# How do you dose Nitrates to a Tank?



## Hawkian (Oct 29, 2009)

Anyone ever had to do that? I think I need to dose some Nitrates to my tank but I'm not sure how to do that...


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Get more fish? Do fewer water changes? Haha. Never heard of anyone struggling to add _more_ nitrates to their tank.


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

no never had to do that,
why do you feel you need to ?


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## Hawkian (Oct 29, 2009)

In a nutshell, I have BGA. I read that BGA develops in low nitrates situations, which is my case. And with twice weekly water changes, those nitrates never have a chance to go above the 5 ppm mark. So I think I've found a way to eradicate the BGA but I'd like to create an "ecosystem" that has the proper parameters to keep the BGA from reappearing after it's gone and the way to do that is apparently to keep the nitrates slightly higher than what I have. I just cannot seem to find a way to properly do it... umm...


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## kelly528 (Aug 31, 2009)

WTH... I've never heard of algae developing because of a deficit of anything (unless that deficit is impeding plant growth).

According to the limiting factor rule, the limiting factor is the element (an element essential to plant growth) in the lowest availability, ie light, CO2, Nitrate, etc. So for example by the rule of limiting factors you could have all the lighting, and ferts in the world but if you arent providing enough CO2 the plants will still grow at a snails pace.

What I am getting at is that perhaps this deficiency in nitrates is limiting your plant growth which in turn is leaving an excess in other nutrients which then feeds the BGA?

In any case you can add nitrates to the tank by dosing KNO3 (potassium nitrate) which is a dry fert dosed according to the estimated index.

I recommend that you move this to the planted tank section though and give us all the stats of your setup including lighting, plants, etc. I'm sure there are simpler solutions to your BGA than adding more nitrate (which could simply bring on different algaes like GDA).


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

yep KNO3 is what you want to use. I would give it a go, 5ppm of nitrates is quite low for plants.


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## Hawkian (Oct 29, 2009)

OK so where does one buy KNO3?


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## Austin (Feb 1, 2010)

Can't you use ammonia too? Since the bacteria will break it down to nitrate anyways. Also I heard plants like ammonia for their nitrogen more than nitrates?


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## kelly528 (Aug 31, 2009)

Well that would depend on how fast/efficiently your filter works... if there you don't have the surface area to house enough bacteria to do the job all you are doing is subjectng yourself to ammonia/nitrite spikes.

Hawkian I'm not sure what ferts you're already using or what advice you're getting on the planted tank forum but I bought a set of dry fertz (including KNO3) from aquarfloranurseries dot com. Each fert is $5 per pound (except for the micros which are $12) CND. The guy is based in abbotsford BC and shipping is $12 flat.


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## Hawkian (Oct 29, 2009)

Thanks for the info Kelly528... I am not currently using any ferts but I will bookmark that site for when I do get some plants back...


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## kelly528 (Aug 31, 2009)

They have awesome plants too... for $12 you get 4 tropica pots worth of tissue cultured plants! I got some crypt parva from them and it never even melted when I planted it in my tank!


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## Redknee (Feb 21, 2010)

I dose with EasyLife Nitro and EasyLife Fosfo, 20ppm NO3 and 1.25 PO4.
Keeping a 16:1 ratio NO3-PO4 keps algae away BUT some may still survive... Still that ratio will help a lot.
http://www.easylife.nl/usa/index.html#nogo
P.S from my xp with easylife products i can really state that they have proffesional products not the usual garbage.


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