[kwirky]

Holy cow I didn't know potassium nitrate was banned! I'm still using the 1kg of potassium nitrate I purchased from quick grow about 5 years ago. I dose nitrate on my reef tank with an automatic doser (4 channel doser, 3 channels used for calcium/alk/mag and 4th channel for potassium nitrate).

I target 1ppm nitrate and have to tweak the dosing amount every month or so, by about 20% more or less typically. I test my nitrate weekly.

Back in the early 2000s I purchased a 50 pound bag of potassium nitrate because it was the only way to get it. I had to fill out dangerous goods forms & hauled it to my home. The stuff's not explosive unless you mix it with an accelerant like gasoline but I didn't know that at the time & thought I was driving home with a nuclear bomb in my little chevy sprint! When we moved off the acreage a year or so later I left it behind & haven't thought much of it since. I wonder if it's still there and I can negotiate to purchase it back from the people who bought the acreage? haha

If I keep on top of my nitrate and also dose iron 1-2x per week I notice less pest algae and flourescent greens in my corals do better. I get fewer localized bleaching in my more sensitive deep water acros, too. Before I dosed nitrates they'd be starved and if the lighting increased in the slightest I'd see little patches of bleached tissue on the deep water acros. I don't see that any more.