DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Does it have a chance to accumulate in a live tank with LR?

I don't know.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

, amides,

By that you mean urea, or something else?

 

[vahegan]

By that you mean urea, or something else?

Yes, urea in this case, though many years back I had experimented with feeding amide-based nitrogen fertilizers to a freshwater tank. Even though I considered this promising, I didn't see any significant effect on the aquatic plants growth.

 

[brandon429]

you would need to boost co2 to cause them to want to uptake more ferts, the planted tank. very rarely would adding fertilizer to a planted tank help once the co2 availability to the system becomes the limiting factor. were you injecting co2 into the planted tank or was systemic co2 the only source

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, urea in this case, though many years back I had experimented with feeding amide-based nitrogen fertilizers to a freshwater tank. Even though I considered this promising, I didn't see any significant effect on the aquatic plants growth.

what other amides?

 

[vahegan]

you would need to boost co2 to cause them to want to uptake more ferts, the planted tank. very rarely would adding fertilizer to a planted tank help once the co2 availability to the system becomes the limiting factor. were you injecting co2 into the planted tank or was systemic co2 the only source

Of course. I was injecting more than 10 bubbles per second CO2, high-light, maintenance of NO3/PO4 in Redfield ratio, daily dosing of microelements and all the staff. It was a high-tech planted tank and was already thriving - I wanted to see whether amide nitrogen sources would make any difference versus the traditional NO3.

what other amides?

I used a commercial organic fertilizer for hydroponics, called Earth Juice Grow. It was dark liquid, by the color ans smell it was apparently full of humic acids. I was able to retrieve the bottle in my closet, funnily I kept it (it was over 15 years ago when I used it). The manufacturer does not give the composition, except for NPK ratio and overall nitrogen content, but states that the staff was "derived from bat guano, sea kelp, natural sulfate of potash, feather meal. blood meal, oat bran, steamed bone meal". I do not remember why I decided that this product contained nitrogen specifically in amide form, but I clearly remember that was my goal when I was choosing this fertilizer. I recall that I believed that nitrogen in amide form was energetically more efficient for plant uptake and I was looking to try that out.

Thinking this over again now, probably Calcium cyanamide could be a good source of nitrogen for a reef tank as opposed to urea. I am not sure of its easy availability, though. At least, a quick search on Amazon did not reveal any offers.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok, thanks.

 

[Miami Reef]

Thanks, Randy!

I made the solution, and your instructions were very easy to follow. I dosed 0.10ppm ammonia today.

Feeding more tends to raise my phosphates considerably more than nitrates. I figured my tank might be N limited, especially since I carbon dose for the filter feeders.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks, Randy!

I made the solution, and your instructions were very easy to follow. I dosed 0.10ppm ammonia today.

Feeding more tends to raise my phosphates considerably more than nitrates. I figured my tank might be N limited, especially since I carbon dose for the filter feeders.

Keep us updated on any observed changes!

 

[vahegan]

Thinking this over again now, probably Calcium cyanamide could be a good source of nitrogen for a reef tank as opposed to urea.

This was probably a poor idea as Calcium cyanamide is poorly soluble in water and is actually hydrolized, thus they use it as a "slow release" fertilizer. It seems that presently urea is the only option if one wants to use amide nitrogen

 

[Propane]

Would 5ml of the dosing solution spread out over a day be appropriate for approximately 13g of water volume?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate.

For this reason, I thought it would be useful to provide some DIY directions for ammonia dosing.

There are many materials that could be used for ammonia dosing, including some household ammonia solutions, but in order to give better assurance of purity, I'm electing the show directions using food grade ammonium chloride and food grade ammonium bicarbonate.

Ammonium Chloride
Ammonium chloride, NH4Cl is essentially ammonia (NH3) plus hydrochloric acid (HCl). The reason I mention that fact relates to the impact on alkalinity. Dosing NH3 followed by consumption by organisms to form tissue in a net alkalinity neutral process. I'm ignoring the fact that if it is converted into nitrate, alk is lost, because if that nitrate is later used, all the alk lost comes back.

However, the HCl that is effectively dosed will steadily deplete alk. Adding the equivalent of 50 mg/L nitrate (0.81 meq/L; coming from NH4Cl) will have depleted 0.81 meq/l (2.3 dKH) of alkalinity. That may need to be made up for in some other fashion, such as adding more alkalintiy supplement.

High quality ammonium chloride is readily available and inexpensive. Loudwolf is one brand, but there are many. Aim for food grade or ACS reagent grade. Amazon carries many Loudwolf is $7 for 4 ounces, which contains 38,000 mg of ammonium, and is equivalent to 131,000 mg of nitrate, enough to raise 100 L of aquarium water to 5 ppm nitrate about 262 times. So cost is not significant.

