DIY Nitrate Dosing Recipe

[Pi-314]

My new favorite thread and perfect timing. Is there a recommendation on how quickly nitrate can be increased?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My new favorite thread and perfect timing. Is there a recommendation on how quickly nitrate can be increased?

I don’t think there is any reason to go slow except to be sure you have doses right.

 

[MnFish1]

I have never had to dose nitrate nor ammonia. Feeding adequately seems to do the job - do you have any comparison between doing nothing and raising nitrate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have never had to dose nitrate nor ammonia. Feeding adequately seems to do the job - do you have any comparison between doing nothing and raising nitrate?

I dose ammonia because my nitrate bottoms out while phosphate stays elevated when using the foods I feed.

 

[MnFish1]

I dose ammonia because my nitrate bottoms out while phosphate stays elevated when using the foods I feed.

Bottoms out using what test? Numerous people have said PO4 is a non-issue - unless too high>. I was just curious 'so what if nitrate 'bottoms out''.

 

[Miami Reef]

My new favorite thread and perfect timing. Is there a recommendation on how quickly nitrate can be increased?

You can add 10 ppm in one shot, no problem.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Bottoms out using what test? Numerous people have said PO4 is a non-issue - unless too high>. I was just curious 'so what if nitrate 'bottoms out''.

I had dinos and boosted N and P to deal with it. It (or something else) worked.

In any case, it bottomed out on the Hanna HR nitrate kit. Regardless of what anyone else says, that is lower than the bottom of my target range.

 

[MnFish1]

I had dinos and boosted N and P to deal with it. It (or something else) worked.

In any case, it bottomed out on the Hanna HR nitrate kit. Regardless of what anyone else says, that is lower than the bottom of my target range.

Yes - I didn't mean to suggest not doing it - only that I've never needed to do it. I was more asking about the phosphorous part of it - I thought you were focusing on the elevated phosphate - which lately many people seem to not care as much about (as previously)

 

[choco24]

My no3 kept on bottoming out as well until I started dosing…..it now stays between 20-25

 

[Billgasser]

@Miami Reef , @Randy Holmes-Farley
I have a tank 60 gal that I dose ammonia, currently 24cc/day. My nitrates run between 3 and 5 .
What is your target nitrate level ? I suppose I’m below that level , do you suggest just increasing the ammonia dose a couple of cc’s per week or more frequently to achieve that level?

 

[Miami Reef]

My no3 kept on bottoming out as well until I started dosing…..it now stays between 20-25

Glad to hear that it helped.

@Miami Reef , @Randy Holmes-Farley
I have a tank 60 gal that I dose ammonia, currently 24cc/day. My nitrates run between 3 and 5 .
What is your target nitrate level ? I suppose I’m below that level , do you suggest just increasing the ammonia dose a couple of cc’s per week or more frequently to achieve that level?

I like nitrate from 5-30 ppm.

 

[Miami Reef]

I suppose I’m below that level , do you suggest just increasing the ammonia dose a couple of cc’s per week or more frequently to achieve that level?

There’s an ammonia chart to determine how to increase the dose. Dose the amount daily. If you want nitrate to increase but it hasn’t much after that week’s dose, progress to the next.

DIY Ammonia Dosing Chart

Introduction: Many reef tanks have an incredible nitrate demand, and despite the additional fish and coral food, still struggle to make an impact on the nitrate level. This can subject corals, anemones, coralline, macro/microalgae, and clams to nutrient starvation. Any photosynthetic organism...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[KTTX]

Here’s a quick guide of the DIY nitrate recipes we commonly use for reef tanks.


Sodium nitrate and calcium nitrate are the most common materials used. It’s crucial to ensure that these compounds are food-grade or have a purity rating. Sourcing pure chemicals is more economical than purchasing hobby-grade products with no purity ratings.

Avoid using stump remover or potassium nitrate. Stump remover can contain various unknown byproducts, and both substances will likely boost potassium levels excessively.



Sodium Nitrate:

Food-grade sources are readily available online or on Amazon.

Sodium nitrate (NaNO3) is 73% nitrate by weight.


To achieve 1 ppm of nitrate (NO3) in 100 L, we need 100 mg of Nitrate.


Since sodium nitrate is 73% nitrate:


100 mg / 0.729 = 137 mg NaNO3 needed.


