# [Wet Thumb Forum]-maintaining nitrate level



## Rich M (Mar 6, 2004)

It was pointed out to me that I need to maintain 5-10ppm of nitrate. My 55gal has been registering .05 and more recently .0. I'm dosing with Seachem Nitrogen to raise the level but each time I achive it it's quickly depleted back to near 0 (about an hour later). I'm concerned with overdosing by adding nearly 15ml at a time. How much is too much and how often? Will the plants/tank eventually stabilize this high nitrate consumption?


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## Rich M (Mar 6, 2004)

It was pointed out to me that I need to maintain 5-10ppm of nitrate. My 55gal has been registering .05 and more recently .0. I'm dosing with Seachem Nitrogen to raise the level but each time I achive it it's quickly depleted back to near 0 (about an hour later). I'm concerned with overdosing by adding nearly 15ml at a time. How much is too much and how often? Will the plants/tank eventually stabilize this high nitrate consumption?


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

I understand that you don't have CO2? 

If so I would cut back on your light to the two 40W no fluorescent for about eight hours a day. 

How long have you had a heavy load of plants?
Watch your plants. If you start to see new growth add NO3 but I wouldn't add 15ml at one time. Dose one night and test the next. Does 3-5ml at a time. You might need to do this several days in a row but with out CO2 I wouldn't try and get NO3 over 5ppm. I would feel safe around 3ppm. In a low tech tank I wouldn't worry about PO4. Feed your fish should give you a safe level of it.

Are you adding any thing else like Flourish? In my plant holding tanks I don't have any CO2. These tanks have about 2w/gal light. I run the lights for 6-7 hours and the only thing I does is Kent Pro-Plant once/week and half the recommended does. Things are fine without any algae. A lot of the info you read here is for CO2/high light tanks. Dosing high levels of fert in a low tech tank is just going to cause algae out breaks.

Hawk


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## imported_shalu (Feb 13, 2004)

Soon you will realize like most of us did, that dosing liquid macros is just a waste of money. It is much cheaper buying KNO3 from places like gregwatson.com. How can you measure 0.05ppm NO3? You have some super accurate magic machine?


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## imported_baj (Aug 5, 2004)

I was wondering that too, 0.05 is amazing resolution, is it like a military grade chemical weapons detector thing?...
Rich I dose no3 with a kno3 solution, cheaper and immediately detectable results, but like Paul said i would take it small steps at a time since there is no co2 which enables the plants to use the nutrients more efficiently so they outcompete algae. If you suddenly overdose macros and the plants are not able to take it up quickly enough the algae will gratefully take the excess. I use Red Sea, Nutrafin and Aquarium Pharma. test kits, though they dont resolve to microlevels they are good enough.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I use Green Light Stump Remover (potassium nitrate) to dose nitrates. I tried using the liquid nitrogen and could not get the nitrate levels up either.


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## Rich M (Mar 6, 2004)

Right, no Co2 injection but am dosing with Excel. My nitrate test that gives me .05 is the Seachem test, very light purple color = very low level, no rocket science there









I always thought that my high fish load (5 large goldfish, 3 medium/large Brig snails) would provide too much phosphorus and nitrate but have consistently had approximately .07 and .05 respectively. I don't overfeed and I keep the tank relatively clean. Plants suffer and algae thrives.

If nothing improves by trying the new nitrate/phosphorus ratio I will try less light and shorter duration. I was under the niave impression that more light is better. Being well under 3wpg on a rather large tank I always considered my setup moderate to low light as it is.

I have experimented with Flourish dosing 4ml twice a week (increased spot algae) down to 2ml once a week but never really noticed an improvement.

I have always tried to keep the tank heavily planted but due to mortality/algae it usually ends up back to moderate. It is heavily planted again as of earlier this week.

I will eventually switch to PMDD but until I get a handle on things I thought using the Seachem line would be simpler. It's interesting that someone else had trouble getting a detectable level using Seachem nitrogen. At the rate I'm dosing I'll use it up soon enough and be able to switch to the stump remover!

I will gradually try to bring up the nitrates with smaller doses. However according to the formula on the bottle (confirmed by an email to Seachem) to raise the level to 5ppm (which is what I've been trying to achieve - 10 seemed too high) in a 55gal the dose is 13.75ml.

Thanks very much for everyones help. I hope I can keep this latest batch of plants as the tank looks good again for a change.


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## ChiDONEt (Sep 16, 2004)

Rich.
Check the scale, I belive that you make a mistake with the dot. Is very hard to measure 0.05 i think that should be 0.5 mg/l. And if you have goldfish i think that is a god level.


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

Rich you are treating your tank like its a high tech tank and its not. With out CO2 and high levels of light, by adding levels of fert as if it was is just feeding algae. If you are adding Flourish at 4ml is way way to much for a tank without CO2 and high light. Even 2ml is more then you need for your tank. I bet this is the cause of your algae. I think Goldfish have very heavy bio loads so I don't think you have a problem with NO3 or PO4. You should have plenty from fish waste and feeding. I am not sure about excel. I have not use it but I would stop using it for now. 

How old is you test kits? I had a old Seachem NO3 kit give me bad readings before. I over dosed and had a bad out break of algae. It is really hard to get a reading of there color chart I don't even try any more. The color I get on NO3 and PO4 kits don't match so I go by the darker the color the higher the levels rule too.

What I would do is water change every day for four to five days and stop dosing for a week. Remember you are not going to get a fast growth in plants in a low tech tank. I would use Kent Pro Plant. Its got every thing you need in small amounts. 

Hawk


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## imported_baj (Aug 5, 2004)

Hawk, I read somewhere that although seachem does not advertise it, flourish xl has algaecidal properties, confirmed by some aquarists. I believe I read it in the Seachem section of APC.
-b


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

I really don't know I've never used it. But if it dose it must be very small amounts. Rich's tank has allot of algae.

Hawk


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## imported_baj (Aug 5, 2004)

I agree, dosing excess xl now will cause more harm than good. IMO, and from what I read, it acts as a preventive measure.


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## Rich M (Mar 6, 2004)

My test kits are good, I tested them against the control samples provided with the tests. 

And yes, I was incorrectly adding a zero after the decimal point, sorry about that!

Happy to report that algae is showing some signs of remission. Film and spot on the glass grows at less than a third of it's former rate. I'm going to bump my water change up to every 5 days (the time that algae begins to reappear) rather than waiting the full 7 days as I had been. My well established moneywort has actually shed most of it's bba and all of it's green algae. I have a nice thick stand and it looks great, the highlight of the tank. However, the recently added plants that are still acclimating don't look good. As soon as new growth appears the algae smothered parts will be trimmed out.

I'm about to try DIY Co2 to see if that will help achieve a better balance for the plants. My ph is rather high at 7.8 and I think (hope) lowering it a bit may allow the plants to take up nutrients more efficently. If it works I would like to get pressurized eventually.

Even with my high bio load wouldn't a nitrate of 5ppm be of benefit to the plants (and algae control) even though my tank is not "high tech"? My phosphorus is always .7ppm while my nitrate remains at .5 or less.

Thanks for the advice on reducing ferts, I'll hold off all together for a bit and then start a much lower dosing regimen. I also reduced light by 1 hour and that may have helped as well. 

Thanks again for all the help!


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