Question about Spectracide Stump Remover dosing

[Pete polyp]

Yes I have a reef octopus NWB110

Quit dosing nitrate and unplug t your skimmer.

 

[sfg]

figured I would add some more details on my tank for comparison. I consider this tank heavily stocked.

Tank was setup in Dec 2014
- 45G Display (Shallow Reef 36x24x12")
- 30G sump
- about 55G total water volume (best guess)
- 50+ SPS frags.
- about 20 LPS (mostly Torches, Hammers, Frogspawn), a few zoas here and there
- 9 fish (2 Lyrtail Anthias, 3 Bartlett Anthias, McKoskers Wrasse, Filamented Flasher Wrasse, Longfin Fairy Wrasse, Velvet damsel in the sump (need to catch him)
- Running Cheato, Mangroves, and Calupera in sump with a red/blue Par38 grow light (kicks butt) cheato and Calupera are mixed together and would maybe be about the size of a grapefruit at this point. Prior to me dosing it was about the size of a basketball (think dense). Light period is opposite of DT lights.
- Alk 8.5
- Cal 480
- Mag 1350ish (dosed as needed)
- Pho 0
- Nitrate 6-7ppm (at the moment)
- PH 8.1-8.3
- Salinity 35 (IO Reef crystals for now, planning on switching to AquaVitro or Red Sea when done with current salt)
- 2x Hydra 52's mounted about 12" off surface of water
- Sicce 2.0 Return
- 3x MP10's (Settings controlled via Apex = TSM, NTM, and RC modes over the day)
- AquaMaxx Cone-S 1 Skimmer 24 hours a day
- Run BRS High capacity GFO (1/3 of recommendation) in BRS Mini Reactor
- Run BRS ROX carbon (recommended) in BRS Mini Reactor
- Dose every hour and half hour (Cal/Alk) over 24 Hours = Reef Fusion
- Dose Fuel twice a week per recommendations on label
- Spot feed corals twice a week with Coral Frenzy. Turn off all pumps and return and mix 1/4 TBSP with tank water and spot feel all frags for 15 minutes.
- Feeding: Fish get fed twice a day with a mix of Elos and SA pellets. Enough to be consumed within 30 seconds (they go nuts), also once a day I feed a mix of frozen mysis, brine, and some times Rods frozen food.
- Flatworm stop once a day per recommendation (this is a fairly recent addition)

 

[veselym]

Quit dosing nitrate and unplug t your skimmer.

It won't have any negative effects just turning it off? less oxygen?

 

[Pete polyp]

Dosing this stuff should be last resort. If you have a fuge full of plants and are skimming at the same time with low nutrients then quit skimming and take some of the plants out.

I HAVE to dose nitrate in my system, there's no other option.

Info about my system
40g display
35 gallon sump
40 lbs live rock
13 fish
About 40 acro and a couple chalice
I feed rods 6 times a day and watch it float around for 10 minutes
I fed reef roids or coral frenzy once a night and about 2x the recommended dosage
There is no skimmer
I put a ball of cheato in the sump and it died in 3 months
Nitrate was undetectable
Acro would be pale and slowly die (quicker after the cheato died)

 

[sfg]

Dosing this stuff should be last resort. If you have a fuge full of plants and are skimming at the same time with low nutrients then quit skimming and take some of the plants out.

I HAVE to dose nitrate in my system, there's no other option.

Info about my system
40g display
35 gallon sump
40 lbs live rock
13 fish
About 40 acro and a couple chalice
I feed rods 6 times a day and watch it float around for 10 minutes
I fed reef roids or coral frenzy once a night and about 2x the recommended dosage
There is no skimmer
I put a ball of cheato in the sump and it died in 3 months
Nitrate was undetectable
Acro would be pale and slowly die (quicker after the cheato died)

wow, 13 fish, rods 6 times a day, coral feeding once a day, no skimming and STILL no nitrates in a 40g??? dang.. my nerves would have been out the roof with all of that and no nitrates.. i would have bought 10 different test kits thinking they were wrong..

think i'll go ahead and pull the trigger on this wrasse i've been wanting after reading your post.. lol

 

[Pete polyp]

wow, 13 fish, rods 6 times a day, coral feeding once a day, no skimming and STILL no nitrates in a 40g??? ****.. my nerves would have been out the roof with all of that and no nitrates.. i would have bought 10 different test kits thinking they were wrong..

think i'll go ahead and pull the trigger on this wrasse i've been wanting after reading your post.. lol

Sad part is that this is the second tank I have the same issue with. My 29 is the exact same

 

[Pete polyp]

It won't have any negative effects just turning it off? less oxygen?

