Potassium Nitrate dosing questions.

Uzair Aiman

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Hi. As the titles says, how would you guys dose potassium nitrate to raise nitrate levels?

I am currently having a situation here, after some research Ive found out that my tank is "nitrate locked". I have 0/undetectable nitrates and 0.5 phosphates, which is high.
Im planning to add SPS soon so Id like to get my tank parameters on point.

How much would you dose per day? (how much PPM increase max per day)
How long do you dose this product? (always dose it or will there ever be a day where my tank doesnt need to get nitrate dosed anymore)
What nitrate numbers should I shoot for? (for SPS)
How long will the dosing take effect? (is it immediately? or does it take a few hours til I see an increase in nitrate)
Will it lower my phosphate levels?

thanks in advance
 

eraser2001

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Hi
The dose depends of the product. I use the stump removal. I dose it when my sps tank is around 2 ppm. I keep it around 5 ppm. I test the no3 after 2 hrs.
I increase my No3 1 ppm per day.
 
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Uzair Aiman

Uzair Aiman

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Hi
The dose depends of the product. I use the stump removal. I dose it when my sps tank is around 2 ppm. I keep it around 5 ppm. I test the no3 after 2 hrs.
I increase my No3 1 ppm per day.
So, for the first dose, you dose it to 1ppm am I correct?
After its stable at 1ppm nitrate, do you dose 2ppm worth of Potassium Nitrate into the tank to raise it to 2ppm? And so on goes until 5ppm.

Do you need to dose it forever?
 

eraser2001

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So, for the first dose, you dose it to 1ppm am I correct?
After its stable at 1ppm nitrate, do you dose 2ppm worth of Potassium Nitrate into the tank to raise it to 2ppm? And so on goes until 5ppm.

Do you need to dose it forever?
You can dose until you reach your level.
You can set up a dose pump to do that, but you need to know how much tank consumes in a day. I did one time, but keep testing to avoid futures problems.
 
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Uzair Aiman

Uzair Aiman

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You can dose until you reach your level.
You can set up a dose pump to do that, but you need to know how much tank consumes in a day. I did one time, but keep testing to avoid futures problems.
So technically, if I was to aim 5ppm nitrates, should I just dump in 5ppm nitrates worth of potassium nitrate mixture directly? Or should I go slowly? Is there a maximum that can crash my tank?
 

DaneGer21

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I would try to switch to sodium nitrate. Currently you are adding potassium and it may not be needed.
 
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Uzair Aiman

Uzair Aiman

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I would try to switch to sodium nitrate. Currently you are adding potassium and it may not be needed.
is there a significant effect of elevated potassium in a tank? And for dosing Potassium Nitrate, how much potassium is really going on the tank in compared to nitrate? Is it 1 to 1?
 

DaneGer21

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There are products for adding potassium to our tanks, so I know it’s not an issue. But, without testing for it I wouldnt wanna add it. (It may not be an issue, but you never know)

I’m far from a chemist haha I’ll tag a well known one…

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I always went the sodium nitrate route. Because I didn’t wanna add or test for potassium, and two, sodium is salt which we know isn’t an issue.
 
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Uzair Aiman

Uzair Aiman

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There are products for adding potassium to our tanks, so I know it’s not an issue. But, without testing for it I wouldnt wanna add it. (It may not be an issue, but you never know)

I’m far from a chemist haha I’ll tag a well known one…

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I always went the sodium nitrate route. Because I didn’t wanna add or test for potassium, and two, sodium is salt which we know isn’t an issue.
I see, I’ll try to research more on the topic because I already bought a pack of Potassium Nitrate! Hahah and I’ve seen people successfully use it to dose nitrates to their tanks without mentioning a potassium problem. But thanks for the info and warning! I’ll see what I can find
 
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Uzair Aiman

Uzair Aiman

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Go slowly. For my sps tank, I like to keep at 5 ppm.
Alright, I’ll dose 1ppm nitrate and try to keep it there for now. If it’s already at 1ppm and stable, how long should I wait to raise it to 2ppm? A week sound good maybe?
 

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