Reef Discussion

Rob · Sep 9, 2013

The SPS RTN issues have gone (thats because I lost 90% of my SPS's) the algae battle is over, tank params are stable and LPS, RBTA, Zoa's are all doing great again. After 8 weeks of 75l/week WC (300L DT) and its looking a lot better. Before I go down the SPS path again I've decided to give redsea NO3PO4 X a shot as my nitrates will not budge below 4ppm even with all the WC. (I have tested my NSW No3=0.00) Rowaphos has my po4 under control at 0.03. My LED light cycle is now on a profilux and ramped up to 75% at the peak so not blasting the hell out of the tank any more.

So the plan is get my nitrates ~1 ppm and then give SPS another shot. All whilst making sure GSP never gets into my tank again. Would of put this in my TJ however never bothered starting a new TJ so I will document the result here....

FRIDAY 6th Nitrate 4 ppm, Phos. 0.03 ppm, Started NOPOX at 5ml total (~300l DT)

Monday 9th (3 days in) - Nitrate 3 ppm, Phos. 0.07 ppm -No3po4 5ml
Its difficult to look at 3 or 4 ppm No3 (redsea Pro low range kit) however believe the colour tonight is definitely lighter than the 4ppm. It is also time to change rowaphos however may just leave it a few more days, increased the flow rate through the reactor. Don't really want to change it out and drive phos really low I think it maybe better to have it around 0.05~0.07 until No3 starts to decrease as well. After reading it does seem to take a lot longer for No3Po4x to reduce po4. Although I do plan on keeping rowaphos running.

Tuesday 10th (4 days in) - Nitrate 3 ppm, -No3po4 5ml
Skimmer rinse <100ml 4 days

Friday 13th (7 days in) - Nitrate 3 ppm, will up dosing slightly to 6 ml for the next week
Skimmer rinse ~80ml 3 days -After 1 week of dosing no real change from the initial 4 -> 3ppm..

Friday 20th (14 days in) -Nitrate 2ppm 6 ml per day
Skimmer rinse still every 3 days. Nitrate has slowly come down and is hovering around 2 ppm. Another week of 6 ml and hope to head down to 1 ppm, we'll see. PO4 has krept up as I need to replace rowaphos this week end. Its around 0.1 tonight

Friday 4th October (28 days in) Nitrate 1 ppm 6ml /d
tested this morning to find my nitrates now at 1ppm. So will back off dosing to maybe 4ml / d for the next week and see if I level out around the 1ppm mark. Do not want to go under this.

Sunday 20th October 44 days in Nitrate 0.75 ~ 1.5 ppm 2~3 ml
I did go down to 0.75ppm so reduced the dosing to avg 2.5 ml/d. Testing today the nitrates have crept up to 1.5~2ppm. Will probably increase dose to 4~5 ml.

Tuesday 5th November 60 days in Nitrate 1 ppm (4 ml dose) 0.04 PO4
OK think I got the dose correct now at around 4ml per night. Still not hooked up to a dosing pump and think I have about 25% of the nopox bottle left so should do 3 months on one bottle so not too bad at all.

Wed 20th Nov 75 days in Nitrate 0.6 ppm (4 ml dose) 0.05 PO4
Holding steady, rowphos is clogging in reactor and going hard although only use about 1" in a TLF150 reactor and do not need to change soo much. I am sure NoPox is helping with phosphates as do not chnage my rowaphos very often at all. Happy and assume my coninued usage will only cost $40 ~6 months

Louise01 · Sep 9, 2013

Very interested to see how this progresses :)

OSCAR85 · Sep 10, 2013

it works brilliant on nitrate but does nothing for phos IMO

Oceanarium · Sep 10, 2013

NO3POX seems to evolve with use. In my case very effective on NO3 initially, then many months to a year or more down the line of constant use less so nitrate and more so PO4 giving a more balanced result..

Not and expert on reef chemistry as to why but all my systems started needing NO3 dosing to compensate. As they matured we needed much less NO3POX and lost the need for extra nitrate dosing. Could be to do with maturing bacteria strains, establishment of sponge populations etc I would really only be guessing. I don't use LR too so that may play a part.

At any rate after constant use for a long time we maintain very low Phos and Nitrate with minimal dose.

Nitrate seems quite stable and you can see it slowly come down with a proportional dose. I do get whacky PO4 readings its a lot more reactive depending on whats happening in the tank... feeding etc. I never take one PO4 reading as gospel it can change from day to day, though i don't use the Rowphos.

Pete

Louise01 · Sep 10, 2013

I don't have a PO4 issue as I run RowAphos but cant seem to drop Nitrates below 10ppm in my AR300 even with weekly water changes. It's starting to really grind my gears.

Have a couple pieces of SPS in the tank so didn't want to risk vodka dosing as I've never dosed it before. Another nitrate reducer that I stumbled across was AZ NO3 Absolute Zero Nitrate. This one has great reviews also but could only find it at thereefshop and they were out of stock. The Red Sea NO3PO4-X should arrive from eBay tomorrow so pretty excited to try it!

I've always been very skeptical of adding these type of chemicals into an aquarium. My nano that I currently run has always maintained very good water params so I guess I've never had the need to consider them (chemicals) previously.

Interested to see how quickly the NO3 drops for you @Rob - are you going to continue with water changes whilst dosing the NO3PO4?

Rob · Sep 10, 2013

I suppose I should say the tank has been running for 2 years and I only changed maybe 15~20% per 6 weeks. Tank was great for 12~18 months then I think it caught up with me, especially after moving some rock work around. I auto dose alk/mg/ca so thats very stable

After all my water changes (last 2 months) I am close to getting an auto water change system running so after 75L/week WC I will cut it down to ~5L / day which equates to maybe 50% per month, although as its daily again its probbaly equiv to 30% WC per month.