If you're really worried about that then pull the plug out of the collection cup and allow the skimmate back into the sump.

 

[veselym]

I will just run a small powerhead in the intake side for more surface agitation

 

[dh350twin]

Not sure if this is related or others are seeing this issue...I have white stringy sponge growing all over my zoanthid frags all of a sudden and pineapple sponge

could this be related to the dosing?

I have seen this when dosing no pox. I think it's some type of bacteria. As far as the stringy stuff. Just my oppinion

 

[veselym]

I have seen this when dosing no pox. I think it's some type of bacteria. As far as the stringy stuff. Just my oppinion

It is definitely sponge

 

[Psiber_Syn]

just wondering why you want higher nitrates?? like how does this benefit

 

[Pete polyp]

just wondering why you want higher nitrates?? like how does this benefit

Corals do require some nitrate. Nobody should want more nitrate as long as some is present.

 

[Psiber_Syn]

i just use the drops to test so mine stays yellow with very little phos also is there a better testing standard to test for all those things hard to tell colors at times

 

[mr neon]

after a few hours of reading about dosing nitrates etc..I am wondering if this has been my problem all along. My 90 if 2 years old with mostly softies and LPS and for the most part it looks ok but I never really had growth or color punch. I run a bare bottom tank with a fuge and live rock only. Skimmer and Kessil a360ew lights. I never had issues with phos or nitrate. In fact I was impressed that o matter how much I fed or let the tank go from water changes I never could register anything on my test kits.

So, I tried a few easy SPS corals, birds nest, motipora, etc...none of them ever grew or made it past a few weeks. I always thought my lighting was an issue until I read these post on nitrate and phosphate. I never been able to keep zoas for any period of time nor acans for more than a year before they die off. Couldn't understand it. Had great parameters and always did good husbandry with my tank. My fish grew and looked great and the only corals that did well were mushrooms and palys and few dendros.

I figure what do I have to lose by trying to raise my nitrates up. So fare I turned off my skimmer for a week now and I got barely a color change on the phosphate test. Nitrate still is clear as a bell on the test so I need to try something. I fed more, nothing, changed water less, nothing. I actually got too clean of water and nothing is prospering.

So, I am getting the stump remover today and begin this test. For starters what should I dose to bring up my nitrates to say 1/3ppm? I will take pictures and document my progress.

 

[bneufelder]

I started slow and ended up dosing 100ml on my 80g twice in 4 days to get to 1.5ppm as a reference.

 

[sfg]

Mr neon. Post your total water volume and someone should be able to help you figure out the details. For me, I have about 55 gallons total. I mix about 1 tbsp per liter. 28ml of this raises my nitrates up by .8ppm. There are a few other postings in here that can help you determine the proper mix ratio. Otherwise someone may be able to assist. Please keep us updated with the results.

 

[mr neon]

OK, I have a 90 gallon DT with a 30 gallon sump with one section of live rock about 20 lbs and about 60lbs in the DT.

What is the mixing ratio with RO water say for a gallon to be made ready? I thought I read 1 tablespoon to a gallon of RO water?

 

[sfg]

So my best guess would be 100 gallons? Maybe 110? Somewhere close to double of my tank volume (others chime in with an opinion here). So if my math is correct you would need twice the amount of what im dosing to get the .8ppm target. 56ml of the mixture. That would be from mixing 1tbsp of spectracide in 1 liter of RO.

Anyone else agree or disagree here?

 

[mr neon]

I'm looking to raise nitrates to about 1.5.

 

[sfg]

Then double it. 102ml. Should put you at 1.6ppm