Red Sea Nopox additive

[ReeferBud]

Randy - what method do you use for nutrient control nowadays?

What are your thoughts on sulfur denitrators?

Thanks!

 

[Lisa Maxwell]

I recently started (6 weeks now) using NoPox, and have seen a reduced amount of slime on glass and sand bed . My corals have colored up since adding/using and my Phos levels have come down.
I took my GFO reactor offline.
So far I have been pleased with results, I am dosing 15ml per day........I will keep you posted.

I'm curious "racin2438", I have just started using the NoPoX . Do you have a DSB? I have 3 year old established DSB and have now just found a note under the Red Sea FAQ page that you should NOT use this product in conjunction with a DSB. I have sent them an email to confirm my interpretation.

Has anyone else out there used the NoPoX while running a deep sand bed in display tank?

Thanks all!

Lisa

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm curious "racin2438", I have just started using the NoPoX . Do you have a DSB? I have 3 year old established DSB and have now just found a note under the Red Sea FAQ page that you should NOT use this product in conjunction with a DSB. I have sent them an email to confirm my interpretation.

Has anyone else out there used the NoPoX while running a deep sand bed in display tank?

Thanks all!

Lisa

There's no good reason that a deep sand bed or refugium would interact badly with organic carbon dosing, such as NOPOX. In fact, it provides a reasonable place for denitrifying bacteria to grow. My only possible concern is that you not drop nitrate too low.

Their comment from their faq is not correct (IMO) and many people do it.:

"Can/should I use a refugium/DSB/BP reactor with NO₃PO₄-X?"

"No! Such methods will interfere with the natural proliferation of de-nitrifying bacteria and PAB communities."

 

[Lisa Maxwell]

Hi Randy,
Thank you so much for the feedback. I see you found the exact comment that I read on the Red Sea website. I'm inclined to agree with you - the food (carbon dosing) added to the system via NOPOX should actually feed those denitrifying bacteria in the lower regions of the deep sand bed, thus allowing them to thrive and proliferate resulting in more denitrifying bacteria and hopefully lowered nitrates and eventually phosphates.

It is my intention to not bring my nitrates to zero; I would be quite happy with anything below 5ppm as I have a mixed reef system.

I'm curious to see what their response is to my question. At this point, I'm going to continue with the product use and see what happens. I have already seen greater skimmate production.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm curious to see what their response is to my question. At this point, I'm going to continue with the product use and see what happens. I have already seen greater skimmate production.

Sounds good.

Let us know what you hear back. IMO, Red Sea has some technical misunderstandings in their directions/comments.

I asked them recently to clarify something in their directions on mixing their salt that seemed internally inconsistent (mix to a constant pH without aeration) and got back a technically incorrect comment from tech service that said that CO2 leaving the mix will raise alkalinity.

"Mixing the salt with high agitation at the water surface increases the amount of Co2 that evaporates from the water causing an increase in both pH and alkalinity that enhances the chance of precipitation."


Since that is clearly incorrect, I asked for confirmation from higher ups that this was the company position, I never heard back.

 

[Lisa Maxwell]

Good morning Randy,
Well, the much anticipated response from Red Sea arrived this morning. As follows:

"Good morning,
A deep sand bed is counterproductive, most do not do a good job of a deep sand bed as they are poorly understood, and you need at the very least 6 inches of sand of various sizes that are not touched so we don’t recommend their use.

Best Regards,
Amanda Tennant
Customer Service
Red Sea North America"

I'm not even going to bother responding as this is clearly a "canned" response. In my original email, I did include information regarding my sand bed including the fact that it was 6"+ and of the various recommended sizes as prescribed by Ron Shimek (a leading authority on the topic).

At any rate, I've continued my NOPOX dosing as directed. I'm excited to say that I received my Red Sea Nitrate Test Kit so that I could fine tune the nitrate levels. I had been using the API kit. When the kit arrived this past weekend, I immediately did a test - it came back as 16 - 32ppm which seemed reasonable. At that point, I did another test with the API kit. Much to my surprise, for the first time in over 4 years, my nitrates had dropped. I was so shocked that I ran the test again just to be sure - the results were identical. Prior to starting my NOPOX dosing, the API kit tested my nitrates at appx 20ppm; this weekend, a solid 10ppm. First time since upsizing the tank 4 years ago that there has been a nitrate reduction. I hope it isn't a fluke.

I will be testing again with the Red Sea kit Wednesday.

Thank you for your feedback regarding the use of this product and my dsb; the tank inhabitants seem unaffected and coral expansion and colors also, unchanged. Its only been a week, but so far so good.

Happy Holidays,
Lisa

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Good morning Randy,
Well, the much anticipated response from Red Sea arrived this morning. As follows:

"Good morning,
A deep sand bed is counterproductive, most do not do a good job of a deep sand bed as they are poorly understood, and you need at the very least 6 inches of sand of various sizes that are not touched so we don’t recommend their use.

Best Regards,
Amanda Tennant
Customer Service
Red Sea North America"

I'm not even going to bother responding as this is clearly a "canned" response. In my original email, I did include information regarding my sand bed including the fact that it was 6"+ and of the various recommended sizes as prescribed by Ron Shimek (a leading authority on the topic).

At any rate, I've continued my NOPOX dosing as directed. I'm excited to say that I received my Red Sea Nitrate Test Kit so that I could fine tune the nitrate levels. I had been using the API kit. When the kit arrived this past weekend, I immediately did a test - it came back as 16 - 32ppm which seemed reasonable. At that point, I did another test with the API kit. Much to my surprise, for the first time in over 4 years, my nitrates had dropped. I was so shocked that I ran the test again just to be sure - the results were identical. Prior to starting my NOPOX dosing, the API kit tested my nitrates at appx 20ppm; this weekend, a solid 10ppm. First time since upsizing the tank 4 years ago that there has been a nitrate reduction. I hope it isn't a fluke.

I will be testing again with the Red Sea kit Wednesday.

Thank you for your feedback regarding the use of this product and my dsb; the tank inhabitants seem unaffected and coral expansion and colors also, unchanged. Its only been a week, but so far so good.

Happy Holidays,
Lisa

You're welcome and thanks for the update.

While the deep sand bed opinion they expressed is a reasonable one to have, their FAQ should just have said that, rather than the almost unrelated and incorrect sentence they put there about interference with NOPOX.