Raising No3 Via Spectracide Stump Remover (Potassium Nitrate)

ReeferMadness80G

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So this test will be conducted on a 14 gal biocube with a 10 gal Sump so roughly 20 gallons of water.
My tank is SPS dominated
Reef Octopus BH50 Skimmer
Chemipure Elite
Jeabao dosing 2 part from Reef Grow and Kents Tech M Magnesium
I currently have 5 fish
Pair of Oscellaris Clownfish
Royal Gramma
Watchmen goby
Firefish
CUC
I have a bare bottom display tank with LR and in my Sump I have a 2 inch sandbed with live rock. (Chaeto died recently)
Cal-440
Alk-11dkh
Magnesium -1500
Phosphate-0.2
Nitrate- 0
pH-8.2
Nitrite-0
Ammonia-0
So I've noticed that my SPS seemed very lack luster about a month ago and I decided it was because my nitrates were 0 and with my heavy skimming and running NPX bioplastics I was stripping the water of nutrients. So I tried feeding heavily, 1 tsp of reef roids, 4ml of Acropower everyday and then half a cube of frozen Mysis (without straining) every other day. Tank started to appear dirty, then I had a cyano or diatom bloom. Dusty glass, red slime algae etc. still 0 nitrates! Three frags were affected negatively(2 Millie acropora and a Chesterfieldensis ),So I upped my CUC to combat the algae and stopped feeding as much.
I added the firefish at that point and changed the lighting schedule on the AI Prime HD to a simple 16k with a 3 hour ramp up and down. The light is about 5 inches off the water so I'm pulling like 100k LUX at the surface. Once my algae was somewhat under control I started to tackle the low nitrates problem a different way. Stump Remover

My Spectracide Stump Remover Data
Using 1tablespoon-1Liter @10ml dose=1.46 NO3
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

•Dosed 1 tablespoon of KNO3 into 1 Liter or 1K ml of RODI water, then I dosed 10ml into my tank.
-1hour later-0ppm No3
(I immediately added another tablespoon to my 1 Liter mixture.)
2tablespoon-1 Liter@10ml dose= 2.92 NO3
•Dosed another 10ml into tank
-1hour later-5ppm NO3
-14 hours later-10ppm NO3----PO4-0.00ppm
*I noticed a bit more color in 2 SPS and healthier appearance to torch coral and trumpet.
-19hours after dose-10ppm NO3
*corals are glowing a lot more under actinics
-42hours (present time)after dose-5ppm NO3

Everything seems to be doing well. I will update this thread as I go. Help is always appreciated. Please comment. Thanks
 
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ReeferMadness80G

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ReeferMadness80G

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I tested 5:45 on 1-16-17 and got <3ppm so I dosed 10ml and when I got home yesterday at 5:45pm and it tested 10ppm. Will test again today and it should be 3-5ppm which should yield a usage of 10ppm of No3 in a 48hr period. If it does I will begin dosing 10ml every 2 days.
 

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I've been dosing 10mL every two days also in my 150gal tank. And it has been keeping my nitrates between 2-3. I think I'm gonna try and bring them up a little higher. Do you dose it all at once or are you adding it slowly?
 

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Seems like it's going great! Just take it slow, I found that really just having 2-3 is fine and didn't see benefits from higher amounts. Only issue can be if someone gets too excited, just started dosing and might have a bad nitrate test and overdoses and nitrate spikes way up. Generally doesn't hurt anything, but not exactly great to spike anything (quickly) in a reef.

I always like to feed my SPS with nitrate, many will say just feed the tank more (which dosing nitrate is, but they don't mean that) but that can have other side effects like you have seen.
 

fragit

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Seems like it's going great! Just take it slow, I found that really just having 2-3 is fine and didn't see benefits from higher amounts. Only issue can be if someone gets too excited, just started dosing and might have a bad nitrate test and overdoses and nitrate spikes way up. Generally doesn't hurt anything, but not exactly great to spike anything (quickly) in a reef.

I always like to feed my SPS with nitrate, many will say just feed the tank more (which dosing nitrate is, but they don't mean that) but that can have other side effects like you have seen.

I totally agree with the feeding part. When I first started to try to boost my nitrates a little I fed the tank like crazy. My system is 150gal total volume, with 5 fish. I was feeding 3-4 cubes of frozen and almost 1 sheet of nori daily for a couple weeks and could not get my nitrates up at all. I was also running an ULNS which my corals did not dig at all. So I had to resort to chemical means. Now I can actually test nitrates when I do my test.
 
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ReeferMadness80G

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I just got home from work and the two frags I had that were bleached are starting to color up again! Wow! I can't believe I would ever think nitrates were a good thing! I will test in a bit but I'll upload a few pics now
 

Vaughn17

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Don't forget to monitor your potassium levels. After dosing KNO3 for four months, my K had climbed to 460 ppm, which is a little high. I switch to NaN03, which is food grade and thus less likely to be a source of contaminants.
 
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ReeferMadness80G

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Nitrates still at 10, it's weird I've noticed that my Cal Alk and Mag are all crazy now. Cal was 500 and magnesium was 1500+ (off chart) and Alk was 8. I usually keep them at 460-1400-10.5. Idk what dosing No3 has to do with those but it's definitely affecting them.
 
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ReeferMadness80G

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Ok so this is crazy, I've been dosing KNO3 for a little under a week and I've noticed so much growth and color! I've been keeping it around 10ppm!
Tested today at 5:45 and results were 0ppm NO3 so i dosed 10ml. Seems as if I'm utilizing 10ml of solution every 72 hours. I will test daily and hopefully on the 23rd I will show 0ppm so I can begin dosing 10ml every 3 days.
 

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