How to Calculate Phos and No3 Dosage?

[FishProblem]

My 2.5 gallon pico has been ultra low nutrient pretty much since day one. I'm finally beginning to get a handle on things, dosing NeoNitro and NeoPhos. I'd been dosing a pretty negligible amount daily up until five days ago, when I got more aggressive about it. Dosing and readings for this week are as follows:

 

6/10/22 3:40pm
Reading 0 No3, 0 Phosphate

Dosed ~.03ml NeoPhos

Dosed 3ml NeoNitro

 

6/13/22 10:30am

Reading 2ppm No3, between .04 and .08 Phos

Dosed .03ml NeoPhos

Dosed 3ml NeoNitro

 

6/15/22 2:00pm
Reading 5ppm No3, .08ppm Phos

 

Are there equations I can use to try and determine how much to dose next? Or is it just trial and error until I get it consistent? (I plan on testing daily from here on out)

[jservedio]

The formula for calculating dosage along with examples are right on the back of both the NeoNitro and NeoPhos bottles.

 

For Nitrate its:  [Dose in ml] = [System Volume in Gallons] * [How many PPM you want to add] * 0.1261

For Phosphate it's: [Dose in ml] = [System Volume in Gallons] * [How many PPM you want to add] * 3.785

 

If you've got 2g of water and want to raise your nitrates by 5ppm, you would add 1.25ml of NeoNitro. If you want to raise your phosphates by 0.03ppm in the same tank, you'd add 0.25ml of NeoPhos.

 

Keep in mind that if your nutrients are bottomed out, anything you add is going to be immediately used within a few hours and you are going to have to dose multiple times before there is excess in the water you can even test. Once you have testable nutrients at a comfortable level, you should stop dosing all together and test your N and P every day for a week or so to figure out how much your tank uses on a daily basis. That will tell you how much you need to add regularly. Same method as setting up dosing for Alk/Ca.

[FishProblem]

5 minutes ago, jservedio said:

The formula for calculating dosage along with examples are right on the back of both the NeoNitro and NeoPhos bottles.

 

For Nitrate its:  [Dose in ml] = [System Volume in Gallons] * [How many PPM you want to add] * 0.1261

For Phosphate it's: [Dose in ml] = [System Volume in Gallons] * [How many PPM you want to add] * 3.785

 

If you've got 2g of water and want to raise your nitrates by 5ppm, you would add 1.25ml of NeoNitro. If you want to raise your phosphates by 0.03ppm in the same tank, you'd add 0.25ml of NeoPhos.

 

Keep in mind that if your nutrients are bottomed out, anything you add is going to be immediately used within a few hours and you are going to have to dose multiple times before there is excess in the water you can even test. Once you have testable nutrients at a comfortable level, you should stop dosing all together and test your N and P every day for a week or so to figure out how much your tank uses on a daily basis. That will tell you how much you need to add regularly. Same method as setting up dosing for Alk/Ca.

Right, I understand measuring the dosage to increase amount of nitrate and phosphate. I suppose I'm trying to figure out an "easy" way to determine what that dosage should be, as in figuring how much of each is being consumed over the course of 24 hours and so how much should be added. I guess the "easy" way is just to test at the same time and every day!

[jservedio]

8 minutes ago, FishProblem said:

Right, I understand measuring the dosage to increase amount of nitrate and phosphate. I suppose I'm trying to figure out an "easy" way to determine what that dosage should be, as in figuring how much of each is being consumed over the course of 24 hours and so how much should be added. I guess the "easy" way is just to test at the same time and every day!

Yep - If you don't mind a little trial and error and want to get semi-close close really quickly, you can take just one or two days worth of testing, figure out your usage from that alone, and then just start dosing it at that level. Then you just test every few days or every week to see how far up or down your nutrients are trending from your target and then slightly adjust your dose. If your nutrients bottom out in just a few days, you really don't have any other choice than doing this (I had to do this).

 

Another thing to note is that it isn't set it and forget it - as your nutrients stabilize at a higher level than zero, you are going to see more growth which will use even more nutrients and you'll have to dose more. It'll probably take a few months of adjusting up and down (but mostly up) to get a stable dose. At least you don't have to test all that frequently.

 

I have to dose N and P in my tank as well (I also use NeoNitro and NeoPhos) and I dose it through the ATO. Once you have your daily usage pretty stable, even though the ATO isn't the same day to day, it's close enough to keep things stable.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

On 6/15/2022 at 3:45 PM, jservedio said:

The formula for calculating dosage along with examples are right on the back of both the NeoNitro and NeoPhos bottles.

