Has anyone ever had their SPS die due to Dosing Spectracide for Nitrates?

[kecked]

I use calcium nitrate. Why not add stuff that can all be used. Plus it’s twice as strong for nitrate.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I've used spectracide stump remover in the past with no I'll effects. Before I used it I did some research on it and was able to get the technical sheet on it. The manufacturer disclosure on the potassium nitrate states its 100%. No other additives or impurities disclosed.

Can there be a bad batch, sure.

In my case I used this calculator for dosing: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

 

[aarbutina]

I use calcium nitrate. Why not add stuff that can all be used. Plus it’s twice as strong for nitrate.

Perfor you posted this I was just wondering why we aren’t using CaNO3.

 

[aarbutina]

I've used spectracide stump remover in the past with no I'll effects. Before I used it I did some research on it and was able to get the technical sheet on it. The manufacturer disclosure on the potassium nitrate states its 100%. No other additives or impurities disclosed.

Can there be a bad batch, sure.

In my case I used this calculator for dosing: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

Yup, many people use this with no ill effects. And I used the same calculator.

 

[JMetaxas]

I'm in the Chemical industry so can speak to this a bit.

Spectracide isn't forced to claim any particular purity. The application of the product doesn't warrant it. So, they will have greater options to purchase Potassium Nitrate compared to someone who sells a Food Grade product.

While many probably use it just fine, Spectracide can very well chose to buy a less pure grade, with contaminants that don't cause their market any harm, but can in a Reef tank.

IMO, it's just not worth it to take the risk.

 

[dew9000]

I experienced the exact same thing after having zero on the Red Sea nitrate test kit. I had ok colors but pretty dull on some so I started dosing stump remover. Basciacally lost all of my acros to STN. My montis paled as well. I was at around 7.5-8 Dkh when I started dosing for a week. I added about 0.8 ppm a day and toped out at about 2.5. PPM. Stopped dosing when things started to go down hill a few weeks ago. I have continued to lose Acros to STN. I thought maybe I bottomed out phosphates by dosing nitrates and that is what caused the issues, they did read very low on Hanna ULR checker. I have since increased phosphates with heavy feeding. Acros continue to STN but montis are slowy getting color back. I have had to cut back on 2 part dosing due to the all the loss in acros and I'm sure no growth with all the STN. My Alk is now at 9 and I am going to try and keep it there and feed heavy instead to keep nutrients up.

 

[aarbutina]

I experienced the exact same thing after having zero on the Red Sea nitrate test kit. I had ok colors but pretty dull on some so I started dosing stump remover. Basciacally lost all of my acros to STN. My montis paled as well. I was at around 7.5-8 Dkh when I started dosing for a week. I added about 0.8 ppm a day and toped out at about 2.5. PPM. Stopped dosing when things started to go down hill a few weeks ago. I have continued to lose Acros to STN. I thought maybe I bottomed out phosphates by dosing nitrates and that is what caused the issues, they did read very low on Hanna ULR checker. I have since increased phosphates with heavy feeding. Acros continue to STN but montis are slowy getting color back. I have had to cut back on 2 part dosing due to the all the loss in acros and I'm sure no growth with all the STN. My Alk is now at 9 and I am going to try and keep it there and feed heavy instead to keep nutrients up.

What were your phosphate reading on your Hanna ULR checker when you said they were very low? My thinking would be that if you are getting detectable levels you most likely have enough phosphate in your system. It seems like the general consensus is that folks are targeting around 0.02 ppm phosphate.

 

[aarbutina]

Hey @Ryanbrs, with the increasing number for folks who are dosing Nitrate (in some form) into there systems, has BRS looked into possibly offering pharmaceutical grade KNO3 or NaKO3? While food grade chemicals have advantages over a herbicide, a pharmaceutical grade chemical would be held to an even higher standard. Since it is sometimes difficult for individuals to purchase pharmaceutical grade chemicals from chemical companies, like Fisher Scientific, maybe there is a market for this.

 

[dew9000]

What were your phosphate reading on your Hanna ULR checker when you said they were very low? My thinking would be that if you are getting detectable levels you most likely have enough phosphate in your system. It seems like the general consensus is that folks are targeting around 0.02 ppm phosphate.

It was reading zero with the regular checker I had when I noticed the problems so ordered the ULR from BRS and it came in a few days after I stopped dosing. It read 3 ppb so 0.009 ppm. I did order lab grade sodium mono phosphate to start dosing but by the time I got it I had increased the phosphate to 0.03 with heavy feeding and reef roids.

 

[aarbutina]

It was reading zero with the regular checker I had when I noticed the problems so ordered the ULR from BRS and it came in a few days after I stopped dosing. It read 3 ppb so 0.009 ppm. I did order lab grade sodium mono phosphate to start dosing but by the time I got it I had increased the phosphate to 0.03 with heavy feeding and reef roids.

Thanks for the info.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I don't think this thread pertains to the quality of spectracide but more so other factors within the tank. It's easier to blame the weird "possibly" impure nutrient rather than the tanks age or other types of export media. Sort of like the OP asking himself why he's running bio-pellets and dosing nitrates. If acros are what you are trying to grow then stability is what you want to achieve. Stability includes not having to dose nutrients or dosing nutrients without fluctuations.

