Potassium Nitrate Dosing?

[What_The_Frag]

My system has been running a too clean the past month (0ppm Nitrate & 0ppm Phosphate) and after the May meeting this past Saturday I've been thinking about dosing potassium nitrate. I've had 1 of my SPS brown out a bit so I'd like to curb this before it happens to any others. I've been feeding my tank light crazy the past 3 weeks but can't get my nitrates and phosphate to any readable level. I run GFO and carbon in a dual reactor from BRS and I'm using 1/3 the suggested amount. I also grow cheato in my sump at night to try and limit PH swings.  Below are my questions, I appreciate your help!

• Is there much of a difference in dosing Spectracide vs the "high purity" stuff I see for sale online? 
• Where can I buy Potassium Nitrate locally?
• How much Potassium Nitrate should I mix in a 1 gallon jug for running on my doser?
• Should I stop running GFO?

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by theDSBlack

[danlu_gt]

No point dosing potassium nitrate if you're running GFO and carbon.  GFO will just strip out the potassium until GFO is depleted.

I suggest removing GFO and carbon reactors.  If nitrate and potassium are still zero after a week or so, reduce cheato photo period.

[Optimusprime3605]

I was in the same boat with zero nitrates and undetectable phosphates.
The answers I received were to increase nutrients in my system, which I did by dosing acro power, in addition to my feeding of 6 to 8 cubes per day.
Also, to increase my bioload by adding more fishies. I have 3 fishies (blonde naso, yellow belly hippo and powder blue) on order at the moment, should arrive by Friday.
By just doing so, my trates are at 2 and my phos are. 03. My hopes are to raise the trates to 10 with the help of extra fishies.
Someone also, mentioned using stump remover (spectracide), which I also heard works but went in a different direction.
As Daniel mentioned, I would remove or lessen the things you have that are stripping away your nitrates and phosphates.
I could be just blowing smoke, but I hope it helps...even a little [emoji39]

Sent from my man cave while drinking Coronas at Holly's [emoji481]

[What_The_Frag]

Thanks guys, I'll try tapering off the GFO and increasing feeding gradually. This would be a much simpler approach. I appreciate the info!

[pdxmonkeyboy]

My suggestion would be right in line with the others.
When my phos gets a little high.. like .04 i turn my gfo on (faster than normal alage film on the glass is a clue to test).

When it gets to around .02 i turn it off.

If you have a big ball of chaeto then i would harvest half of it, thereby reducing nitrate export.

But to answer your question, spectracide is pure enough and here is a dosing calculator. http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[What_The_Frag]

On 5/14/2018 at 10:29 PM, pdxmonkeyboy said:

My suggestion would be right in line with the others.
When my phos gets a little high.. like .04 i turn my gfo on (faster than normal alage film on the glass is a clue to test).

When it gets to around .02 i turn it off.

If you have a big ball of chaeto then i would harvest half of it, thereby reducing nitrate export.

But to answer your question, spectracide is pure enough and here is a dosing calculator. http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

Thanks, my cheato has been growing like crazy so I'll work on harvesting more often. I normally do that every other week so I switch to weekly and see where the numbers end up.