Sodium Nitrate Dosing...Help!!

[Docdiggy]

Would neo nitro work or just find some sodium nitrate? I'm still a little unclear on mixing a gallon batch and how much to dose with the sodium nitrate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Would neo nitro work or just find some sodium nitrate? I'm still a little unclear on mixing a gallon batch and how much to dose with the sodium nitrate.

It would,and very likely is fine, but it doesn't list a purity grade while food grade sodium or potassium nitrate has a purity assurance. :)

You can use this calculator:

http://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

or

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm


and if you choose sodium nitrate, enter KNO3 and use 16% less (so 0.84 grams if it called for 1 gram).

 

[Docdiggy]

Will this do?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes!

 

[drawman]

I wanted to bring this back from the dead because of some responses I read. Many are saying up your feeding, but what if you have high phos with no nitrate? I'm researching and would rather not use gfo if it's as simple as raising nitrates. I'm currently at 0 nitrate on a red sea kit and .1 phos with my Hanna.

Will this do?

I agree with Randy all the way. Also I believe that's the exact brand I used for my sodium nitrate that I dose in my SPS tank. When you get it we can help with dosing. Just make a stock solution and you can calculate approximately how much you want to dose.

 

[Docdiggy]

How many ppm can be dosed on the first dose?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How many ppm can be dosed on the first dose?

IMO, a value like 2 or 3 ppm is a fine starting dose. [emoji3]

 

[drawman]

Agreed, it will probably come back down a lot the first few doses. At least that has been mine and others experience so daily testing helps.

 

[BigJohnny]

How did this turn out for everyone that tried?

 

[Noel devlin]

Also waiting !!

 

[bcarl77]

Following along. Have 0 nitrates as well. Reduced the length of time the fuge light is on, this is the next option.

 

[drawman]

Sodium nitrate dosing has worked well for me. My biggest issue was I had to play around with dosing PO4 because my biomedia was so good reducing nutrients. Because of this dosing probably did more harm than good but the sodium nitrate is effective.

 

[lbacha]

I dose KNO4 and KH2PO4 and one thing I learned is tht the dose you need to build your nutrients back up is more than what you will need once you get them back to the level you need. I believe this is due to nitrate and Phosphate binding with the rocks and essentially creating a natural buffer. The benefit of this buffer is that if you don't dose for a day or two the nutrient levels will stay up as the bound nutrients in the rock are released into the water. I usually start slow now and wait a few days to a week before making any changes to my dosing schedule. The nice thing is once you get the dose dialed in it doesn't fluctuate a lot unless you make a major change

 

[rob safron]

This topic is at the top of my mind as I had been running near 0 nitrate (both tests show around 1 but Triton and ATI say undetectable) and phosphate vary .02-.04. Like most I have tried upping my feeding without change and I do have cyno and possible mild Dino. I have vinegar dosed for years without problems of alge till now. I have kick my vinegar dosing off a few days and now dose just 8 mls in 125 gallons. Started dosing nitrate and seems to take a lot just to keep it in that 1-3 range. Is it worth continuing vinegar and dosing nitrate or just stop vinegar dosing cold turkey??? Seems dumb to dose Vinegar while also dosing nitrate. However, I would hate to stop vinegar and all the sudden throw nitrates through the roof. Any benefit to dosing vinegar and nitrate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any benefit to dosing vinegar and nitrate?

Two, maybe three.

Reduction of phosphate, and production of bacteria as a food for many creatures.

The acetate in vinegar can also be directly used as a food source by higher organisms such as corals and sponges.

 

[ScottB]

Both my display and frag tank have been running low/undetectable PO4 and NO3. Sick of dumping tons of food in there and still have pastel colored sticks. Having made my way through this and three other threads on the subject, I ordered the Loudwolf brand sodium nitrate. Will start first on the frag tank (50g system) and go slowly.

Solution: 6 grams per 500ml of tank water
Dosage: ramp to 50ml per day

That sound about right?

Thanks everyone for contributing your experiences to this forum; I could never do this hobby so enjoyably (and successfully) without R2R and RC and the folks that make it so valuable to the hobby.

 

[Docdiggy]

I gave up on dosing that stuff. I'm sure it was probably something else, but corals started declining while using it. I'm gonna try low ALK and low nutrients and see what happens. I'm not sure if the LPS will suffer with an ALK of 8 or not.

 

[Docdiggy]

I gave up on dosing that. It seemed my corals started to get worse. It very well could have been something else, but who knows. I'm gonna try low Alk and low nutrients and see what happens. I'm just hoping the LPS do ok with an Alk of 8.

 

[rock_lobster]

I gave up on dosing that. It seemed my corals started to get worse. It very well could have been something else, but who knows. I'm gonna try low Alk and low nutrients and see what happens. I'm just hoping the LPS do ok with an Alk of 8.

probably something else. Ive been dosing it for years with great results. The main problem with dosing nitrates is that it can cause phosphate levels to plummet. Because free nitrates will stimulate algae growth to absorb all of the phosphate. It is important to test phosphate pretty frequently and make sure it stays above .03. In a normal system when nitrates are high phosphates will almost always be high as well because of the high phos content in foods.

 

[ScottB]

I run a mixed reef at around 8.6 ALK and low/ nutrient and LPS are happy. (But yeah, every tank is different.) Good luck!

In my case, I am just trying to get some of my newer acros back to the colors I saw originally. Despite dumping gobs of fish/coral food I can't get nutrient readings consistently above 0.

So gonna give it a try.