Ideas on getting nitrates up

[warriorcookie]

Originally Posted by Myka

I have a whack of it if you want some.

Sodium Nitrate? Yeah that would be great.

I'll send ya a text later.

[warriorcookie]

Ok, thanks to Mindy I have Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3)

She has a post kicking around on the mixing instructions, with some assistance from RHF.

So, I mixed 30g NaNO3 with 500mL of RODI water.

10mL adds 440mg NO3 (based on molecular weight, NaNO3 is 73% nitrate by weight)

My combined volume is roughly 511L (135gal)
440mg/511L = .86mg/L (ppm)

.86ppm/10mL = .086ppm/mL
1ppm/.086ppm/mL = 11.62mL

So, in theory, I need 11.62mL solution to raise nitrate by 1ppm.


This should be interesting.

[tang daddy]

Wow math....

Having bit of phosphates is not a bad thing especially when you mentioned that your corals were pale, I guess if you have algae in your system that wouldn't help. I have almost the same fish load as you and feed the crap out of my tank, corals have definately darkened up abit lately but I'd rather have healthy corals than pale ones. I guess the prodibio method was working a little too efficient for you. I am currently waiting for the brightwells brick to see if that makes a difference.

Did you get your skimmer fixed yet?

I know by experience that ripping out phosphates too fast can have really bad effects on your tank, I am starting to dose reef bio fuel which is suppose to decrease nitrates and phosphates, just started today so cant really see if it works yet or not.

Keep us posted and hopefully your corals will bounce back soon!

[warriorcookie]

Agreed, some phosphates is good. But i have to run gfo to keep them below .1ppm.

And normally I'd leave it alone, but i'm trying to get nitrate off the floor. As i raise nitrate by feeding fish and corals phosphate is rising way faster.

My ideal range would be 1-2ppm nitrate and .05ish phosphate. I know I can't control that, but i'd like to get it close and balanced.

Yup skimmer is fixed and pulling some thick stinky crap out again.

[warriorcookie]

I couldn't get a read on nitrates last night. Am I the only one that has a hard time with the shades of pink on Salifert NO3?

So, this morning NO3 was .2ppm? Maybe?
And PO4 was .135ppm

GFO is just a small trickle so PO4 doesn't run away on me.

So, NO3 needs to go up and PO4 needs to go down. But that's why I'm here.

Added ~6mL solution last night.
Added ~12mL solution this morning.

I'll test again this afternoon and probably dose again.

For those of you just tuning in, ~12mL of NaNO3 solution should be a dose of ~1ppm NO3 for my volume of water in my reef.

[Tankboy]

I got some extra nitrates I can sell ya!!
LOL

[Myka]

I'm interested to see how this works out for you in the next 4-8 weeks. I think there will be significant improvement. Now, in my tank I need to add BOTH nitrate and phosphate. I can't even get a whiff in my tank.