NP-Bacto-Balance Questions

[fzs122]

Thanks @Court_Appointed_Hypeman and @Randy Holmes-Farley for the update and input.

Anything seen as cheerleading in my earlier post only comes from me finding someone (@Court_Appointed_Hypeman) reporting a similar experience regarding the same inorganic Nitrate flatline that I encountered when starting with Tropic Marin NP products (and the hope that I could glean from the experience).

Having zero detectable Nitrate is actually alarming to me, especially when one of the products that Tropic Marin provides to presumably increase Nitrate, "Plus-NP," has, so far, failed to increase measurable Nitrate for me.

That said, the carbon dosing aspect of using NP is a personal paradigm shift for me, so I wanted to do a reality check about what I really should or should not be doing about managing Nitrogen compounds in my reef tank.

Thanks to various posts about the subject (especially from @Randy Holmes-Farley), I finally feel equipped to set and maintain a realistic inorganic Nitrate range for my tank.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Thanks @Court_Appointed_Hypeman and @Randy Holmes-Farley for the update and input.

Anything seen as cheerleading in my earlier post only comes from me finding someone (@Court_Appointed_Hypeman) reporting a similar experience regarding the same inorganic Nitrate flatline that I encountered when starting with Tropic Marin NP products (and the hope that I could glean from the experience).

Having zero detectable Nitrate is actually alarming to me, especially when one of the products that Tropic Marin provides to presumably increase Nitrate, "Plus-NP," has, so far, failed to increase measurable Nitrate for me.

That said, the carbon dosing aspect of using NP is a personal paradigm shift for me, so I wanted to do a reality check about what I really should or should not be doing about managing Nitrogen compounds in my reef tank.

Thanks to various posts about the subject (especially from @Randy Holmes-Farley), I finally feel equipped to set and maintain a realistic inorganic Nitrate range for my tank.

Well, according to TM the N isn't nitrate, it's nitrogen. So issue of us not knowing what it is aside, it would follow Randy's ammonium dosing logic that it's adding nitrogen, and the point isn't necessarily the nitrate, but should/would raise nitrate if the system isn't totally nitrogen starved.


That's why I assume they say disregard it, you can't test for it but you'll see it eventually because it is putting nitrogen in.

This brings up a point though, the product must be making the assumption that nitrogen is used in ratio with P, which I am not sure is the case? To my system it appears so, but mine has also been a dino fight for a couple rounds so who knows.

The product is a really nice mind story, but as long as it is a carbon source, I think its a bennefit, but the nitrogen handling by the line, is too much of an open question for myself. I think it's a good idea to dose ammonia if nitrates are low, and this is what I will do going forward. I'll follow the 3 products dosing recommendation, which is now a higher scale for phosphate than before, and supplement with ammonia, only pulling back if my N is climbing. Followed by regular testing as that was probably my entire issue.