Adding Nitrate via sodium nitrate

I wil be sure to do so. I am also a little leary about an algae bloom in my tank, but I figure phosphate of iron or another nutrient will limit the growth of the algae in the tank, after all plenty of reef tanks have nitrate values of >10ppm and don't have an algae problem.
~Chris
 
I don't want to get too off topic here...

I'm setting up a new 75g, it's cycling now, it has sand and live rock in it. A fellow reefer suggested I NOT RUN the skimmer right now, because he felt it would remove stuff that would hinder the buildup of nitrate. "Why would I want nitrate," I asked? I always assumed it was an unwanted by-product.

I'm still running the skimmer...but now wondering about the role of nitrate in a reef tank.
 
Well, a fairly simple answer is that nitrate is a nutrient in your tank, just like phosphate. Nitrate is changed to free nitrogen in anoxic environments by bacteria. If there is not sufficient anoxic zones in your tank you could possibly have excess nitrate. Nitrate is normally considered a bad thing because in the past it has been difficult to keep under control in a reef tank. With the current trend of deep sand beds nitrate is more easily kept under control. Sometimes nitrate in aquariums no is reduced to free nitrogen at at rate that makes the nitrate undetectable. This could potentially be a problem to some corals and other animals (clams) because they use the nitrate (nutrient) as a food source. In general you do not want nitrate in your tank (because most tanks do not get rid of nitrate at a fast rate).
 
Chrisaggie- things are much more different than they appear. You mentioned that clam farms dose their systems with nitrate and ammonium. Very true, but their systems are designed for clam growth and development, and any other life or conditions outside of this are secoindary to it.

I guess my moral is dont treat your systrem as a clam farmers system. They operate under completely different guidelines, goals, and parameters.

Along those lines, I have read that some people add stump remover, commonly avaiable at home improvement centers to dose the ammonium nitrate. Personally, Im not gonna put anything into my water that's not made for the aquarium, but that's me.

Personally, I cant imagine 10 fish in a 75 is creating nitrate out of your ears. What type of fish? How much do you feed? Adding food THAT WILL BE CONSUMED by the fish should circumvent your phosphate concern. I doubt the clam is "sucking" that much nitrate, but the DSB may be doing a number. Any thoughts on disbling that?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8770223#post8770223 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda


Along those lines, I have read that some people add stump remover, commonly avaiable at home improvement centers to dose the ammonium nitrate. Personally, Im not gonna put anything into my water that's not made for the aquarium, but that's me.


lots of people use chemicals for dosing their aquariums . many of the "made for aquarium" items are just repackaged chemicals.

you can buy $15 of aquarium kalk or $1.99 ms balls pickling lime

$15 for a few cups of aquarium packaged calcium chloride or a $12 50# bag of prestone driveway heat .

all kinds of stuff. no reason to pay for a label.
 
Oh yeah, I agree completely. But at least, if it says "put it in your aquarium", someone else has done it, and likely it didnt kill everything. They may add kerosene (totally hypothetical example) to the stump remover to make it smell different or something, but you dont know until eveything in your tank is dead.

Here's a related story- I once worked in a very high end veterinary clinic. In the waiting room, we had a 180 gallon reef tank, and 120 gallon with poison dart frogs, and a few small flights of finches and canaries- for the customers to enjoy while waiting. As I had much experience with all the above- I did the design and weekly "upkeep", but as this was not my full time job, we had an aquarium service company provide the supplies, and do water changes. So, the dart frogs aquarium got misted with R/O water several time a day by a mister system, and all I had to do was keep the reservoir filled- no problem. But, the frogs kept dying and I had no clue why. Until I questioned the aquarium service. Our "R/O" water was being dosed with red slime eliminator, as a precaution. This service does this will all their clients, but had never mentioned he did. Well, it does the same thing to dart frogs as it does to red slime. I dont blame he service, because they had no idea I was using the R/O water for other purposes, but it also made me mad, because it was not as labelled. I wont ever make that mistake again.
 
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