Dosing Nitrate to reduce Phosphate

That's true with small doses. I said it may not matter much. Nonetheless, I like using the aspartate at least for now.
 
Aspartic acid contains nitrogen and organic carbon in the form of an essential acidic ammino acid that living things incuding corals use . I account for the carbon part by reducing the vodka dose to off set the extra carbon.

So I assume that you can't skip the vodka all together. How much do you cut back on it when you use aspartate?
 
Since it has virtually no water in it and 80 proof vodka is 60% water I discount the vokda by 2.5 ml for each gram of aspartate I dose. I I would discount 5% acetic acid vinegar by 8ml per gram of acetate dosed.I'm sure a more precise comparison of organic carbon content of each is possible but that's close enough for me . I use the same conversions for any solid organic carbon source, eg, sugar, vitamin C, etc.
 
Since I'm running kalk + vinegar my nitrates are at 0. I don't dose vinegar separately. I also don't want to add any extra carbon source, if I can help it. So would calcium/sodium nitrate be the best for me? Also, where is the best place to get those from?
 
In my case, nitrate readings are very near to zero (Salifert) and phosphate readings are between zero and 0.008 mg/l (Rowa Merck). Do I need to dose nitrate?

I grow chaeto in my sump and also keep four large clams, which I strongly believe are the main sinks for nitrogen and phosphorus in my set up, which is 250 lt after displacement. In addition, I fluidise GAC and use a bag of purigen. I have recently stopped using GFO as I did not see any point in fluidising Rowa Phos any more. As expected the growth of chaeto accelerated a little bit, but phosphate readings did not change (still close to zero).

Cheers
 
I don't know that dosing nitrate in any form is necessary as a standard proceedure. If there is food in a tank or breathing fish some nitrogen( ammonia, nitrite or nitrate) is there. Again nsw levels are around 0.2 for nitrate and .005 pmm for PO4 at the surface. I think it's still experimental and I'm just tweaking things a bit for now. I like to get just a tinge of pink viewed from the side of the salifert NO3 test.
 
Discus, if you are satisfied with your corals and other animals and chaeto growth , I don't see a reason to dose it.
 
I use bio pellets and no matter what, every 2 or 3 months I have to dose sodium nitrate, or I get cyano, if I don't use gfo, it will happen before, so gfo extends the time for me, which is good as I hate dosing everyday.
 
I use bio pellets and no matter what, every 2 or 3 months I have to dose sodium nitrate, or I get cyano, if I don't use gfo, it will happen before, so gfo extends the time for me, which is good as I hate dosing everyday.

Where's the best place to get sodium nitrate?
 
Again nsw levels are around 0.2 for nitrate and .005 pmm for PO4 at the surface. I think it's still experimental and I'm just tweaking things a bit for now. I like to get just a tinge of pink viewed from the side of the salifert NO3 test.

:thumbsup: That's my opinion too.
 
started dosing nitrates using CaNO3. I poured 1 whole pound in a 600ml soda bottle filled with RO water. I was amazed at the solubility of this stuff. 1 whole pound (a full sandwich bag full of the powder) dissolved in it without reaching saturation (added in increments). The nitrates on my 80g sps tank have tested 0 using the Red Sea Pro nitrate test kit for months now. I started to dose 5 ml of the CaNO3 mix per day. I woke up after the 3rd day of adding the stuff to find my tank looking brown on the rocks/sand etc from bacteria. I tested my levels and everything was normal except my Ca had elevated 20 ppm and my nitrates now read > 4 ppm (4 is as high as my low NO3 test goes). No other real effects on my tank per se. I turned down my part 2 a tad and stopped dosing my CaNO3 per day. I'm going to test every other day to see how long it takes to come down. Clearly I need to dose in smaller amounts at this concentration. Perhaps 1 to 2 ml per day. My GFO/GAC reactor is still on. I might just take it offline this weekend.
Do you think there is any way I can add CaN03 to my part 2 dosing tank so that I don't have to manually dose from now on? Lend me your thoughts.
 
I was surprised at how little it took to bump nitrates by .5ppm. I'm dosing only 4 grams once per week now of aspartate for 650 gallons . It's no highly soluble ;'needs to be in gallon of ro water overnight
 
I found liquid nitrate under the brand name of NeoNitro by brightwellaquatics at my lfs for $10. The bottle is large, about 20oz, and is concentrated. Its easy to use and dosage info is right on the label.

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Yippee!

Final! After over 5 full years of running without export, I have algae growing! Since then I have had nothing but aeration from the dumping action and turbulence from power heads. Only this year have I needed to use a couple of jars of PlosGuard to bring the phosphates back down. It came down some and plateaued. I think that the rock was giving back phosphates that it was holding.

The thing is that I only dosed for a few days and then stopped. A few months later, I have the algae growing. Sorry but I don't have any parameters to quote from the past because I didn't have time to pay attention to a proper experiment so I discontinued the dosing without taking any readings.

I am including my current tests. As you can see, phosphates are high.
Early on, I was mostly feeding powdered food. For about the last year, I have been feeding my 130 gallon tank about 6 cubes, 25 ml of phyto paste and a couple pinches of flake food per day.

Unfortunately, I am going on vacation Wednesday and won't be back for 12 days so I don't want to dose anything more. I hope that it doesn't stop growing. It is a dark green very long and thin strand type.
 

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Thanks for the article Discus. I have not seen any bleaching but I only dose a very small amount . The article really doesn't give specifics. I think the premise is plaesible though.
 
Yippee!

Final! After over 5 full years of running without export, I have algae growing! Since then I have had nothing but aeration from the dumping action and turbulence from power heads. Only this year have I needed to use a couple of jars of PlosGuard to bring the phosphates back down. It came down some and plateaued. I think that the rock was giving back phosphates that it was holding.

The thing is that I only dosed for a few days and then stopped. A few months later, I have the algae growing. Sorry but I don't have any parameters to quote from the past because I didn't have time to pay attention to a proper experiment so I discontinued the dosing without taking any readings.

I am including my current tests. As you can see, phosphates are high.
Early on, I was mostly feeding powdered food. For about the last year, I have been feeding my 130 gallon tank about 6 cubes, 25 ml of phyto paste and a couple pinches of flake food per day.

Unfortunately, I am going on vacation Wednesday and won't be back for 12 days so I don't want to dose anything more. I hope that it doesn't stop growing. It is a dark green very long and thin strand type.

??
 
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