Sodium Nitrate Question

stumpyid

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I have been dosing Brightwell Neonitro for around a year. Just purchased some Loudwolf Sodium Nitrate and trying to figure out the correct amount to mix with 2L of water to end up with the around the same strength as the Neonitro.

Thanks chemistry experts!
 
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stumpyid

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So with my simpleton math, 1ml of Neonitro will increase 1 gallon by 7.5 ppm. ASSUMING all sodium nitrate has the same potency I need .0463 grams per 1 ml to raise the nitrate by 7.5 ppm or 92.6 grams per 2 L bottle. Anyone confirm this? Thanks!
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Hi Randy,

I just have it set up on a Red Sea doser. Guess there is no reason that I cannot change it. Just trying to get a cheaper route than the Neonitro.

Thanks for your input.

OK, that should work fine. :)
 

exnisstech

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Hope this isn't hijacking but since my question is about dosing sodium nitrate I thought I would post here rather than start a new thread. I'm going to start dosing sodium nitrate to try and get no3 up. In this particular tank it has been barley detectable for a few years but things were good. I recently rescaped the tank and am having a go at some sps frags. Yesterday po4 was 0.43 and no3 less than 1 using Hanna for po4 and salifert kit for no3. My rocks are covered in hair algae so I'm hoping if I get no3 up a little it may help balance things out. I only have 2 fish and a shrimp but feed pretty heavily with frozen mysis twice a day with return pump off so food blows all over as I have a few LPS on the bottom. I'm already feeding heavily that's my reason for trying sodium Nitrate to bring no3 up. If you stuck with me through my long windedness my question is once I begin dosing and get no3 up do I have to continue dosing indefinately or once the nuisance algae is gone can I back off and just keep an eye on things. I tend to keep things simple and am not chasing any particular numbers just trying to get rid of the algae so I can put the frags on the rock work
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I would not expect boosting nitrate will decrease the algae, but it is still the right thing to do (IMO).

I think you just have to wait and see if you need to keep dosing nitrate, but if you somehow reduce the algae, the demand for N and P will decline.
 

exnisstech

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Thanks Randy. I think I've been reading too much lately and read somewhere that low n and high p can cause algae. I figure the algae will go away on its own eventually. I pretty much did a reset I think when I brought in rock from another system and redid the tank. The sps frags are hohum and some browning so hopefully raising n will help with that. If not it gives me something else to to tinker with which I don't mind. Keeps me busy.
 

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Thanks Randy. I think I've been reading too much lately and read somewhere that low n and high p can cause algae. I figure the algae will go away on its own eventually. I pretty much did a reset I think when I brought in rock from another system and redid the tank. The sps frags are hohum and some browning so hopefully raising n will help with that. If not it gives me something else to to tinker with which I don't mind. Keeps me busy.

I think some folks have gone wild with ideas of nutrient ratios being some sort of magic cure for pests.

without any doubt, for algae growing by itself, adding more nitrate will not slow its growth. That’s just not a thing that happens and there’s no mechanism that folks can even hypothesize to defend it.

It gets more complicated when multiple organisms are competing for space or trace elements, etc. In that case, boosting N or P can boost some organism that wasn’t getting enough at the lower levels, and that boosted organism may out compete some other organism. But if that’s the effect one is going for, it’s a reasonable question to ask what is going to outcompete the existing algae, and is it any better?

In the case of Dino’s, this is a likely mechanism, and most folks would rather have any organism on the rocks other than Dino’s.
 

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