 

For Nitrate its:  [Dose in ml] = [System Volume in Gallons] * [How many PPM you want to add] * 0.1261

For Phosphate it's: [Dose in ml] = [System Volume in Gallons] * [How many PPM you want to add] * 3.785

 

If you've got 2g of water and want to raise your nitrates by 5ppm, you would add 1.25ml of NeoNitro. If you want to raise your phosphates by 0.03ppm in the same tank, you'd add 0.25ml of NeoPhos.

 

Keep in mind that if your nutrients are bottomed out, anything you add is going to be immediately used within a few hours and you are going to have to dose multiple times before there is excess in the water you can even test. Once you have testable nutrients at a comfortable level, you should stop dosing all together and test your N and P every day for a week or so to figure out how much your tank uses on a daily basis. That will tell you how much you need to add regularly. Same method as setting up dosing for Alk/Ca.

Heya! Just ordering both NeoNitro and NeoPhos for my tank for dinos now. These equations will really help. I was wondering if you had any insight as to how much phosphate/nitrate should be raised by day? I read 2 ppm for nitrate, but I just want to get it right.

I also bought Dr. Tim's Eco-Balance because I heard it can help introduce some more bacteria. Do you know if I should stop dosing that for now as it'll use the NO3/PO4? I've only dosed it one time.

[jservedio]

14 hours ago, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

Heya! Just ordering both NeoNitro and NeoPhos for my tank for dinos now. These equations will really help. I was wondering if you had any insight as to how much phosphate/nitrate should be raised by day? I read 2 ppm for nitrate, but I just want to get it right.

I also bought Dr. Tim's Eco-Balance because I heard it can help introduce some more bacteria. Do you know if I should stop dosing that for now as it'll use the NO3/PO4? I've only dosed it one time.

It depends on what's in your tank. If you've got nems, I probably wouldn't do more than 1ppm/day N and maybe 0.03ppm/day of P. If it's mostly LPS and softies, you can get away with more - 2ppm of N sounds perfectly reasonable. Just keep in mind that on your first day you are going to be dosing far more than your maintenance dose. You may have to dose 3-4x what you would normally need to get from 0ppm to 1ppm just to read any nitrate. Once there is excess nutrients, it's straightforward assuming you don't let anything bottom out again. Any bacterial usage of N and P from dosing something like Dr. Tims is going to be negligible compared to everything else.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

4 minutes ago, jservedio said:

It depends on what's in your tank. If you've got nems, I probably wouldn't do more than 1ppm/day N and maybe 0.03ppm/day of P. If it's mostly LPS and softies, you can get away with more - 2ppm of N sounds perfectly reasonable. Just keep in mind that on your first day you are going to be dosing far more than your maintenance dose. You may have to dose 3-4x what you would normally need to get from 0ppm to 1ppm just to read any nitrate. Once there is excess nutrients, it's straightforward assuming you don't let anything bottom out again. Any bacterial usage of N and P from dosing something like Dr. Tims is going to be negligible compared to everything else.

Yes I only have softies/LPS. Thank you for your response! So for the first dose I should basically dose and test until I reach 2 ppm? And then try to maintain and increase by 2 ppm every day after that until the dinos start to recede?

[Sturgi_0225]

I usually dose 7ml of neonitro once every 4-5 days nitrates fluctuate between 2-5ppm. For my tank everything seems to like it better around 3.5ppm as for phosphate I haven’t been dosing as much because they are hovering right around the .1-.2ppm and try and control that via WC. 
 

each tank will be different, just follow the calculations and test 1-2 days after dose and see what levels look like. It’s what I did and corals/fish all seem happy. 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

50 minutes ago, Sturgi_0225 said:

I usually dose 7ml of neonitro once every 4-5 days nitrates fluctuate between 2-5ppm. For my tank everything seems to like it better around 3.5ppm as for phosphate I haven’t been dosing as much because they are hovering right around the .1-.2ppm and try and control that via WC. 
 

each tank will be different, just follow the calculations and test 1-2 days after dose and see what levels look like. It’s what I did and corals/fish all seem happy. 

Okay thank you! What size tank do you have??

[Sturgi_0225]

Total volume is 26 gallons if my math is correct I should be adjusting around 2.5ppm each dose 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

32 minutes ago, Sturgi_0225 said:

Total volume is 26 gallons if my math is correct I should be adjusting around 2.5ppm each dose 

Okay cool mine is about 20 gallons too! Thank you!