dosing nitrate

[nitrous]

today i ended my blackout and was happy to see all my aglae was gone so today i tested my nitrate and it was still real low, about 1 ppm so i dosed 10 ml of nitrogen and hope this will bring my nitrate up and stay up. will i need to keep dosing to keep it up and also what makes it go down so low? the tank is a 20 gal planted with 48 watts or light and co2

also anything i need to look out for when i dose nitrogen?
thanks in advance

 

[rich311k]

The plants use the N to grow. When there is no N present the plants do not grow effectively and the algae is able to take over. If you keep you nitrates, phosphates and K at proper levels the plants use the nutrients more effectively than the algae and out compete it.

You need to test your Phosphate and nitrates every couple od days at the beginging to see how fast your plants use the available nutrients. You will get a sense of how often you need to dose. there is no way to test for K so you just need to add it, and watch to see if your plants show any signs of nutrient diffencies.

You will probably want to dose some traces as well. Add those on a different day.

As for putting the N in just dont add more than 10 ppm at a time and you should be fine.

 

[nitrous]

thanks and i added 10 becuase i was told to bring it up to 10 ppm first then steady more off from there and then ill test tomarrow to see how much after initial dose adn then on thursday to see if it got any lower

 

[nitrous]

also for dosing trates can i use flourish trace? i have nitrogen frm flourish and dont need excel because i have co2 and also what phosphate test kit do your recomend?

 

[rich311k]

You are better off using regular Flourish. The flourish trace is rather weak. I recommend the Seachem kit for phosphates.

 

[nitrous]

i just dosed 10 ml of nitrogen yesterday and now i check my nitrates today and they are still around 0 ppm
i looked at the liquid test tube against the card and i looked in the light and even with the card not in light and still iut was around maybe 2 or 3 ppm out of light and 0 in light so why is it so low? in the tank is only 2 chiclids so is that my problem?

thanks

 

[rich311k]

Test one more time. It is entirely possible your plants are starved for it.,especially since they are recovering from your blackout. If still reads nill I would add some more. Maybe dose 5ppm and test again tomorrow.

 

[Zezmo]

Flourish Trace is for use if you have RO/DI water and need to add minerals. It is a product for fish and not plants per se.
Regular Flourish is a trace element fertilizor, good stuf for plants, but it will not add significant Nitrogen.

10ml of Nitrogen fertilizor is not 10ppm of Nitrogen in your tank. (lol...i did a quick check, and if you are using Flourish Nitrogen, then by coincidence each 1ml raises the tank by 1ppm in a 20 gallon aquarium... that is a unique coincidence)

Are you using Seachem Flourish Nitrogen as your Nitrogen fertilizor? (there are over 5 products called Flourish by Seachem, this can make it confusing)

If using Flourish Nitrogen, and if doing 50% weekly water changes (which you should be IMO based on your tank description above), then you may have to add 1tsp at water change and 1/2 tsp every other day. If you are adding Nitrogen (N), then you should be dosing the otehr macro nutrients such as Phosphorus(P) and Potassium(K). I tried Flourish Nitrogen for a while, but gave up on it as it was too "weak" and I had to use so much it got expensive fast.

 

[nitrous]

im using seachem flourish nitrogen and ya i heard that if u dont have enough nitrites being produced in the water that there are not going to be enough nitrates converted could this be my problem with 2 fish?

 

[rich311k]

Yes you have a low bioload. Just means you have to stay on top of your dosing. Of course you can always get more fish.

 

[nitrous]

ya thats the tough part, i wnat to see if anyone can take my kenyi off my hands because the 1 peacock now has to sit in a corner all the time bc hes so mean so i can move my peacock into my other tank but the kenyi has to do something

 

[Glenc]

I have been using Flourish nitrogen to dose nitrates in my tank. I find it to weak as well, going through a ton of it, have just ordered 1 lb. of KNO3 from Greg Watson. Hoping it does a better job. Also I found some test kits won't read the nitrate in Flourish nitrogen. The Seachem nitrate test kit is one of them, I just picked it up. I have been using the Hagen kit, got the Seachem to compare, don't fully trust the Hagen kit. I can dose 20 ppm Flourish Nitrogen, the Seachem kit reads 0 nitrate. The kit is good as it come with a referance regent to check it. I checked it, it's fine. Makes it kind of hard to check your levels, going with pure KNO3.

 

[7Enigma]

Do a test for me please. Dose the tank to 10ppm nitrAte when the lights are off. Wait 30minutes or so and test the tank. Report back with the number.

I'm wondering if the nitrAte test you have is either bad or being performed improperly (or as GlenC mentions might not be able to test for the nitrogen). I'd hate for you to run into a situation where your tank level is actually really high (I think 1 or 2 other members on here have had this happen). If you are using the AP liquid nitrAte test you have to REALLY follow the directions for the test. Not shaking the bottles and tubes properly can give a VERY low nitrAte value.

 

[nitrous]

ya i do have the ap test and last time i did it twice trying to shake it as told but ill do it again with te lights off and then test again and follow directions to the exact second of shaking

 

[nitrous]

after taking enigma's edvice i took my nitrate test again and actually shook the tubes and bottle for the full time and it turned out to be higher which is good. since the ap test card only goes from 5 to 10 it was kinda hard toi tell between each so i think it was at about 7 bc it had more 10 color tahn 5 but not totally orange. so i guess thats good but im still planning on moving my kenyi and then the peacock in the other room and getting a nice school of tetras for the planted tank