Need to bounce some ideas around on No3 reduction.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome and Merry Christmas.

 

[TinpanVA]

Here we are a few weeks later and wanted to give an update. Following the guide, I started with .3ml vodka for a week and saw no real reduction, added .5 more for a total of .8ml dose week two, no real reduction. Added an additional .5 ml making the total dose 1.3ml skimmate production started to increase so I started monitoring no3 every other day. By weeks end it was down to 16ppm same dose following week, down to 8ppm and today, a week later 4ppm. I haven't reduced feeding, and still doing coral food twice a week. I did however return to using a amino suppliment as was suggested. All in all, very happy. As always, wished I done it sooner.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That's good to hear!

You may want to consider dropping back on the organic dosing to not drop too low in the future.

Happy Reefing.

 

[TinpanVA]

The instructions I was following said once I hit 0, cut the vodka in half and monitor. Sound right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Depends on your system and goals, but in many cases, I'd start cutting back before hitting zero.

 

[TinpanVA]

Gotcha!

 

[TinpanVA]

Randy, a few observations a couple of months later. First and foremost, slime. I wouldn't say it's a problem per-say, but it certainly is present. My filter pad gets full of the gunk every few days which I pitch out and replace, all good there. Sandbed and a few places on the rocks keep getting a little cyano looking slime, which is easy to blow off, but keeps coming back. Lastly, I'm having to clean my MP10's very thoroughly each month to keep down the build up. Actually got thick enough to stop the pump once.
Still consider myself new to carbon dosing, so is this just a normal part of the process/transition or more than likely, just the way it is now and I might as well get used to it? :tongue:

Some of the readings are also mentioned in another thread, so I hope you don't mind me repeating them here. The other thread is more focused on my QT and this more on my DT.

The No3 has certainly dropped. Down from 16 ppm to 0 and back up to 1.5 ppm. You advised me to cut back early, I waited a week too long. Took longer than I expected for the No3 to come back up from 0. You were right, and my putting it off a week was a mistake. Luckily it only caused a little stress to the corals and to me. I have some fading on my chalices, and I'm trying to figure out if it is from the lack of nutrients or from where I made a modification to the LEDs (more light). I know more light will fade corals but do you know of any situations where carbon dosing has faded them?

The last thing to mention is my Po4 level, maybe it was already low, maybe the carbon worked better than I thought it would in reducing them, either way, they came down to undetectable levels with my hanna checker so I invested in the phosphorus checker and got a 1 ppb reading (verified at LFS on his meter). So I removed my bag of Rowaphos, and a week later I have 5 ppb phosphorus. Monitoring to see if it will continue to rise. Is it possible I might have to add a little Po4 remover now and then to keep it down or will it eventually stabilize?

Seems I've gone from one extreme of having high nutrients where I "thought" the no3 levels were causing STN to having very low levels and possibly starving the corals. This is why I have a strict "don't chase the number's" policy which I've clearly ignored. Causes me to second guess myself. Doesn't help I watched the video of Richard Ross's phosphate presentation at last years MACNA. I hate it when people break the rules and it still works.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Carbon dosing can strip nutrients so low, corals can fade.

I never saw any slime, so it isn't necessarily a stage.

 

[trout]

FWIW, I have been using an off-the-shelf product called Tropic Marin NP Bacto balance for the past few weeks. It seems to be a very gentle product. It is very concentrated and one only needs to dose a maximum of 1 ml per 100 l. It contains (according to Hans Werner Balling) a nitrogen source, phosphates, organic carbon, some trace elements and potassium. The aim is to introduce both nitrates and phosphates along with organic carbon to eventually reduce both of them to a safe level for corals. As a result of using this product, some traces of nitrates and phosphates are left in the water column to ensure that corals aren not shocked by their gradual removal. I have read a 47-page long thread on a German forum about this product. Empirical evidence provided by fellow reefers in Germany has convinced me to start experimenting.