Potassium nitrate (Spectracide stump remover) dosing steps

[twilliard]

So I added approximately 60ml of seachem flourish on
October 8th to get my first measureable amount of nitrates in my barebottom 120. I tested using salifert at 2.5-4ppm and I have yet to see a drop below that level since. Is this normal? I remember reading that it's possible that my tank just needed a kickstart. Side note is that my tank is fallow and I only have a large cuc but my brown snotty diatom algae will not go away and is definitely getting worse. It used to be only on powerheads, overflow, and the back glass , and now it has moved to my rocks and is really getting disgusting. I recently changed my filter socks but I haven't done a water change since 9/16/15. I turned up the flow and my t5 and LED lighting periods have been reduced. I am ghost feeding pellets every other day to keep the bacteria alive. I'm also running gfo. Tank has only been running since June. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

Sounds like its all going well
I would just keep up with tank maintenance and let it run.
Now your no3 at this point isn't being taken up because there is nothing much to uptake it. Once you start getting corals or a diverse refugium then you will see a decrease in no3

 

[Jimbo]

Has anybody used sodium nitrate instead ? I picked up a bottle on Amazon. Would the 2 Tbsp per 2 cups mix up a similar solution as the potassium nitrate?

 

[twilliard]

I would mix it up and test the no3 level.
It does take some time to find the baseline of dosing no3

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Has anybody used sodium nitrate instead ? I picked up a bottle on Amazon. Would the 2 Tbsp per 2 cups mix up a similar solution as the potassium nitrate?

It won't be noticeably different, but the sodium nitrate is a little more potent.

 

[7hogwarts]

I am curious why potassium nitrate doesn't raise potassium levels?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I am curious why potassium nitrate doesn't raise potassium levels?

It does, but not enough to worry about. It boosts potassium about half as much as nitrate, so adding 2 ppm nitrate adds 1 ppm potassium. Against a background of 400 ppm potassium, that isn't very significant.

As menntioned above, sodium nitrate is obviously a good alternative, but not as readily available to many folks.

 

[7hogwarts]

Thanks, My potasium levels are around 345 according to the Salifert test. so I don't mind them going up.

 

[twilliard]

It does, but not enough to worry about. It boosts potassium about half as much as nitrate, so adding 2 ppm nitrate adds 1 ppm potassium. Against a background of 400 ppm potassium, that isn't very significant.

As menntioned above, sodium nitrate is obviously a good alternative, but not as readily available to many folks.

Thank you Randy!

 

[Tango2]

Just came across this thread. Very interesting info. I've been battling high PO4 levels and algae for some time now, but my ammonia, nitrate and nitrites have read 0 for as long as I can remember. I don't fully understand the chemistry side of things, but understand that carbon dosing can help to reduce po4. After reading this thread, I think this may be a potential solution as well.

I'm having some of the same symptoms with sps and Zoas as others in this thread. Can anyone explain how increasing nitrates can reduce po4 levels? I don't quite understand this part.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just came across this thread. Very interesting info. I've been battling high PO4 levels and algae for some time now, but my ammonia, nitrate and nitrites have read 0 for as long as I can remember. I don't fully understand the chemistry side of things, but understand that carbon dosing can help to reduce po4. After reading this thread, I think this may be a potential solution as well.

I'm having some of the same symptoms with sps and Zoas as others in this thread. Can anyone explain how increasing nitrates can reduce po4 levels? I don't quite understand this part.

If your goal is to help with your algae, it is unlikely to accomplish that. It might make your algae grow more and so help reduce your phosphate, but that might not be what you want to accomplish. If it really is very low, it may help with the corals (and the algae).

Organisms such as algae and bacteria need sources of both nitrogen and phosphate. If either are too low in concentration, they won't grow (or grow slowly). If you add more of the one that is in limited supply, they may grow faster, and when growing faster, will use more nitrogen and phosphate.

So in some tank where nitrogen sources are so low that they limit export methods, such as with macroalgae, adding some may help it grow faster and reduce nitrate. The same can be true in reverse, if phosphate is too low and it is limiting growth.