Although the tank has been crystal clear and params stable never been able to keep "blue" acros or dallas. The only thing I can put it down to is Nitrates which I have never tried to control before. Lighting was ATI powermodule and now DIY full spectrum LED. Nitrates prior to these WC was sitting 10~20ppm. I really thought all these WC I would of been able to get lower than 4 ppm. I do not feed alot, its a low stocked tank in terms of fish and rarely feed frozen food.

This will be my last shot at SPS, if I still brown out I will be happy with a softy tank and in fact I have some great centre pieces, I think SPS is just for the challenge :)

I'm also close to getting a 4th dosing pump running and will autodose NOPOx for consistancy.

Rob · Sep 20, 2013

Friday 20th (14 days in) -Nitrate 2ppm 6 ml per day (its come down over 1 ppm over the last 14 days at this dosage.
Skimmer rinse still every 3 days wet tea colour with chunky bits.... Nitrate has slowly come down and is hovering around 2 ppm. Another week of 6 ml and hope to head down <2 ppm, we'll see. PO4 has crept up as I need to replace rowaphos this week end. Its around 0.1 tonight

Rob · Oct 4, 2013

Friday 4th October (28 days in) Nitrate 1 ppm 6ml /d
tested this morning to find my nitrates now at 1ppm. So will back off dosing to maybe 4ml / d for the next week and see if I level out around the 1ppm mark. I was really targeting something around 1-2ppm so hope I can do this with what may end up to be minimal dosing qty. Although $40.00 for 1 L isn't too bad in overall running costs.

Sarg · Oct 4, 2013

Sounds like its working well rob.

Rob · Oct 4, 2013

Andy, yeah Im happy although will be better when I get it auto dosed, still not setup however very close. :)

Sarg · Oct 6, 2013

How are your sps looking if you have any in there still??

OSCAR85 · Oct 6, 2013

my sps is doing very well, i doe 4-5ml a day
been using redsea extras like the 4 little bottles coral colours and the amino 2 drops of each every day and the pinks have come out alot.

Rob · Nov 5, 2013

Tuesday 5th November 60 days in Nitrate 1 ppm (4 ml) 0.04 po4
OK think I got the dose correct now at around 4ml per night. Still not hooked up to a dosing pump and think I have about 25% of the nopox bottle left so should do 3 months on one bottle so not too bad at all.
I'll have to start paying more attention to phos, i run rowaphos and have not had to change it for ages. I did noticed my lower sponge in my TLF 150 reactor got clogged and rose to the top pushing the rowphos to the top of the reactor. Ran like this for 2 weeks and was still ok. I changed the rowaphos last week and changed the lower sponge for the TLF mesh screen so hope this does not happen again. I think nopox has helped my phos as well as it seems to be lasting a heck of a long time with only a small amount in the reactor.

Oh forgot to mention, Im not in SPS heaven just yet :)

Sarg · Nov 6, 2013

Sounds like its working for you Rob :)

I have a frag of blue milli here for you when your ready to test it out.

Rob · Nov 20, 2013

Wed 20th Nov 75 days in Nitrate 0.6 ppm (4 ml dose) 0.05 PO4
Holding steady, A happy NoPox user :)
rowphos is still clogging in reactor and going hard although only use about 1" in a TLF150 reactor and do not need to change soo much. I am sure NoPox is helping with phosphates as do not change my rowaphos very often at all. Happy and assume my first $40.00 1L bottle will last 3 month 90 days

OSCAR85 · Nov 20, 2013

Rob said:
Wed 20th Nov 75 days in Nitrate 0.6 ppm (4 ml dose) 0.05 PO4
Holding steady, A happy NoPox user :)
rowphos is still clogging in reactor and going hard although only use about 1" in a TLF150 reactor and do not need to change soo much. I am sure NoPox is helping with phosphates as do not change my rowaphos very often at all. Happy and assume my $40.00 1L bottle will last 3 month 90 days

I also use it, its great stuff!

Aspidites · Nov 20, 2013

Rob said:
Wed 20th Nov 75 days in Nitrate 0.6 ppm (4 ml dose) 0.05 PO4
Holding steady, A happy NoPox user :)
rowphos is still clogging in reactor and going hard although only use about 1" in a TLF150 reactor and do not need to change soo much. I am sure NoPox is helping with phosphates as do not change my rowaphos very often at all. Happy and assume my $40.00 1L bottle will last 3 month 90 days

Silly question, the rowa in the reactor is moving (just bubbling) in the reactor isn't it? Can't figure out why it would clog if it was...

Aspidites · Nov 20, 2013

Oh yeh, I was thinking about using NoPox. Think I might now. Great thread!

Rob · Nov 21, 2013

Nopox does clog up any sponge or fine filter. For 2 years rowa had nicely bubbled away. In saying that my po4 is still kept low although I do run a higher flow through the reactor. I run a fine mesh return filter bag and it clogs up in 3 days.

I only run 1" rowa in a reactor and its lasting > 5-6 weeks even now its not moving in the reactor. Btw its about 350 l tank with lie feeding

Rob · Jan 15, 2014

4 months in, time flies....
No3 is ~< 1ppm
PO4 ~0.03-0.05 and have not changed Rowaphos for 6+ weeks, I only run a very small amount as well.

So, Im happy although I have a little cyano outbreak, due to a new light schedule and the fact I replaced all my 18 x Hyper Violet LED's in my light 2 weeks ago. Have knocked back the light intensity now and may just replace my aging rowaphos to also help a little. if not for the cyano I may of taken Rowaphos offline as its surely exhausted, only ever lasted 2~4 weeks although use a very small amount each time.