Pps dosing system. Now I have high nitrites and ammonia

[toaduck]

Is it normal to have high ammonia and nitrite readings after dosing pps system. This is my first day. Is it just the ferts causing a false reading? They have been fine forever before today after dosing. I say high but they are only .5 ammonia and.5 nitrite.

 

[wildroseofky]

Did you divide the Potassium Nitrate from Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4), Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4), Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4)? Most tanks do not need the Potassium Nitrate unless the nitrates are below 5 ppm. Adding them will cause a spike in ammonia and nitrite if you do not have enough plants to use it up.

 

[Brookster123]

Did you divide the Potassium Nitrate from Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4), Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4), Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4)? Most tanks do not need the Potassium Nitrate unless the nitrates are below 5 ppm. Adding them will cause a spike in ammonia and nitrite if you do not have enough plants to use it up.

I think you have it backwards.. nitrates are the result of ammonia> nitrites..

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[toaduck]

Did you divide the Potassium Nitrate from Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4), Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4), Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4)? Most tanks do not need the Potassium Nitrate unless the nitrates are below 5 ppm. Adding them will cause a spike in ammonia and nitrite if you do not have enough plants to use it up.

Yea that sounds reversed but I'm a noob

 

[rhsoto94]

Not to high jack, but on the subject of pps, do you always need Mgso4 in the mix? Ive read you do and don't.


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[Cthulhu]

This is weird, there is nothing in fertilizers that could cause ammonia and nitrites... I don't think it is related. Is it the only thing you changed, starting to dose ferts?

 

[toaduck]

This is weird, there is nothing in fertilizers that could cause ammonia and nitrites... I don't think it is related. Is it the only thing you changed, starting to dose ferts?

It is other than adding diy osmicote root tabs last week. I put them in deep. There was no spike right after the root tabs.

 

[wildroseofky]

I know it is back words but that is the way it happened for me. I dosed Potassium Nitrate and previously stable ammonia and nitrite raised. I didn't check my faucet water so the ammonia may have come from there. When I stopped dosing the PN my tank stabilized again. Tank was 2 years old. Weird things happen to me all the time. LOL

 

[PerfectDepth]

Did you test pH? What was your nitrate level before adding ferts? High levels of nitrates can cause the pH to drop quickly.

 

[toaduck]

My ph is stable at 6.5. Kh is always stable at 3 dkh. My nitrite readings are always 0 normally. I test every other day.

My nitrate levels are always around 15-20 ppm. They have always seemed to be a little high.

I'll test again when I get home. I did a 50% water change last night. After that they were 0 again and nitrate was 15 ppm or so. I'll see if they spike up again.

I would really like to get a few more fast growing medium light plants. They'll consume more nutrients and fill the tank out more. Any recommendations?

 

[toaduck]

Here's a pic

It's an older pic. I removed the bleeding heart tetras and re homed them.

 

[PerfectDepth]

My ph is stable at 6.5. Kh is always stable at 3 dkh. My nitrite readings are always 0 normally. I test every other day.

My nitrate levels are always around 15-20 ppm. They have always seemed to be a little high.

Yeah, nevermind. 15-20 ppm isn't too high. However, you have plenty of nitrates, so you can definitely skip adding the KNO3. Either way, my thinking was off. If you did have high nitrates that caused pH to crash, it would've happened whether you dosed KNO3 or not. One day's worth of PPS ferts wouldn't increase nitrates enough to cause any problems either way. (As long as you followed the directions carefully, and didn't accidentally overdose.)

 

[Cthulhu]

Here is a possible scenario :
- pH dropped for some reason. Nitrifying bacteria went inactive and ammonia changed to ammonium and accumulated.
- pH went back to 6.5. Ammonium became ammonia again. Nitrifying bacteria started processing it but there was too much, so you could detect ammonia and nitrites when you tested.

Or if you had done something that could have killed bacteria it could just have been a mini cycle, but you didn't seem to have done anything like that...

 

[toaduck]

I'm almost ready to blame these diy osmicote root tabs/capsules. Been reading online some bad experiences of them leeching if the substrate is disturbed.

 

[toaduck]

Ammonia and nitrite levels were totally normal today. 0 & 0. [emoji780] Don't know what the deal was