Adding Kno3 (Potassium Nitrate)?

[frogspawn74]

Has anyone one here ever done it?

This goes against every bone in my body. But I just can't figure out what my chalice's and some other LPS are struggling(mainly chalice and its not lighting). SPS are fine and zoas seem fine.
My guess with the zoas is that they do a better job at grabbing food particles and poop.

I dosed enough this morning that it should equal approximately 1ppm of nitrate.

Let me know if you have any thoughts one this. I am puzzled.

 

[Pife]

I have and do when needed. I had low no3 and high po4 and when I started dosing kno3 my po4 started to drop so be careful with that regard.

 

[frogspawn74]

my po4 wont budge as of yet.
I have been running gfo for over a year. Even used lanthium. wasn't readable for a week or so and back to .08.
I hope this helps with the po4. Would love to be running between .03-.05
I can't maintain it below .07-.08

I mixed 6tps with 2 cups of water and dosed 135ml at once. I am assuming that wouldn't hurt.

 

[Pife]

When I was doing it the results were almost immediate.

 

[frogspawn74]

hmmm ty for that info.
so this is a test every day kind of thing while dosing or until I see the pattern.

 

[Pife]

I seen nitrate an hour after testing when I finally dosed enough for my system. I'd test before you dose everyday.

 

[thabizness]

I did when I ran my reef fallow for some time. Best advice I can give - test and go slow.

 

[frogspawn74]

so far the one dose has held for 3 days now.
salifert is looking like 2ppm

maybe buying 3 pounds of the stuff was overboard

 

[Flippers4pups]

I have dosed Kno3 and still have some in solution in a gallon jug. Always had 0 No3 and Po4 and was feeding heavy. Took several days of dosing to get it up to detectable. Now I keep it at 10ppm and po4 at trace and hardly ever dose it now.

"maybe buying 3 pounds of the stuff was overboard" Yes, one pound has lasted me forever!

 

[Higher Thinking]

so far the one dose has held for 3 days now.
salifert is looking like 2ppm

maybe buying 3 pounds of the stuff was overboard

Well you can always use it on a freshwater planted tank! But yes, I've seen many threads about people dosing nitrate. The trick is just not to go overboard with it. Just like two part dosing or calcium reactor, you'll discover the consumption rate of your tank and then dose accordingly. I have heard some bad results with algae, but I'd say that was likely user error.

If you have zero nitrates and just want to bump it up a bit, there should not be any problem. Why else would people say to maintain at a particular range unless it's better to be in that range?