Urea as nitrogen

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RyanScanner

RyanScanner

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 24, 2024
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Western Australia
Just wondering if anyone has used urea as nitrogen source. If so how did they prepare the solution. I have 25kg bag I wanted to start preparing a solution, apparently I should match with a trace element solution with nickel in it. Mainly I just want to know how much pure Urea to water I should mix. Or if it matters Irr not.
I was thinking 1:1 and add to doser aiming for 10ppm at first nitrogen.
 
Urea consits to 54% of nitrogen if I remeber correctly. Using urea is one way to start a cycle in your tank.
But I would not use it in a tank with fish because the bacteria will process the urea -> ammonium -> nitrite -> nitrate. You will have a high load of ammonium/ammonia and nitrite in your tank and in addition you can only measure the nitrogen with a delay.
 
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Milingu said:
Urea consits to 54% of nitrogen if I remeber correctly. Using urea is one way to start a cycle in your tank.
But I would not use it in a tank with fish because the bacteria will process the urea -> ammonium -> nitrite -> nitrate. You will have a high load of ammonium/ammonia and nitrite in your tank and in addition you can only measure the nitrogen with a delay.
Click to expand...
My problem is a nitrate deficiency.
 
RyanScanner said:
My problem is a nitrate deficiency.
Click to expand...
I got that.
And urea will end up as nitrate. But it has to go through the whole cycle to become nitrate. Your filter bacteria will need to increase a lot to process all the ammonium and nitrite. Practically there is not much difference to throwing a huge amount of food in the tank. You just feed the filter bacteria. The only advantage of using urea instead of fish food while starting the cycle is that you don't feed all the other bacteria that consume the carbohydrates from the fish food.
But again it's not a safe option to use in a tank with fish because you will probably kill them with the ammonium and/or the nitrite. Also the process of nitrification will eat up the KH in the tank.
That is why people use nitrate fertiliser.
 
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I’m not cycling, it is 1.5 years old. My plants were suffering and I had a lot of algae. I purchased a doser and spent a few weeks dialling it in to 50ml seachem nitrogen, 12.5ml potassium, 15ml excell and 20ml iron & trace 50/50 mix. Along with balancing my light temperatures and intensity and co2. Finally after 6 months of trouble it’s all looking fantastic…. But seachem nitrogen is soooo expensive, and the bottle says it’s just urea, so I figured I’d just buy powdered urea.
But I have no idea how to prepare it. Just wanted to see if anyone has tried it.
 
Milingu said:
I got that.
And urea will end up as nitrate. But it has to go through the whole cycle to become nitrate. Your filter bacteria will need to increase a lot to process all the ammonium and nitrite. Practically there is not much difference to throwing a huge amount of food in the tank. You just feed the filter bacteria. The only advantage of using urea instead of fish food while starting the cycle is that you don't feed all the other bacteria that consume the carbohydrates from the fish food.
But again it's not a safe option to use in a tank with fish because you will probably kill them with the ammonium and/or the nitrite. Also the process of nitrification will eat up the KH in the tank.
That is why people use nitrate fertiliser.
Click to expand...
Actually I have noticed a dramatic drop in KH, I was thinking of getting a bag of garden limestone in the sump.
 
RyanScanner said:
But seachem nitrogen is soooo expensive, and the bottle says it’s just urea, so I figured I’d just buy powdered urea.
Click to expand...
Which Seachem are you using? I know only the Flourish Nitrogen and this is not just urea. It contains urea that is somehow treated so that ammonium is complexed and not eaten by the bacteria.
 
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