Spectriicide stump remover in a SPS tank

[duke62]

so it’s been 6 months now with no increase in my NO3. Tried skimmer off for a month with no water changes, feeding 3 to 4 times a day. 19 fish in my 180. I am barebottom which could be the cause. I read about the stump remover but older posts. Anyone have luck using it in their SPS tanks? If so what mixture did you use and how much a day did you add. This is my last resort. I’m giving it another month before I try this. Acros look very pale.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I’ve used it a bunch. I am currently feeding my tank about 2.2 ppm NO3 per day via my ATO using it. I mix 1 level tablespoon to 500ml of DI water. Then I add it too my ATO water at a ratio that I know about how much is getting dosed daily. I wouldn’t be afraid of using it with SPS, I have never had any SPS react badly too it, even when I have simply dumped it straight into the sump.

 

[duke62]

500ml equals to about 16 ounces?

 

[SuncrestReef]

so it’s been 6 months now with no increase in my NO3. Tried skimmer off for a month with no water changes, feeding 3 to 4 times a day. 19 fish in my 180. I am barebottom which could be the cause. I read about the stump remover but older posts. Anyone have luck using it in their SPS tanks? If so what mixture did you use and how much a day did you add. This is my last resort. I’m giving it another month before I try this. Acros look very pale.

Yes, I started dosing Spectracide a couple months ago. I have a Reefer XL 425 (112 gal total system) and the tank is 9 months old. Some of my SPS were beginning to lose color, and some of my LPS were closed up. I found both my NO3 and PO4 were at zero. I turned off my GFO reactor to bring up the PO4, and started dosing Spectracide potassium nitrate. I brought my NO3 up to 4ppm, and PO4 up to 0.06ppm, and within a week I was seeing a huge improvement in SPS coloration and LPS opening up.

I mixed up 1 tablespoon of Spectracide in 500 ml of RO/DI. I used this online calculator to determine the solution ratio and dosing amounts: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm


In my tank every 9ml of solution would increase my NO3 by 0.5 ppm.

Hope this helps.

 

[Breadman03]

A word of caution: Spectracide is potassium nitrate and its use can push your tank's potassium to undesirable levels. You might consider sourcing some sodium nitrate instead.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

It worked great for me when I wanted to keep phosphates down and see nitrates readable. Dosing eventually needed to be decreased so don't hook up a dosing pump and just let it go. To the potassium part, I never saw any rise in my potassium worth noting but I guess people who are dumping it in there might?

 

[Burrito]

do any of you dosing nitrate have a fuge as well? how would you account for how much nitrate cheato is taking up (phosphate for that purpose too). keep dosing untill you get a reading regardless?

 

[jda]

Search out the negative posts about using the stump remover. There are plenty of success posts, but also enough bad posts to at least need a few minutes of your time.

It is not hard to order some potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate that is lab grade. Amazon has them. A few days until arrival might be a good idea.

 

[shred5]

Search out the negative posts about using the stump remover. There are plenty of success posts, but also enough bad posts to at least need a few minutes of your time.

It is not hard to order some potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate that is lab grade. Amazon has them. A few days until arrival might be a good idea.

Yea Another thing is there is no control of what goes in the bottle as far as impurities or strength. One day they could add something else to it without warning since it aint made for aquarium use.

 

[lbacha]

You can buy kno3 or potassium nitrate from aquarium shops like GLA aquatics if you are concerned about what is in stump remover (spectricide) it’s a little more but not that expensive.

 

[ZaneTer]

1) Stop using spectracide. There is no guarantee to it’s purity. The company offers no such guarantees. Just buy KNO3 at food or lab grade. It’s so cheap.

2) It will not raise you potassium to any appreciable level Dr Farley has already shown this.

 

[DaveC]

Tried it and the few SPS I have didn’t like it. I will not be doing it again.

 

[greg 45]

Adding potassium is a win win for me . Check you levels .

 

[lbacha]

Adding potassium is a win win for me . Check you levels .

I agree I’m going to guess that potassium is low in most aquariums that have a fuge

 

[DaveC]

Don’t get me wrong, I will be adding potassium nitrate...just not from stump remover.

 

[duke62]

Well can anyone give me a link to a reef safe product they use? I can’t seem to find one

 

[DaveC]

I found this video helpful

Brightwell Aquatics
NEONITRO - BALANCED NITROGEN SUPPLEMENT - 250 ML

 

[jd-woodlands]

Are you using any GFO or any other phosphate reducers? I went through the same issues and I was able to finally raise my nitrates once I got my phosphates up. Took GFO out and it was same week everything started coloring up.

I’m just running a small refuge and a skimmer now and have phosphate and nitrates dialed in.

Algae is kept in check with high magnesium and chaeto.

 

[Jonreefer]

I am using stump remover and trisodium phosphate. Had zero nitrate and phosphate no matter what I did. Over feeding. Reef energy. Took off skimmer. I mixed 22g per 500ml that raise my 35g tank 1ppm. Been using it for about a week now and I have already started to see my sps pale colors starting to get small bright parts showing up. I do test before and after dosing everyday with my nyos nitrate and Hanna ultra low. Keeping things at 3ppm nitrate and trying to get to .003 but been around the .002 mark. Once I notice it starts not dropping off on my before test I will probably slow the dose or stop it. The only negative so far is my glass needs cleaned a lot more now.