Ideas on getting nitrates up

[Myka]

Originally Posted by warriorcookie

Also, I should mention why I chose NaNO3.

There are many things that can be used to increase nitrate. Calcium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate (Flourish, Stump remover), Sodium Nitrate and more.

I dose Calcium already and alot of other trace elements at the same time, so I didn't want to dose more calcium that would be difficult to account for.

I also wasn't excited about increasing Potassium as I already dose it as part of trace elements and I didn't want to have to account for it.


Excess Sodium I can handle. The only downside I can see is the potential to throw off my salinity slightly over time. The amount of sodium I'll be dosing will be less than what I've added with the various 2 part products I've used in the past. I'm sure the tiny amount of excess sodium ions will be brought back into balance with water changes.

The boost of potassium, calcium, and sodium is probably not enough for you to notice.

Potassium nitrate boosts nitrate by 7.1 ppm for every 1 ppm potassium.
Calcium nitrate boosts nitrate by 3.1 ppm for every 1 ppm calcium.
Sodium nitrate boosts nitrates by 2.7 ppm for every 1 ppm sodium.