Potassium nitrate (Spectracide stump remover) dosing steps

[mcarroll]

I am sure someone out there could create a calculator to make people more comfortable. I found the process to much like finding ones Alk or Cal daily dosing amount. You mix up your solution and start with a small amount to see what your tank uses and go from there. I am actually glad @twilliard kept it simple.

I was talking about stuff that's already in this thread. :) You made my point though...even folks promoting this thread don't know about some of the great stuff in it.

One of our members created a spreadsheet based calculator, then put it on Google Docs. Then someone linked another calculator from elsewhere. So the ifo is already here. Just sorta hidden.

It's not a question of keeping it simple, it's a question of not allowing the info to remain hidden.

 

[mcarroll]

See post #330.

 

[atp0726]

I was talking about stuff that's already in this thread. :) You made my point though...even folks promoting this thread don't know about some of the great stuff in it.

One of our members created a spreadsheet based calculator, then put it on Google Docs. Then someone linked another calculator from elsewhere. So the ifo is already here. Just sorta hidden.

It's not a question of keeping it simple, it's a question of not allowing the info to remain hidden.

Sorry, wish I could give you that credit but I didn't mention those posts for reason. I thought it over complicated things and the calculators weren't that easy to understand. By calculator I meant a tool like the BRS reef calculator where you put in gallons and it spits out the dosage in ml. Again, as Twilliard said this isn't rocket science, mix it up as he suggests, dose conservatively based on his general guidelines and test. If I had to dose based on the calculator spreadsheet in this thread I probably never would have attempted it.

 

[mcarroll]

Hm. A simultaneously scientific and anti-scientific strategy. There's a good reason our brain has two sides! :D

I don't advocate shotgun approaches to dosing anything. Taking the effort to measure your water and measure your reagents is not complicated.

To each their own though – I'm glad if it's working for you.

I still do not agree with hiding good information that gets added to this thread just because one or two people like you don't like it. Even if @twilliard is one of them. (Is he?)

It's too bad.

 

[morpheas]

I have updated the Google sheet adding a tab named "simple" with the requested functionality for anyone that might be interested.

 

[Denisk]

Goodness... There was a lot of good information. My question is what would be the ratio of rodi to sodium nitrate? Thank you.

 

[morpheas]

Goodness... There was a lot of good information. My question is what would be the ratio of rodi to sodium nitrate? Thank you.

You can follow the simple approach and do pretty much what @twilliard said in his first post, test and see what you get.

You can also check my calculator (quoted above) which has tables for Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrate and Calcium Nitrate.

Whichever one you think fits your needs...

Hint: You are adding about 10% more nitrate using the Sodium Nitrate approach which means that things won't be too far off from the 2 tablespoons in a cup of RODI

 

[Denisk]

You can follow the simple approach and do pretty much what @twilliard said in his first post, test and see what you get.

You can also check my calculator (quoted above) which has tables for Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrate and Calcium Nitrate.

Whichever one you think fits your needs...

Hint: You are adding about 10% more nitrate using the Sodium Nitrate approach which means that things won't be too far off from the 2 tablespoons in a cup of RODI

Thank you!

 

[Denisk]

How much are you all dosing per day? I started off with 10ml and it raised my No3 to about 5ppm. Which I thought was great. But then I a day later after continuing my 10ml dose bc I thought that was good number it has decreased to being undetectable. Should I just keep dosing slowly more? My concern is won't that make the sps unhappy as well if nitrates are going up and down throughout the day and not be stable as well.

 

[mcarroll]

I would suggest either targeting a smaller number or not targeting a number at all.

Instead focus on smaller, but regular doses that have little or no impact on your test numbers....focus on watching the tank for changes instead of focusing on a particular nitrate number. And go slow!!!!

Then make adjustments on the same basis – results, not a test number. Remember that the full effects of a change can take weeks to kick in and really be noticed, so have patience too! :)

 

[Squadir]

it may have been covered before but any negative effects of dosing spectracide so far? should a user stop dosing vodka (carbon source) before starting?

 

[mcarroll]

You can theoretically induce bleaching if you overdo it.....so heed the advice to:

• START SMALL – no more than half of the recommendation IMO.
• Use the calculator
• monitor for nitrate changes AND phosphate changes
  
  • spikes or crashes-to-zero of either number are bad
• wait at least 2-3 weeks between changes so you can see changes in the tank
  • remember, you're looking for results, not test numbers
• if/when you do make dosing changes MAKE THEM SMALL

In my 100 gallon system, I never dosed more than 10mL per day....most of the time 5mL per day. I had one polyp on a Favia "burn out" and I'd never seen anything like that from this coral, so I have quit dosing.

I had gotten the result I was after anyway....my chrysophytes/dinoflagellates have been wiped out by easier-to-manage cyano and even a little bit of hair algae!

Turns out that chrysophytes are an oligotrophic algae...a benchmark of the health of naturally oligotrophic lakes and such...so a little stable eutrophication and they gave it up! ;)

 

[DarkSky]

You can theoretically induce bleaching if you overdo it.....so heed the advice to:

• START SMALL – no more than half of the recommendation IMO.
• Use the calculator
• monitor for nitrate changes AND phosphate changes
  • spikes or crashes-to-zero of either number are bad
• wait at least 2-3 weeks between changes so you can see changes in the tank
  • remember, you're looking for results, not test numbers
• if/when you do make dosing changes MAKE THEM SMALL

In my 100 gallon system, I never dosed more than 10mL per day....most of the time 5mL per day. I had one polyp on a Favia "burn out" and I'd never seen anything like that from this coral, so I have quit dosing.

