Lighting

[Hoffer]

You can dose any nitrate product, like a brightwell neo-nitro OR you could dose ammonium bicarbonate.
I would advocate for the ammonium bicarb. i have been dosing it myself now for over a year and it has been working great. Randy has an awesome writeup on it here:

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

He also states that Ammonium Chloride can be used, but I would recommend bicarb. To quote from his article:
"""
Ammonium Bicarbonate
Ammonium bicarbonate, also known as baking ammonia, NH4 HCO3 is essentially ammonia (NH3) plus CO2 and water.

As mentioned above, dosing NH3 followed by consumption by organisms to form tissue in a net alkalinity neutral process. The CO2 and water also do not impact alkalinity. Thus, ammonium bicarbonate is a net alk neutral way to dose ammonia.

High quality ammonium bicarbonate is also available from Amazon as baking ammonia. It is readily available and inexpensive. One brand sells 11 ounces for $15, so it's cost is similar to the Loudwolf ammonium chloride per unit of ammonia added (one needs to use more of the ammonium bicarbonate than the ammonium chloride, evening out the cost).

Dosing

Don't be overly afraid of dosing ammonia due to toxicity, but one cannot dose substantial amounts all at once. IMO, it is safe to add 0.1 ppm ammonia (equivalent to 0.36 ppm nitrate) at once to any reef tank, and one can likely add more, if it mixes in well. Don't dose it right onto a fish, but dosing 2-3x that amount at once is also likely OK. Of course, using a dosing pump to spread out the dosing is fine and may be preferable, but be sure to guard against dosing pumps out of control (e.g., stuck on). Stock solutions can be increased or decreased in potency to match pumping needs. The ammonia could also be put into an ato since exact daily dosing is not required.

To add 0.1 mg/L ammonia to an aquarium, you would need to add 2.3 mL of either stock solution to a 100 L (26 gallon) aquarium. You may need to add this amount multiply times per day to dose enough.

I'd add it to a sump, if possible, to dilute it well before it gets to the main tank. Most folks dosing ammonia wouldn't also be using media intended to push the nitrogen cycle in various ways, but if you do, dose downstream of that media.

Of course, if anything seems to react badly the first time or two that you dose, stop dosing, double check the amounts, and perhaps come back to this thread for further discussion of what might be happening.

This article has a lot more on ammonia in reef aquaria, although some parts of it may not be correct (such as the utility of products such as Prime):

Ammonia and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
"""

TLDR;
* purchase this:

* Mix it at 20 grams of ammonium bicarbonate (about 4 and 3/4 teaspoons) to 1 L RO/DI water.
* add 2.3 mL per 26 gallons of tank water to start with ***Add it to the sump***

That is a great starting dose, you can dose more should you need to, but start there.

I bought the Loudwolf would I do the same numbers for dosing

 

[Red_Beard]

I bought the Loudwolf would I do the same numbers for dosing

Yep, use those same numbers.

 

[Hoffer]

Yep, use those same numbers.

Do you prefer one over the other

 

[Red_Beard]

One brand of ammonium? Nah, loudwolf is probably better, but they are appreciably the same.

 

[Hoffer]

I bought the Loudwolf would I do the same numbers for dosing

I have a 3 chamber sump. My doser is in the third chamber which is the return.

 

[Red_Beard]

Should be good, just space out the dose over a couple mins. You just want to make sure it gets diluted good before it hits the tank. I dose mine manually so its a lot more all at once, so it goes into the overflow.

 

[Hoffer]

Should be good, just space out the dose over a couple mins. You just want to make sure it gets diluted good before it hits the tank. I dose mine manually so its a lot more all at once, so it goes into the overflow.

So I have 260 gallons all together. So I will dose 23 ML over a 24 hour period. How does that sound

 

[Red_Beard]

I would dose half that for a week and see what that does for your N and adjust up from there. You may need more than 23ml/day, but I would start a little slow to. You can always dose more, but you cant un-dose.

 

[Hoffer]

I would dose half that for a week and see what that does for your N and adjust up from there. You may need more than 23ml/day, but I would start a little slow to. You can always dose more, but you cant un-dose.

thank you