Kno3 (Potassium Nitrate) Dosing Instructions!

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
will this actually replace both of them? the Neo Nitro and Neo Phos?

No, you need a phosphate salt, such as sodium phosphate to replace neophos.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0

Nurse.Reef.Reapeat

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
600
Reaction score
345
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Brightwell gives no purity data, so I do not recommend it.

I also do not recommend potassium nitrate unless you monitor potassium to be sure it does not rise too much.

Sodium nitrate is cheap and easy to buy in high purity (Food grade or ACS reagent grade).

For example, many people use this brand:


You can follow this calculator for dosing (use the entry for nitrate from potassium nitrate) to dose a few ppm per day:

Hi Doc Randy @Randy Holmes-Farley , im sorry im confused. i have a 25 gallon tank, i would like my nitrate to be at around 30-40. how do i mix it, how much do i dose daily? would appreciate your help.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi Doc Randy @Randy Holmes-Farley , im sorry im confused. i have a 25 gallon tank, i would like my nitrate to be at around 30-40. how do i mix it, how much do i dose daily? would appreciate your help.

That's a pretty high target, IMO, but may be fine.

You will have to determine by trial and error how much it takes to maintain any specific target level. I'd start by dosing a few ppm a day and monitor/adjust it going forward.

Follow the directions on the James planted tank calculator web site I posted. Are you needing help with that calculator?
 

Nurse.Reef.Reapeat

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
600
Reaction score
345
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That's a pretty high target, IMO, but may be fine.

You will have to determine by trial and error how much it takes to maintain any specific target level. I'd start by dosing a few ppm a day and monitor/adjust it going forward.

Follow the directions on the James planted tank calculator web site I posted. Are you needing help with that calculator?
Yes I do. please!
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yes I do. please!

OK,

1. Estimate the total water volume of your system and add in the first box under tank volume. 25 gallons if that is about right. Make sure gallons is picked.

2. Make sure the second box is "nitrate from potassium nitrate".

3. Let's randomly pick 2 tablespoons for the third box.

4. let's randomly pick 1,000 mL for the fourth box.

Make a solution of 2 tablespoons of dry sodium or potassium nitrate and dissolve it in 1 L (1,000 mL) of ro/DI or distilled water.

Hit calculate and it tells you that each 1 mL added to your aquarium will boost nitrate by 0.23 ppm.

I'd add about 3 ppm a day for a few days and monitor it.
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,561
Reaction score
21,791
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Fellow chemistry inclined reefers,

I'm currently experimenting with Aquavitro Synthesis to raise my nitrates but I believe I'm going to switch to Potassium Nitrate. Upon some research I found this equation (see pictures) to be the general rule of thumb. My problem is I have a 160g system and I DO NOT want to dose 160ml of anything to my tank! So in order to crunch the amounts, I simply divided by 4 to get a more reasonable 40ml dose. My question is, with concentrating the KNo3 itself would I have to increase the amount of RO/DI? Also If so, how much? Even if I use this equation, does it have to be daily? If anyone has a more reliable equation that I can dose possibly more spread out throughout the week, please share. Randy I would really appreciate your input and a possible solid mixing/dosing equation! I included a pic of the simple math I did to get this more concentrated equation, sorry if you can't read my hand writing.

20160423_200331.jpg
Screenshot_2016-04-23-20-01-28.png
Screenshot_2016-04-21-23-12-26.png
The other problem is your measurements - I would not use 'teaspoons'. I would get a scale and weight whatever you're doing in grams. For example - figure out how much potassium nitrate you need (in grams) - then weigh that much in beads. It gets rid of lots of steps.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
now, where can i get the calculator for this? aiming for 0.6 on phosphate

What? Seriously? 0.6 ppm? Are you intentionally doing an experiment at phosphate levels higher than nearly anyone recommends?

It may be fine, but I sure would not target such an unnaturally high level.

The James planted tank calculator will work for this too. Phosphate values can only be roughly estimated because a lot will bind to rock and sand, especilyy at high levels.

 

Nurse.Reef.Reapeat

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
600
Reaction score
345
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What? Seriously? 0.6 ppm? Are you intentionally doing an experiment at phosphate levels higher than nearly anyone recommends?

It may be fine, but I sure would not target such an unnaturally high level.

The James planted tank calculator will work for this too. Phosphate values can only be roughly estimated because a lot will bind to rock and sand, especilyy at high levels.

I have this guy that I bought my corals from, his SPS growth and coloration are great, his nitrate is around 20-30, his phos at around 0.3-0.6
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have this guy that I bought my corals from, his SPS growth and coloration are great, his nitrate is around 20-30, his phos at around 0.3-0.6

OK, some folks do have great tanks with values like that or higher, but it may also result in an algae mess unless you have enough herbivores or keep it in check some other way.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
@Randy Holmes-Farley also, after I do my mix, does it need to be stirred before dosing? Or I can just use a doser to dose it without having to shake it before use?

Once dissolved, it stays fully mixed (ignore any trace sediment), and needs no stirring.
 

Slettenreef

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
Bucharest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here's my standard recipe for potassium nitrate, and it can be adjusted easily up or down in concentration, as needed:

Dissolve 10 grams potassium nitrate in 1 liter of fresh water. That 10 grams contains 6.14 grams of nitrate, so that solution is 6,140 ppm nitrate.

If you add 1 ml of the solution per 2 gallons of tank water volume, that will boost nitrate by 0.8 ppm nitrate.

As a rough estimate, 10 dry mL of powder weighs about 10 g.
Dear Randy, I made a solution with 20g dry KNO3 (101.103g/mol) food grade. Fully mixing this, it creates a "slurry" at the bottom, and when dosed, my skimmer goes bananas. It settles after a short time and if I dose the top without any "slurry" it doesn't affect the skimmer at all. Can I filter this out in any way, without affecting the solution?

I mixed with RO water in a clean glass bottle.
 
Back
Top