FWIW, having 0 ppm nitrate on most test kits does not necessarily indicate that the nitrate is low enough to be growth limiting.

 

[aop]

Hi R2R fans!
Here I have another write up this time about potassium nitrate.
With this I hope to answer all the questions I have received.

This step by step is for my 80 gallons total volume.
I run the full triton method so your uptake of no3 will be different than mine.

First lets start with the product.
Potassium nitrate
This is what the Spectracide stump remover consists of.
There are many sources for this if you look it up. My wife is an Amazon shopper so that is where I got mine. You can find potassium nitrate every where!


(Sorry my tablet doesn't take the best shots lol )

Now lets move on to mixing this stuff!
Grab yourself a set of measuring spoons. Put 2 tablespoons in a clear plastic cup



Now fill the cup to the first line with RODI water



Stir well!



It will come out clear and doesn't take long to mix
Now after dosing make sure you put it in a sealed container!



Now lets get to dosing this stuff
You will want to have plenty of no3 tests on hand to start out. Your no3 will decrease substantially over night so you have to keep an eye on it. I was testing every day till I figured my daily consumption rate (which changes slightly day to day)
Now in my 80 gallons of volume 10Ml of this will raise my no3 by 1.5 ppm
Here is a before shot taken today



I added 10Ml of my solution and waited an hour to re-test



Bingo! Right on the nose
Now I get a lot asking "is this safe? Does this increase potassium ?" The straight simple answer??
No
Here is 30 days of use. Triton ICP test

I will get a better picture of this for some reason my d40 shots are missing from my sd card

I hope this answers a lot of questions and thank you for reading
-Todd

So if my tank is similar to yours in volume? 75g plus 20g = 95g should I start dosing 10ml like u and just once daily?

 

[twilliard]

So if my tank is similar to yours in volume? 75g plus 20g = 95g should I start dosing 10ml like u and just once daily?

I dont dose mine daily. I test for consumption so as of now I dose once a week to keep a stable 2ppm in my tank

 

[aop]

So shall I keep adding today until I see a rise to 2ppm? Or just add once daily until it reaches a level then go from there? Also I don't have a plast cup but I have a measuring cup, 1 cup ro/di with 2 tblspn kno3?

 

[twilliard]

1 cup per 1 tablespoon of nitrate

 

[alten78]

This has been a Godsend for me, always struggled keeping NO3 and PO4 up, started feeding meaty foods heavier and dosing this for about a month and seeing pretty good results. Still need to raise it higher, but I'm currently dosing roughly 20ml a day in my 75g mostly sps frag tank.

 

[twilliard]

Now that is results!

 

[twilliard]

So shall I keep adding today until I see a rise to 2ppm? Or just add once daily until it reaches a level then go from there? Also I don't have a plast cup but I have a measuring cup, 1 cup ro/di with 2 tblspn kno3?

Yes correct as noted though 1 cup to one tablespoon

 

[trahelyk]

FWIW, having 0 ppm nitrate on most test kits does not necessarily indicate that the nitrate is low enough to be growth limiting.

Can you elaborate on this statement, Randy? It seems to contradict the thought behind this thread, that we should try to get nitrate up to between 2ppm and 5ppm, no? My understanding of what we've uncovered in this thread is that I could have nitrate well into the low range of the Salifert test (say, 0.2 or 0.5 ppm) and that levels that low could be starving SPS. Our target should be between 2 and 5 ppm, right? So if a 0 ppm reading doesn't necessarily indicate a growth-limiting level of nitrate, would a 0.2 ppm reading indicate that there is definitely enough nitrate?

Perhaps the minimum necessary level of nitrate is somewhat debatable, or varies depending on the amount and variety of coral in the tank?

 

[twilliard]

There is no set ppm requirement.
To me its finding the right level of no3 and when that level gets close you will see change in the tank.

 

[TheEngineer]

Great thread! The conversation is focused mostly on SPS which surprised me. I thought this would be much more geared towards the softie crowd. I'm thinking of trying this in my tank. I only keep zoanthids.