what is used to increase nitrate levels ?

[dan dan the fish man]

i have a nitrate level of 0.00 and my phosphate is around 0.25-0.5 im thinking i need to increase my nitrate levels i have a heavily planted tank running a co2 system and my plants show signs of yellowing on some parts of the levels down low i want to correct this problem be for it gets out of hand what can i use to increase my nitrate ? has anyone experienced this problem be for ? if so what did you to correct your water parameters ?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

You having a healily planted tank will be the reason for no nitrate.

You could use plant food which contains nitrate, are your plants looking bad. Someone may have had this problem, have a look in the plant section.

 

[Phantom Thief]

I haven't a clue!!! Most people post here asking for ways to reduce them, i think you may be the first who wants to increase it! Is there some fertilizer or something that has nitrates, maybe?

P.T.

 

[dan dan the fish man]

well im using fertilizer everyday actually and also monitoring FE levels i heard that a nitrate level of 10 ppm was beneficial is this correct ?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

well im using fertilizer everyday actually and also monitoring FE levels i heard that a nitrate level of 10 ppm was beneficial is this correct ?

I wouldn't know why. If you have fish in the tank, there will be a constant supply of waste for the plants to feed on. I see no need to 'achieve' a level of 10, the plants will be using the waste as they go along.

 

[sunflower]

As far as I know they just need to be below 40, so I guess 10/20 would be fine.

 

[karrihug]

i have the same problem. i have 0 nitrate in most of my tanks. they are all pretty heavily planted. I have tried leaf zone but it doesn't seem to help. most of the aquatic fertilizer i find is mostly iron. root tabs are doing a fairly decent job for my swords.

 

[Dubby]

You can add KNO3 to boost your nitrates. Several other ways to do this ....

Add balls of clay with a pellet of osmocote inside to the substrate
Go the PMDD route. See PMDD

 

[Bangin]

You can use Green Light Stump Remover (Pure KNO3) available at Lowe's to dose nitrates. This is what I use, and it works well.

Don't go using any Stump Remover, because not all of them have been confirmed as 100% KNO3. Use Green Light.

 

[Bangin]

For those of you saying fish supply all of the food, you've obviously never had a heavily planted tank. Fish cannot keep up with the demands of plants. If nitrates stay at 0, you'll have diminishing plants and an algae problem. You must dose nitrates in order to maintain a healthy planted tank.

Btw, 10ppm is the amount of nitrates you want.

Here's a great article from Chuck that tells you how to add nitrates to the aquarium.

http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nitrate.htm

 

[Cheese Specialist]

For those of you saying fish supply all of the food, you've obviously never had a heavily planted tank.

Maybe I am imagining all the plants in my tanks (as per the links in my signature).

 

[Bangin]

My comment wasn't an attack, but I didn't want to misinform this member. If he has 0 nitrates and doesn't add KNO3, he's going to have problems. If he relied on his fish to bring those nitrates up, he'd be waiting a while.

Once you get a 0 reading, you can expect that same reading in the future. Have you ever had a 0 nitrate reading?

There are other factors besides plants...ie. co2 injection, fish stock, light wattage...etc. I imagine your fish stock keeps up with the demand. That's lucky for you.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

lol @ bangin

I feel bad for my now. Please forgive me?

I never have 0 nitrAte. Not sure about my cube though, there's only 4 small fish in there.

Mine are generally 5-10. Never more.

 

[dan dan the fish man]

i went to the hydro shop and bought pure potassium nitrate in a powder form I'm trying to experiment with how much to add per time I'm thinking maybe increasing it to 2 ppm per time to i reach the desired level not to put strees on the fish i also have some hydro nutrients which contain
nitrogen as nitrate 3.66
nitrogen as ammonium 0.25
nitrogen as total potassium 2.50
calcium as nitrate 3.60
do you think this would do my tank good to maintain nitrate levels ?
or should i just stick with my pore powder form ?
it seams this hydro substance has many forms of nitrate should be more beneficial for my plants right ? i mean its good to grow hydro plants with this is all i use for this matter

 

[DennisRB]

Hi, I am Dans house mate and fellow fish tank mad friend. We have been monitoring the parameters for a while, we add a concoction of fertilizers to the tank which has made the plants grow so well that the have used up all the available nitrate.

Also Chucks site is great, I already found it and used his directions and calculator to make a mixture of nitrate that will raise the PPM by 1 part per 5ml of solution.

Algae is starting to grow, I believe that it is due to the zero nitrate.

The hydro stuff also contains

Potassium as nitrate 2.0%
Chelated iron 0.1%

I was thinking this would be a more broad spectrum fert than the plain potassium nitrate.

I calculated dosing 2.5ml would bring NO3 up around .3ppm and bring ammonium up 0.02. I'm sure this level of ammonium would not harm fish and AFAICT plants love this and it would be very rapidly used up.

Also I think cheese specialist might be very intersted in this page Algae reduction via dosing of nitrate.