# Does dosing with nitrogen raise nitrates?



## tyler138 (2 Nov 2020)

Hey all,

Rather new to all of this and have been experimenting with dosing amounts recently. I have a heavily planted 45l tank, and currently dose Tropica Specialised 3 times a week, M/W/F one pump/2 ml a day, and then dose Easylife Profito the other days, 1ml a day. 

But when I experimented with just using the Tropica Specialised daily, which has Nitrogen in, I saw my nitrates rise significantly by the end of the week. 

So to my question, is it just the case of bringing the dose back till it doesn't go crazy or is it something to do with my test kit? Is nitrogen a compound in the nitrates that would give false results on my tests? (I am using the API liquid test kit)

I do get good plant growth dosing it 3 times a week and the Easylife the other days, but saw a big jump in the plants growth when using just the Tropica daily.

Thanks,
Tyler


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## Zeus. (2 Nov 2020)

Hi Tyler,
I cant see a good reason why you are dosing two different commercial ferts when one should do the job, I assume your using tap water so there should be enough Ca and Ni in there for the Plants  already.
Tropica Specialised nutrition is an ammonium based fert which will rise the nitrates as the microfloral converts the ammonium to nitrites and then nitrates which the plants will consume. We are not concerned about high nitrate levels for out livestock.

here's the weekly yield for the recommended dose of TSN


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## tyler138 (2 Nov 2020)

Zeus. said:


> Hi Tyler,
> I cant see a good reason why you are dosing two different commercial ferts when one should do the job, I assume your using tap water so there should be enough Ca and Ni in there for the Plants  already.
> Tropica Specialised nutrition is an ammonium based fert which will rise the nitrates as the microfloral converts the ammonium to nitrites and then nitrates which the plants will consume. We are not concerned about high nitrate levels for out livestock.
> 
> ...


Hey Zeus,

Yes, I am using tap water. 

So you think sticking to just the Tropica would be enough? 

Why aren't you concerned about the nitrates for livestock? I have always read that you want to around 20-40ppm for a planted tank.

Thanks,
Tyler


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## dw1305 (2 Nov 2020)

Hi all, 


Zeus. said:


> Tropica Specialised nutrition is an ammonium based fert which will rise the nitrates as the microfloral converts the ammonium to nitrites and then nitrates which the plants will consume. We are not concerned about high nitrate levels for out livestock.





tyler138 said:


> Tropica Specialised daily, which has Nitrogen in, I saw my nitrates rise significantly by the end of the week.


That is it. It is the same N (nitrogen atom) in <"urea (CO(NH2))2">, ammonia (NH3/NH4+), nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-), just combined into different compounds.  

We don't know at exactly what <"level NO3 becomes toxic to fish"> (and it is going to depend on the fish), but we do know that both nitrite (NO2) and ammonia are deadly at below 1ppm (mg/L).

cheers Darrel


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