Nitrate dosing

[mpw213]

I have a 2.5 gallon pico and was wondering about dosing nitrate in it.

I added an atomic broccoli macro algae about 2 weeks ago. Prior to adding it nitrate was 5-10. I left town last weekend and got back with nitrate at 0. The person feeding my tank gave much less than I normally would (by my instructions bc they have no fish experience and I’d rather under than over). It’s been two days and I’ve been feeding pretty heavy. Yesterday nitrate was 0.03 and today back to 0 with a Hanna high range tester. Phosphate was 0.1 so I don’t really want to feed much heavier. Luckily all my corals looks better than ever but I’m worried about having such low nitrates

Should I start dosing nitrates (very slowly obviously) or better to wait. I’m honestly not sure if a small macro algae could bottom the tank out like that. Or if I would just take time to go up again. Thanks!

 

[mpw213]

I have a 2.5 gallon pico and was wondering about dosing nitrate in it.

I added an atomic broccoli macro algae about 2 weeks ago. Prior to adding it nitrate was 5-10. I left town last weekend and got back with nitrate at 0. The person feeding my tank gave much less than I normally would (by my instructions bc they have no fish experience and I’d rather under than over). It’s been two days and I’ve been feeding pretty heavy. Yesterday nitrate was 0.03 and today back to 0 with a Hanna high range tester. Phosphate was 0.1 so I don’t really want to feed much heavier. Luckily all my corals looks better than ever but I’m worried about having such low nitrates

Should I start dosing nitrates (very slowly obviously) or better to wait. I’m honestly not sure if a small macro algae could bottom the tank out like that. Or if I would just take time to go up again. Thanks!

Here’s the tank with the macro algae in it. Grew very slightly since this photo

 

[EnterName]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/
I would suggest ammonia dosing. If you need any help creating a stock solution that fits your tank with ammonium (bi)carbonate or ammonium chloride, let me know.

If the nitrogen consumption is really high and you can't dose small ammonia amounts all the time you can use nitrate supplements as well. It's often a bit more difficult to get your hands on nitrates as they can be used to create explosives, but I can also help with creating a DIY stock solution from sodium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc. You can read more here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-nitrate-dosing-recipe.1111863/

 

[mpw213]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/
I would suggest ammonia dosing. If you need any help creating a stock solution that fits your tank with ammonium (bi)carbonate or ammonium chloride, let me know.

If the nitrogen consumption is really high and you can't dose small ammonia amounts all the time you can use nitrate supplements as well. It's often a bit more difficult to get your hands on nitrates as they can be used to create explosives, but I can also help with creating a DIY stock solution from sodium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc. You can read more here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-nitrate-dosing-recipe.1111863/

Thanks for the response! I do actually have access to a pure nitrogen additive through another hobbyist. Is nitrate something that I could dose to get a level of around 5 right away and not upset the coral? Or should it be raised as slow as kh,Calc, etc? And is there a benefit to dosing ammonia? My tank is in my office at work so I usually can dose 1 time per day. I’ve been going in on weekends bc my kh drops by 1.5-2 if I skip even a day but ideally I won’t have to eventually lol

 

[EnterName]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/
I would suggest ammonia dosing. If you need any help creating a stock solution that fits your tank with ammonium (bi)carbonate or ammonium chloride, let me know.

If the nitrogen consumption is really high and you can't dose small ammonia amounts all the time you can use nitrate supplements as well. It's often a bit more difficult to get your hands on nitrates as they can be used to create explosives, but I can also help with creating a DIY stock solution from sodium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc. You can read more here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-nitrate-dosing-recipe.1111863/

Thanks for the response! I do actually have access to a pure nitrogen additive through another hobbyist. Is nitrate something that I could dose to get a level of around 5 right away and not upset the coral? Or should it be raised as slow as kh,Calc, etc? And is there a benefit to dosing ammonia? My tank is in my office at work so I usually can dose 1 time per day. I’ve been going in on weekends bc my kh drops by 1.5-2 if I skip even a day but ideally I won’t have to eventually lol

Nitrate can't be consumed directly. Corals have to reduce it back to ammonia first (which requires energy). If you add ammonia instead, it can be consumed right away. The only disadvantage is that you can't dump enormous amounts at once into the tank due to ammonia's toxicity and if demand is high, it's better to spread the dose throughout the day.

If you are adding a nitrate source, start with 1 or 2ppm and go from there. It's not unlikely that you will end up adding far more to keep nitrate levels from falling back down to 0, but it makes sense to avoid overdosing. Keep an eye on phosphate as well. If your tank is nitrogen limited, phosphate might drop once you start providing enough nitrogen. I have to add both to my system.

 

[mpw213]

Thank you! If I did dose ammonia would I then still follow nitrate levels to know how much to give?