosed approximately 120 mg of ammonium bicarb per day (6mL of stock, 20g NH4HCO3 in 1 liter of water) or about 0.55 ppm of NO3 daily for my 170 liter tank.

Today, my new Hanna Checker tested nitrates at 0.0 ppm. The cyano has not improved.

If the cyano is simply consuming ammonium before anything else can convert it, should I switch to dosing NaNO3?

My phosphates should be a little higher (currently ~0.02) but as long as they're detectable, I figured I'd focus on my nitrates.

I'm also preparing to dose Chemi-Clean and MB7 to try and recover my bacterial balance (e.g. in conjunction with stopping my ammonium bicarb dosing).

What do you think?

 

[Pod_01]

Out of curiosity how does that work?

I'm also preparing to dose Chemi-Clean and MB7 to try and recover my bacterial balance

Especially the chemi-clean part and bacteria balance!!!

Just curious…

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I have low nutrients and cyano, which seemed to slowly develop (over months) after "successfully" dosing FluxRX for hair algae. Suspected correlation.

For the past week, I've dosed approximately 120 mg of ammonium bicarb per day (6mL of stock, 20g NH4HCO3 in 1 liter of water) or about 0.55 ppm of NO3 daily for my 170 liter tank.

Today, my new Hanna Checker tested nitrates at 0.0 ppm. The cyano has not improved.

If the cyano is simply consuming ammonium before anything else can convert it, should I switch to dosing NaNO3?

My phosphates should be a little higher (currently ~0.02) but as long as they're detectable, I figured I'd focus on my nitrates.

I'm also preparing to dose Chemi-Clean and MB7 to try and recover my bacterial balance (e.g. in conjunction with stopping my ammonium bicarb dosing).

What do you think?

It’s fine to dose nitrate to get a good boost at once. I’ve done that . But dosing more ammonia is also a fine plan. I would not avoid ammonia just because cyano is potentially getting it. The same may happen with nitrate.

 

[Spencer]

It’s fine to dose nitrate to get a good boost at once. I’ve done that . But dosing more ammonia is also a fine plan. I would not avoid ammonia just because cyano is potentially getting it. The same may happen with nitrate.

In a mature tank, how quickly would you expect to ammonium dosing to be reflected in nitrate levels? I've seen comments ranging from 10 days to 24 days.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

In a mature tank, how quickly would you expect to ammonium dosing to be reflected in nitrate levels? I've seen comments ranging from 10 days to 24 days.

In a mature tank, ammonia will be either consumed or converted to nitrate in hours or less. No one dosing ammonia to a reef tank has reported any accumulation of ammonia.