Ammonium Bicarbonate
Ammonium bicarbonate, also known as baking ammonia, NH4 HCO3 is essentially ammonia (NH3) plus CO2 and water.

As mentioned above, dosing NH3 followed by consumption by organisms to form tissue in a net alkalinity neutral process. The CO2 and water also do not impact alkalinity. Thus, ammonium bicarbonate is a net alk neutral way to dose ammonia.

High quality ammonium bicarbonate is also available from Amazon as baking ammonia. It is readily available and inexpensive. One brand sells 11 ounces for $15, so it's cost is similar to the Loudwolf ammonium chloride per unit of ammonia added (one needs to use more of the ammonium bicarbonate than the ammonium chloride, evening out the cost).

Stock Solution
Using either of these materials, we will make a stock solution for dosing. Keep it closed up as it will smell of ammonia and slowly loses ammonia to the air. Ammonium bicarbonate will have a higher pH, smell more, and lose ammonia to the air faster.

13.5 grams of ammonium chloride (about 3 - 4.6 teaspoons, varies by brand) in 1 L RO/DI water.
OR
20 grams of ammonium bicarbonate (about 4 and 3/4 teaspoons) in 1 L RO/DI water.

Both solutions contain approximately 4300 mg/L (4.3 mg/mL) ammonia, equivalent to 15,700 mg/l nitrate.

Dosing

Don't be overly afraid of dosing ammonia due to toxicity, but one cannot dose substantial amounts all at once. IMO, it is safe to add 0.1 ppm ammonia (equivalent to 0.36 ppm nitrate) at once to any reef tank, and one can likely add more, if it mixes in well. Don't dose it right onto a fish, but dosing 2-3x that amount at once is also likely OK. Of course, using a dosing pump to spread out the dosing is fine and may be preferable, but be sure to guard against dosing pumps out of control (e.g., stuck on). Stock solutions can be increased or decreased in potency to match pumping needs. The ammonia could also be put into an ato since exact daily dosing is not required.

To add 0.1 mg/L ammonia to an aquarium, you would need to add 2.3 mL of either stock solution to a 100 L (26 gallon) aquarium. You may need to add this amount multiply times per day to dose enough.

I'd add it to a sump, if possible, to dilute it well before it gets to the main tank. Most folks dosing ammonia wouldn't also be using media intended to push the nitrogen cycle in various ways, but if you do, dose downstream of that media.

Of course, if anything seems to react badly the first time or two that you dose, stop dosing, double check the amounts, and perhaps come back to this thread for further discussion of what might be happening.

This article has a lot more on ammonia in reef aquaria, although some parts of it may not be correct (such as the utility of products such as Prime):

Ammonia and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Happy Reefing!

This is a post I never expected to see

 

[Miami Reef]

Would 5ml of the dosing solution spread out over a day be appropriate for approximately 13g of water volume?

It depends. What is your nitrate levels?

I personally would start at 1.5mL-2mL and take note how the system respond.

If nitrates are increasing, then the corals aren‘t needing more ammonia.

You might consider decreasing the potency of the solution to make spreading out the volume possible with a dosing pump.

 

[Dburr1014]

This is a post I never expected to see

?
Why is this?
Advancement in reefing is a Wonderful thing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Would 5ml of the dosing solution spread out over a day be appropriate for approximately 13g of water volume?

That would be adding about 0.4 ppm ammonia over the day. That should be fine, but as suggested above, there's no reason to not start more slowly since not that many folks have dosed ammonia.

 

[GARRIGA]

This is a post I never expected to see

Most photosynthetic organism prefer ammonium to nitrates. My understanding.

 

[gbroadbridge]

?
Why is this?
Advancement in reefing is a Wonderful thing.

I've been dosing Ammonium Nitrate for a couple of years, however it's not really mainstream due to the fact it is inherently risky, especially for newbies

I'm happy to see it discussed, but I think it'll be a while before you start to see ready made solutions on the shelf of the LFS.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've been dosing Ammonium Nitrate for a couple of years, however it's not really mainstream due to the fact it is inherently risky, especially for newbies

I'm happy to see it discussed, but I think it'll be a while before you start to see ready made solutions on the shelf of the LFS.

Do you believe you see a difference from nitrate dosing alone?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Do you believe you see a difference from nitrate dosing alone?

I believe that Ammonia is a better energy source for Coral then Nitrate.

I don't have objection at all, like I said, it's simply a post I never expected to see

 

[biom]

I'm happy to see it discussed, but I think it'll be a while before you start to see ready made solutions on the shelf of the LFS.

They are already on the shelf of LFS from decades - Dr. Tim's Ammonium chloride for example, they are cheap and with known concentration which is so rare in this business.