I had gotten the result I was after anyway....my chrysophytes/dinoflagellates have been wiped out by easier-to-manage cyano and even a little bit of hair algae!

Turns out that chrysophytes are an oligotrophic algae...a benchmark of the health of naturally oligotrophic lakes and such...so a little stable eutrophication and they gave it up! ;)

I just started dosing today. I've been dealing with chrysophytes for at least six months.

My nitrates always test 0 - (salifert and red sea). Phosphates are either 0 or near zero (0.12ppm last checked). I currently have no fish in my tank and have been fallow for about 80 days, dealing with an ich outbreak. Fish are due to go back into the tank once my last round of prazi is complete.

My SPS in the tank went from colored to pale. Easy stuff like green and red montis are almost white. I've been ghost feeding, but clearly things are starving in my tank. I've taken my GFO offline and run strictly carbon. I skim for only 4 hours a day. I've been dosing marine snow and ghost feeding a half cube of mysis every other day. Still couldn't get my nitrates above 0.

I've yet to see any algae in my tank. I've sucked out and scrubbed most of my rock to deal with the chrysophytes, it isn't as bad as it originally was so hopefully I just removed enough silicate to limit them. I'm hoping that dosing KNO3 will bring me some algae so I have something to scrape off of my glass, haha. Coral coloration would be nice too. Everything is so pale.

w

 

[DarkSky]

Day 1 follow up - SPS that were previously bleach white are now light brown and showing signs of life. I even have polyp extension on some pieces I thought were dead.

I dosed 5ml of a 4 Tbsp/24oz mixture, which brought my No3 up to 5ppm. I didn't add any more today and will retest tomorrow. I had to bump up my Alk dosing - I try to keep my Alk @ 10, I was at 8.3 this morning, dosing 55ml a day. I test this weekly at the same time every day and my last test was Monday, right on the money at 10.0 with a Hanna checker. Could it be possible to see that much additional consumption in 24 hours? I'm not sure. I did just get new Alk reagent for my Hanna Checker, so that could be the culprit (or a bad test).

I noticed my RBTA tentacles were all a bit curled at the end. Normally it is bubbly and normal looking. Will continue to monitor.

 

[Bronc]

I definitely have to dose more Alk & Calc once I started dosing KNo3. The hungry corals are getting food and growing!

 

[Duberz]

Ok so I apologize in advance. I'm sure it's somewhere in this thread. I'm going to mix 1tbsp to 1 cup of rodi. I have about 60 gal total volume. I'm reading 0 on tests for nitrate. What is a good starting dose to get detectable readings?

 

[Bronc]

Ok so I apologize in advance. I'm sure it's somewhere in this thread. I'm going to mix 1tbsp to 1 cup of rodi. I have about 60 gal total volume. I'm reading 0 on tests for nitrate. What is a good starting dose to get detectable readings?

5-10ml

 

[Squadir]

anybody else get excessive film and cyano looking algae on rocks and the sand after dosing this? (its definitely not cyano)
dosed 3 ml for 2 days in a 75g in case you were wondering

 

[DarkSky]

Day 1 follow up - SPS that were previously bleach white are now light brown and showing signs of life. I even have polyp extension on some pieces I thought were dead.

I dosed 5ml of a 4 Tbsp/24oz mixture, which brought my No3 up to 5ppm. I didn't add any more today and will retest tomorrow. I had to bump up my Alk dosing - I try to keep my Alk @ 10, I was at 8.3 this morning, dosing 55ml a day. I test this weekly at the same time every day and my last test was Monday, right on the money at 10.0 with a Hanna checker. Could it be possible to see that much additional consumption in 24 hours? I'm not sure. I did just get new Alk reagent for my Hanna Checker, so that could be the culprit (or a bad test).

I noticed my RBTA tentacles were all a bit curled at the end. Normally it is bubbly and normal looking. Will continue to monitor.

Day 4 follow up. I'm having to dose 5ml daily of the spectracide mixture to keep detectable levels on my test kits. My alkalinity and calcium consumption has nearly doubled - I was dosing approximately 55ml a day of alk and I'm up to 100ml, still need to increase my dose as my alk check today dialed in at 6.7dKh!!! :eek:

Clearly, beneficial things are happening. The eye test hasn't shown any results yet but I'm hopeful after 14 days I'll see some clear improvement.

 

[CoralWealth]

Day 4 follow up. I'm having to dose 5ml daily of the spectracide mixture to keep detectable levels on my test kits. My alkalinity and calcium consumption has nearly doubled - I was dosing approximately 55ml a day of alk and I'm up to 100ml, still need to increase my dose as my alk check today dialed in at 6.7dKh!!! :eek:

Clearly, beneficial things are happening. The eye test hasn't shown any results yet but I'm hopeful after 14 days I'll see some clear improvement.

Any update here?