Misconceptions of Calcium Nitrate

[shneerf]

I'm doing research into this myself now and what I've found is that everywhere I can find Calcium Nitrate is actually really Ammonium Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0, a fertilizer used for plant growth. Even loudwolf's "Calcium Nitrate" is actually this same blend. It says:

"Calcium Nitrate has many uses. The total Nitrogen content is 15.50% (1% Ammonical and 14.50% Nitrate). The total Calcium content is 19%."

Which is the same description used by any of these fertilizers found on Amazon/Ebay etc.

As I'm reading previous threads talking about Calcium Nitrate, I think everyone is assuming they are using Ca(NO3)2 because you would assume that based on the name. I have looked for any website that actually sells this type of compound that does not have the ammonia content in it and I can't seem to find anything.

At this point I'm also wondering if the ammonia content is even bad at all in the first place because of how people are starting to see the benefits of dosing ammonia.

I'm debating on whether to just try this stuff out, or switch to Potassium Nitrate. My only concern is that I need to dose a good amount of Nitrate and I have no way of testing for Potassium. I have the same concern for Sodium Nitrate and throw off the balance of the rest of my 2 part dosing. My system is Nitrate and Phosphate limited. Any information into these compounds would be extremely helpful and help dispel some of these misconceptions.

 

[Dan_P]

I'm doing research into this myself now and what I've found is that everywhere I can find Calcium Nitrate is actually really Ammonium Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0, a fertilizer used for plant growth. Even loudwolf's "Calcium Nitrate" is actually this same blend. It says:

"Calcium Nitrate has many uses. The total Nitrogen content is 15.50% (1% Ammonical and 14.50% Nitrate). The total Calcium content is 19%."

Which is the same description used by any of these fertilizers found on Amazon/Ebay etc.

As I'm reading previous threads talking about Calcium Nitrate, I think everyone is assuming they are using Ca(NO3)2 because you would assume that based on the name. I have looked for any website that actually sells this type of compound that does not have the ammonia content in it and I can't seem to find anything.

At this point I'm also wondering if the ammonia content is even bad at all in the first place because of how people are starting to see the benefits of dosing ammonia.

I'm debating on whether to just try this stuff out, or switch to Potassium Nitrate. My only concern is that I need to dose a good amount of Nitrate and I have no way of testing for Potassium. I have the same concern for Sodium Nitrate and throw off the balance of the rest of my 2 part dosing. My system is Nitrate and Phosphate limited. Any information into these compounds would be extremely helpful and help dispel some of these misconceptions.

Try Lab Alley

 

[shneerf]

Even the Calcium Nitrate formula in Lab Alley is the same as the one on Loudwolf. The formula on both websites states that they are Ca(NO3)2-4H2O and they are both lab/reagent grade. Not sure what the chemistry behind this is and why 1% seems to be Ammonia.

 

[shneerf]

So does anyone who doses this know about the ammonium content? I think I'm just going to open the bag, void my return and try it out. It's only $16 so screw it. I'll run some ammonia and phosphate tests when I get a chance and post the results.

By my calculations about 50% is actually nitrate so 280g/L will get me 2 ppm for every 10ml dosed into a 180 gallon tank. Thats based off 180 gallons ~ 700,000g so 1 ppm is 0.7g and double that since about 50% is nitrate to make 1.4g needed to raise it by 1ppm. Then to make 10ml raise it by 2ppm it 2×1.4g×1000mL /10 ml nets me ~280g in a 1 liter solution. I think this is concentrated enough to not have to dose a lot but not little enoughto need to dose all the time. Not sure how I should dilute it to run the phosphate and ammonia test yet but that's a start.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm surprised to see that much ammonia in it. ACS reagent grading apparently doesn't have an ammonia specification, although it does have a nitrite spec of less than 0.001%.

I think there must be some sort of rounding errors in the Loudwolf description since the numbers don't add up (99% pure but 1% ammoniacal nitrogen adds to substantially more than 100%), but there probably is substantial ammonia in it and folks should not do big nitrate boosts all at once with it without checking.

One can buy purer forms, but they are more expensive and may be hard to obtain for most hobbyists. Sigma sells a less than 0.05% ammonia form of calcium nitrate for $121 per 500 g.

If you are dosing only 1 ppm nitrate or less at once, I think the ammonia (0.07 ppm)might be a benefit rather than a detriment since many organisms prefer ammonia and the level will not be enough to cause any toxicity.

Perhaps another reason to just stick with sodium nitrate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

To test it, I'd add 10 ppm nitrate to tank water in a container and see what the ammonia reads.

 

[shneerf]

If you are dosing only 1 ppm nitrate or less at once, I think the ammonia (0.07 ppm)might be a benefit rather than a detriment since many organisms prefer ammonia and the level will not be enough to cause any toxicity.

Perhaps another reason to just stick with sodium nitrate.

I think I might just try this stuff out since the ammonia should be insignificant and as long as the phosphate is also insignificant this could be killing 2 birds with one dose. Ammonia is beneficial in many ways and I don't think I'll dose anything more than 10 or 20ppm nitrate a day anyway.

