Carbon dosing and STN?

[SCReef'n]

Over the last few years I’ve tried carbon dosing to help reduce nitrates twice. And each time it’s resulted in a bout of tissue necrosis. Anyone else experience similar issues? What did you do?

 

[jackson6745]

I only had it happen when po4 bottomed out.

 

[dwest]

Yes. I stopped carbon dosing.

 

[RelaxingWithTheReef]

I’ve tried it a carbon dosing couple times. Each time, I dose and dose, and nothing happens. Then all the sudden the nitrates crash, and become difficult to raise for a while. Needless to say my corals responded very poorly to the instability. I understand that some people have excellent results with carbon dosing, and clearly there is a way to balance the system. Unfortunately I have not had good luck with this method.

I have good luck using Chaeto, and I change the light intensity to control the amount of nitrate export.

 

[DanyL]

As others mentioned here - your problem is likely stability rather than the carbon dosing itself.

Big fluctuations as well as bottoming out nutrients can indeed cause RTN/STN to occur.

The trick is to know how to manage them correctly and balance the system by daily tests and carful micro adjustments until stability is achieved and daily dosage (if needed) is determined, then a weekly test will be enough keep track of your nutrients.

Personally I’ve been using a permanent carbon source in the form of Biopellets - many reefers who tried to use this method wrecked their systems, but I’ve been using it successfully for years, reason being is that I have plenty of phosphates to spare and I’ve determined a daily dosage of nitrate to balance it back, which in turn takes a part in my phosphate export strategy in the system.

Point I’m trying to make here, is that no matter what method you choose to use, wether it being a carbon source or a fuge - it needs to be used in a controlled manner.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It's a unusual/rare event for carbon dosing to lead to coral issues, but it is not unheard of.

What were you dosing?