Calcium Nitrate Dosing Calc Help
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Nate Chalk
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That's what I purchased too from loud wolf. Interesting.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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It doesn’t really work that way.
Nate Chalk
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Randy I've used your recipe for trisodium phosphate it was super helpful trying to do the same with calcium nitrate as a jumping zone.
Have you thought about making a Google sheet calculator for some of these for dumbies like me?
Admittedly, I just quick searched the weight to volume (oz to mL) conversion for dry powder so that’s likely sketchy and doesn’t account for powder after it dissolves but, beyond that, what else am I missing (for rough guess of total volume)?
*note that I was just guessing total volume, not anything related to phosphate concentration
Nate Chalk
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So my tank is 950L
This is the math I did using 120g of Calcium Nitrate to 1L water. to raise my tank 1ppm I got 10.5ml. Admittingly I got this recipe and math off of someone, and yours is spelled out. I am no chemist, but yours is out to the molecular level. @Randy Holmes-Farley which should I go with?
Now with your math I think I am looking at ~2.5ml to raise nitrate 1ppm? (950L/378)
I also have @Randy Holmes-Farley's recipe for Trisodium Phosphate above.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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This is a fairly complicated issue. A solid powder has air in it, for example, whereas one big chunk of solid does not. But 10 grams of either one in a liter of water results in the same final volume.
Dissolving a solid into water does not give the same volume as the solid plus powder or solid plus single chunk volume. Ionic salts that dissolve tend to pull water molecules close to the ions, effectively making the eater around the ions "denser".
Even for liquids this doesn't work. Mixing pure ethanol and pure water gives a lower final volume than the two separately added together.
The best way to try to calculate it (if such a thing were important) is to try to look up the density of the final product solution in a table based on knowing the concentration.
Sometimes the total volume of a salt dissolved in water doesn't go up much at all. That is, not as much as the two volumes added together, but the density increases.
biom
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Your calculations are correct about 10 mL of the solution will rise nitrates with about 1 ppm.
But don't expect when testing tank water after dosing to see this 1 ppm rise, there are many other things that could influence result for ex your exact water volume in the tank, presence of nitrites ammonia, nitrate test accurancy, nutrient uptake of your tank etc.
biom
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Sorry, ignore my previous calculation I've missed your solution is 1000 mL.
Your calculation will be correct if you dissolve 120 grams to 600 mL final solution. If it is 120 gr in 1000 mL you'll need about 15 mL solution to reach 1 ppm nitrates in 950 L water. If you want to go for 2.5 ppm nitrates you'll need 38 mL.
biom
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I can share the very simple formula I use and you can replicate in Excel using the same number cells.
Of course you can check with Randy
yellow cell are entry fields, there is only one formula in cell E3
and the formula in cell E3 is =D3*(C3*3.78541)/(525*A3/B3)
I assume mass percent of NO3 in calcium nitrate tetrahydrate is 52,5% (did not check by myself)
this is if you are using US gallons for measuring your tank volume, if you use Litres then formula in E3 would be: =D3*C3/(525*A3/B3)
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