Should I Dose Nitrates?

[Huff747]

That's not nitrate. You are dosing Phosphate?

Sorry, didn't mean to highjack the thread, it was more a question about the linked calculator. It doesn't have an option for disodium phosphate which is what I have so I didn't know if I could use the potassium phosphate option and if it would be accurate for disodium phosphate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If I purchased disodium phosphate is the drop down for potassium phosphate the guide I should use for dosing?

No. Disodium phosphate (Na2HPO4) is 67% phosphate by weight. Potassium phosphate (K3PO4) is 44.8% phosphate.

So you could use the potassium phosphate entry, and use 67% (44.8/67) as much . So if it called for 1 gram, use 0.67 g. For volume measurement, the above ratio won't be perfect.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Never mind, I'm still figuring out what the calculator means by potassium phosphate. It is not literally potassium phosphate, K3PO4. :(

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, so I figured out the calculator thinks KH2PO4 is potassium phosphate lol

That material is 70% phosphate by weight. Thus it is close enough to directly use that mass entry for disodium phosphate, which is 67% by weight phosphate.

 

[Huff747]

OK, so I figured out the calculator thinks KH2PO4 is potassium phosphate lol

That material is 70% phosphate by weight. Thus it is close enough to directly use that mass entry for disodium phosphate, which is 67% by weight phosphate.

Much appreciated. Once again, not trying to derail the thread but I finally got the Hanna Ultra Low Phosphate checker and it read 0 as well (had previously been testing and reading 0 with the regular checker). So I guess I'm going to try dosing. It's been very confusing trying to reconcile everything. I do run a refugium for nutrient export and I've been doing ~5 gal water changes weekly on my 40 gallon breeder that's approximately 6 months old because I was originally working against some algae and higher nitrates and then both nitrates and phosphates started testing 0. I trimmed back my chaeto some and tried to manually remove algae that I could and that seemed to get my nitrates to come back up to where the test would actually read them but it would appear my phosphates are still 0. But at the same time I have cyano. This hobby isn't easy.

 

[jzw]

so, alchemists (and real chemists), does this order look about right?

i think bio-world.com's
minimum shipping charge is $22.50, so i'm trying to put eventhing in 1 lot. missing anything lol?

i'm planning on putting these 'organics' (nitrate and phosphate) on a doser, i consistently get zeros in my system.

 

[MTBake]

Fwiw, my dosing tapered off once the system was no longer deficient in phosphate and nitrate, which took 3-4 weeks of daily dosing. I now dose 2-4ml of each solution per week in my 40 gallon system if needed to keep a reading on test kits. Depending on your water volume, you might be able to cut down on those quantities;)

Not sure on the first line item in your invoice though. So can't comment on that.

 

[chevythang92]

Finanlly have 2ppm nitrates after dosing and now cyano .should I maintain a number and see if cyano goes away or let it fall and see where and if it goes away ? Would I be defeating the purpose by using a cyano rx .

 

[shred5]

Finanlly have 2ppm nitrates after dosing and now cyano .should I maintain a number and see if cyano goes away or let it fall and see where and if it goes away ? Would I be defeating the purpose by using a cyano rx .

How much cyano? A little cyno does not hurt anything and I do not know why so many people freak out over it. It is natural and I would rather have a little cyano than dinoflagellates.
You do not want a ton where it is smothering corals.

 

[chevythang92]

How much cyano? A little cyno does not hurt anything and I do not know why so many people freak out over it. It is natural and I would rather have a little cyano than dinoflagellates.
You do not want a ton where it is smothering corals.

It's not all over the sand yet i have some on the rock as well .just not sure if i should continue dosing sodium nitrate to keep it 2ppm and above or let it drop.

 

[shred5]

Two ppm is fine and if it were me try and maintain that. I do not remember why you started dosing but I am guessing it was to get rid of dinos or your nutrients were too low and corals went pale.
I would watch phosphate because it is easier to control algae by controlling phosphate. If your phosphate is reasonable the way I control cyno is with stuff that can compete against it. If you lower your nutrients too low dino's are likely to rear their ugly head.

I like to dose silicates to increase diatoms. Fish and snails prefer diatoms and recycle them and keep everything clean.
I also dose bacteria that will compete with the cyano.

 

[chevythang92]

Two ppm is fine and if it were me try and maintain that. I do not remember why you started dosing but I am guessing it was to get rid of dinos or your nutrients were too low and corals went pale.
I would watch phosphate because it is easier to control algae by controlling phosphate. If your phosphate is reasonable the way I control cyno is with stuff that can compete against it. If you lower your nutrients too low dino's are likely to rear their ugly head.

I like to dose silicates to increase diatoms. Fish and snails prefer diatoms and recycle them and keep everything clean.
I also dose bacteria that will compete with the cyano.

Nitrate was always 0 and phosphate was 33 before I started focusing in on them .I couldn't get them below 18 with rowa phos .so I started dosing nitrate and now phosphates are 0.04 and nitrates are at 2ppm.