 

[dew9000]

Hopefully someone figures it out. I also thought maybe I had contaminates in the stump remover since my experience was nowhere near what others had. I lost a huge milli colony I grew from a little frag. Now my big green slimer colony is stn from the base up. I have written most of the acros off. At least most of my acros were not super expensive. Just sucks to lose things that have grown out over the last 2 years. On a side note LPS and zoanthids are doing great with the increased phosphate and nitrate. Nitrates have stayed at 1.5 ppm with feeding a few cubes of frozen every day.

 

[JMetaxas]

Of the people dosing Potassium Nitrate, who here measures their Potassium levels?

I was warned by an SPS "expert" to be careful of rising Potassium. He gave me a Salifert Potassium kit but I've not yet tried it to measure my own levels.

 

[aarbutina]

Of the people dosing Potassium Nitrate, who here measures their Potassium levels?

I was warned by an SPS "expert" to be careful of rising Potassium. He gave me a Salifert Potassium kit but I've not yet tried it to measure my own levels.

I did measure my potassium levels last night (as reported in my OP). Potassium was at 380 ppm (salifert test kit).

As we have discussed earlier in this thread it does take a good bit dosing to significantly raise K levels. As someone previously stated, if you add 3 ppm of nitrate from KNO3 you are adding 2 ppm of K. The four stories we have documented here, seem to have a very similar story, dosing around 1 ppm of nitrate per day and after just a couple days things start melting. in my case I would added approximately 10 ppm nitrate over 10 days so I would have added 6 or 7 ppm of potassium. If you were at NSW levels initialy that would mean you would have increased from 400 to 407 ppm in K if that potassium was not used by the system at all (which it is).

 

[aarbutina]

I don't think this thread pertains to the quality of spectracide but more so other factors within the tank. It's easier to blame the weird "possibly" impure nutrient rather than the tanks age or other types of export media. Sort of like the OP asking himself why he's running bio-pellets and dosing nitrates. If acros are what you are trying to grow then stability is what you want to achieve. Stability includes not having to dose nutrients or dosing nutrients without fluctuations.

Actually i am starting to actually wonder if there is an impurity issue. We have 4 stories here of people who are reporting the exact same thing (or very close). Started doing Spectracide at a low level and SPS starting to melt within days. There are plenty of other stories though out the forum of people dosing Spectricide to a higher level all at once and experiencing to ill effects. I don't think what people are reporting in this thread would be a response to a spike in nitrate especially if you are only going from 0 to 1 ppm. It is the exact opposite of what many people are reporting.

If the spectracide that people are using was contaminated with a heavy metal, like copper, very low trace level could start to cause some serious issues pretty quickly.

 

[Randyp79]

Actually i am starting to actually wonder if there is an impurity issue. We have 4 stories here of people who are reporting the exact same thing (or very close). Started doing Spectracide at a low level and SPS starting to melt within days. There are plenty of other stories though out the forum of people dosing Spectricide to a higher level all at once and experiencing to ill effects. I don't think what people are reporting in this thread would be a response to a spike in nitrate especially if you are only going from 0 to 1 ppm. It is the exact opposite of what many people are reporting.

If the spectracide that people are using was contaminated with a heavy metal, like copper, very low trace level could start to cause some serious issues pretty quickly.

While contamination is a possibility, I did send in an ICP test to see if anything came back out of the ordinary. All elements tested were within acceptable levels.

 

[aarbutina]

While contamination is a possibility, I did send in an ICP test to see if anything came back out of the ordinary. All elements tested were within acceptable levels.

I was considering doing the same thing. How did you prep you same for testing?

 

[Randyp79]

I was considering doing the same thing. How did you prep you same for testing?

I used a Triton test kit. I always keep one on hand and send them in anytime something looks out of the ordinary.

 

[aarbutina]

I used a Triton test kit. I always keep one on hand and send them in anytime something looks out of the ordinary.

My question was more specifically what did you prepare that sample you sent to triton. Did you make a 1ppm nitrate solution? Did you do a 10 ppm solution? I ask because if you did a low concentration solution, the contaminant might be at low enough levels that it couldn't be detected by the IPC-MS, but as you are dosing that to your tank it builds up. Analytical assays have a limit of detection and a limit of quantification. Another thing to think about is that it is possible that the IPC test is tuned towards testing sea water samples and if you submitted a potassium nitrate solution in RODI water it might not be able to assay correctly (not something I have confirmed with triton to some assays are matrix sensitive).

 

[reeferfoxx]

Actually i am starting to actually wonder if there is an impurity issue. We have 4 stories here of people who are reporting the exact same thing (or very close). Started doing Spectracide at a low level and SPS starting to melt within days. There are plenty of other stories though out the forum of people dosing Spectricide to a higher level all at once and experiencing to ill effects. I don't think what people are reporting in this thread would be a response to a spike in nitrate especially if you are only going from 0 to 1 ppm. It is the exact opposite of what many people are reporting.

If the spectracide that people are using was contaminated with a heavy metal, like copper, very low trace level could start to cause some serious issues pretty quickly.

I don't agree. 4 people doesn't account for the rest of us that have fixed stn with dosing nutrients and specifically spectracide. You have to account for po4 dropping, alk reductions, as well as other parameters.