 

[shneerf]

I finally got around to testing this stuff. So to specify I bought this version of Calcium Nitrate on Amazon but I'm sure any version will be relatively similar:

What I did was added 2 grams of Calcium Nitrate (about 50% is Nitrate by mass) into 1 L of DI water. Then I diluted it into 50 mL to end up with a 20 ppm Nitrate solution.

I ran an API Ammonia and Nitrate test as well as a Red Sea Phosphate test. The solution ended up being about 20 - 40 ppm Nitrate and 0.25 ppm Ammonia. The Phosphate read 0.

Overall I would highly recommend this as a source of Nitrate since this would offset the increase that Sodium Nitrate does to Alkalinity. Honestly I'm not entirely sure how that mechanism works so if anyone knows about it please share. Also I find that the slight amount of Ammonia added is beneficial overall as long as you're not dosing very high amount of Nitrate. It also gives me a reason to use up my slowly expiring Ammonia test every once in a while but I'm sure whatever wants Nitrate also desperately wants Ammonia as well so I highly doubt I will make more of a dent than my fish pee and poop does but I will still monitor just in case.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Honestly I'm not entirely sure how that mechanism works so if anyone knows about it please share.

Any consumption of nitrate (e.g., uptake into tissues or denitrification) adds alkalinity. It adds exactly the amount to balance the calcium in calcium nitrate, to form calcium carbonate.

Here's a copy and paste from one of my articles:

When this nitrate proceeds further along the nitrogen cycle, depleted alkalinity is returned in exactly the amount lost. For example, if the nitrate is allowed to be converted into N2 in a sand bed, one of the products is bicarbonate, as shown in equation 2 (below) for the breakdown of glucose and nitrate under typical anoxic conditions as might happen in a deep sand bed:

92) 4NO3- + 5/6 C6H12O6 (glucose) + 4H2O --> 2 N2 + 7H2O + 4HCO3- + CO2

In equation 2 we see that exactly one bicarbonate ion is produced for each nitrate ion consumed. Consequently, the alkalinity gain is 0.8 meq/L (2.3 dKH) for every 50 ppm of nitrate consumed.

Likewise, equation 3 (below) shows the uptake of nitrate and CO2 into macroalgae to form typical organic molecules:

(3) 122 CO2 + 122 H2O + 16 NO3- --> C106H260O106N16 + 138 O2 + 16 HCO3-
Again, one bicarbonate ion is produced for each nitrate ion consumed.

 

[Shufflepig]

I'm surprised to see that much ammonia in it. ACS reagent grading apparently doesn't have an ammonia specification, although it does have a nitrite spec of less than 0.001%.

I think there must be some sort of rounding errors in the Loudwolf description since the numbers don't add up (99% pure but 1% ammoniacal nitrogen adds to substantially more than 100%), but there probably is substantial ammonia in it and folks should not do big nitrate boosts all at once with it without checking.

One can buy purer forms, but they are more expensive and may be hard to obtain for most hobbyists. Sigma sells a less than 0.05% ammonia form of calcium nitrate for $121 per 500 g.

If you are dosing only 1 ppm nitrate or less at once, I think the ammonia (0.07 ppm)might be a benefit rather than a detriment since many organisms prefer ammonia and the level will not be enough to cause any toxicity.

Perhaps another reason to just stick with sodium nitrate.

Is the B-ionic nitrate supplement a pure form of calcium nitrate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is the B-ionic nitrate supplement a pure form of calcium nitrate?

I do not know anything more than what ESV claims (below), but in general I think that ESV does not exaggerate their claims the way many hobby chemical companies do, so I expect it is adequately pure.

"We are proud to introduce B-Ionic® Nitrate which is a concentrated source of nitrate in the form of a highly purified calcium nitrate solution."

 

[shneerf]

I do not know anything more than what ESV claims (below), but in general I think that ESV does not exaggerate their claims the way many hobby chemical companies do, so I expect it is adequately pure.

"We are proud to introduce B-Ionic® Nitrate which is a concentrated source of nitrate in the form of a highly purified calcium nitrate solution."

Considering there's only a tiny amount of ammonia in this stuff that is beneficial, it's an infinite supply and it's dirt cheap; I'll stick with this Calcium Nitrate.

Actually this brings up a point that the quality of loudwolf is extremely good and their claim also states about 1 percent ammonium. This makes me question whether or not any form can be without ammonia, perhaps it is a natural byproduct when mixed with water. Or maybe it's a false positive on a test. I'll do a test on a more concentrated solution just to double check that my ammonia reading was accurate since the color on 0.25ppm is very close to 0.

I don't want to buy some B-Ionic to test it but if someone out there has some it would be helpful to perform an ammonia test.

 

[shneerf]

After testing the solution of a 1000 ppm solution the ammonia test maxed out so there definitely is ammonia. This is clearly excessive but I needed to make sure that I wasn't misreading the 0.25 ppm ammonia in the 20-40 ppm nitrate solution. But it does hold true to the claim of 1% ammonia which is absolutely fine IMO.

 

[Reefahholic]

After testing the solution of a 1000 ppm solution the ammonia test maxed out so there definitely is ammonia. This is clearly excessive but I needed to make sure that I wasn't misreading the 0.25 ppm ammonia in the 20-40 ppm nitrate solution. But it does hold true to the claim of 1% ammonia which is absolutely fine IMO.

Are you still dosing it or did you stop? Any issues?