To make the solution, dissolve 137 g of sodium nitrate in 1 L of RO/DI or purified water.


1 mL of this solution will raise nitrate by 1 ppm in 100 L.




Calcium Nitrate:

Calcium nitrate is a bit harder to source. Most compounds are used for plant fertilizer.

However, Loudwolf sells 99% pure reagent-grade calcium nitrate tetrahydrate which is suitable for this purpose.

Calcium nitrate won’t skew the calcium:alkalinity ratio because the nitrate consumption will add back the balanced alk.


Calcium Nitrate Tetrahydrate Recipe:


Calcium nitrate tetrahydrate Ca(NO3)2 • 4H2O is 52.5% nitrate by weight.


To achieve 1 ppm of nitrate (NO3) in 100 L, we need 100 mg of Nitrate.


Since calcium nitrate tetrahydrate is 52.5% nitrate:


100 mg / 0.525 = 190.47mg Ca(NO3)2 • 4H2O needed.


To make the solution, dissolve 190.5 g of calcium nitrate tetrahydrate in 1 L of RO/DI or purified water.


1 mL of this solution will raise nitrate by 1 ppm in 100 L.




Note: Consuming 50 ppm of NO3 through dosing nitrate adds 2.3 dKH of alkalinity. However, the significance of this increase may vary depending on your nitrate demand. In most cases, you’d hardly notice it, if at all.

Im using Sodium Nitrate. Can this solution be added/mixed with my Calcium dosing container? Im trying to put a little in with Calcium dosing so I never get Nitrate to low or zero.

So Calcium mixed with little Nitrate in dosing container.

TIA

 

[Miami Reef]

Im using Sodium Nitrate. Can this solution be added/mixed with my Calcium dosing container? Im trying to put a little in with Calcium dosing so I never get Nitrate to low or zero.

So Calcium mixed with little Nitrate in dosing container.

TIA

Yes.

 

[rishma]

@Randy Holmes-Farley ive settled on dosing both ammonia and nitrate an I’ll be out of nitrate next month and need to buy some more. I think I currently dose sodium nitrate. Since I need a new source, do you see an advantage to calcium nitrate due to balanced Ca and alk? I think the price is the same from Loudwolf and I don’t use much so it might not matter, but since I’ll end up with a lifetime supply I figure I’ll optimize my purchase.

Thanks

Edit: since I always ask if I can mix things, it seems like sodium nitrate would be better if I ever mixed ammonium bicarbonate. I suspect if I mix ammonium bicarbonate with calcium nitrate, I’ll get a precipitate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

@Randy Holmes-Farley ive settled on dosing both ammonia and nitrate an I’ll be out of nitrate next month and need to buy some more. I think I currently dose sodium nitrate. Since I need a new source, do you see an advantage to calcium nitrate due to balanced Ca and alk? I think the price is the same from Loudwolf and I don’t use much so it might not matter, but since I’ll end up with a lifetime supply I figure I’ll optimize my purchase.

Thanks

Edit: since I always ask if I can mix things, it seems like sodium nitrate would be better if I ever mixed ammonium bicarbonate. I suspect if I mix ammonium bicarbonate with calcium nitrate, I’ll get a precipitate.

Sodium nitrate is what I bought since it was readily available from Amazon. Calcium nitrate has the slight advantage of balanced alk/calcium, but I would not mix it with the ammonia, where the sodium can.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In a rising calcium situation (AFR and kalk), sodium might be a better bet.

 

[rishma]

Sodium nitrate is what I bought since it was readily available from Amazon. Calcium nitrate has the slight advantage of balanced alk/calcium, but I would not mix it with the ammonia, where the sodium can.

My search on Amazon this morning did not show any food grade sodium nitrate. All I could find was fertilizer. And sodium nitrate also not available from Loudwolf. I wonder I’m I am more restricted in California.

 

[rishma]

But I mixed baking soda with my phospate so no more rising calcium

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My search on Amazon this morning did not show any food grade sodium nitrate. All I could find was fertilizer. And sodium nitrate also not available from Loudwolf. I wonder I’m I am more restricted in California.

The price is up significantly, but this is what I bought and it is still available to me:

https://a.co/d/5Iv9O77