We’ll after months of neglect I’ve finally had time to get my reef under control. After many many water changes I got my nitrates down to 40 ppm and phosphates to .08 ppm. I started dosing tropic Marin NP bacto balance a week ago. My nitrates have gone up to 48 ppm and phosphates to 0.2 ppm. ill be doing a 30% water change tomorrow but I was wondering how long carbon dosing takes before you start seeing results? I dose 1ml in. 50 gal tank. Thanks.
Carbon dosing
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radfly
Active Member
That is a double dose for a 50 gallon. Be careful with it as it will plummet your po4 with overdose. I would be mindful of your nutrient import verses export, ie. clean your filters and feed less, get your skimmer working. If you have a refugium, make sure it is growing and not dying.
What are you dosing? NO-POX? I make my own with 500ml white distilled vinegar, 375ml vodka, and 125ml RODI. I am dosing in multiple tanks with and auto dosing pump. I started w/1/4 recommended dose added throughout the day while lights on. I increased by doubling the current dose after testing every week until they started going down. Then I dropped the dose a little to keep from stripping too much. I started reducing on 9/21. It takes some time, but you don’t want to change your parameters too fast or you could end up with other problems. Give it a little time and be patient. I ended up with more than the recommended dose, but when I started this particular voyage, I got feed back from many on here that their necessary dose was higher than tge recommended dose and it wouldn’t hurt anything.
jbrady429
Well-Known Member
NP Bacto Balance is not designed to lower nitrates and phosphates. It’s a combination carbon/nitrates/phosphates additive that is designed to maintain nitrate and phosphate levels. For nitrate/phosphate reduction you need a carbon-only source, like NoPoX, Brightwell’s BioFuel, or similar products.
radfly
Active Member
I started using NP Bacto Balance on the 27th, and trust me, it will lower your nitrates.. and phosphate. But, it is easy to over dose, which is what I did two months ago by adding 4x the dose to a 25 gallon. I zeroed my phosphate in a weeks time.
Thanks for all the input. So should I keep dosing the bacto balance or would it be better to go with vodka instead? I’ll work on getting my nutrient export under control. Interesting thing is that with the high nitrate and phosphate levels I have near zero algae just on the glass after a week or two. Unfortunately I don’t have a fuge, wish I was able to fit one. Had one on my last tank and it was awesome.
radfly
Active Member
I prefer NP Bacto Balance as it also contains a few trace elements, and combined with A Elements, the two products supplement the trace elements I care about.
My daily 25 gallon dose schedule:
432 ml kalk dosed .3ml/min
.25 ml NP Bacto Balance
.5 ml TM A-Elements
.5 ml MB7
But, lots of threads on here with guys dosing vodka and vinegar that seem to have good success.
My daily 25 gallon dose schedule:
432 ml kalk dosed .3ml/min
.25 ml NP Bacto Balance
.5 ml TM A-Elements
.5 ml MB7
But, lots of threads on here with guys dosing vodka and vinegar that seem to have good success.
That’s exactly why I wanted to dose it instead of vodka. It’s a nice all in one solution. I was going to use Elim-NP but the instructions said if your N to P ratio is over 10:1 (mine's about 200:1) then use Bacto Balance.
As for overdosing, I thought I was following the instructions on the back 0.25ml per 25 gallons for new tanks and 0.5ml per 25 gallons for tanks over a year old. I'll keep an eye out on my nitrate and phosphate levels, I've been checking they every couple of days.
radfly
Active Member
My bad... did not realize your take was mature ... 1ml is correct for 50 gallon.
We’ll after a couple of weeks my tank has settled to ~40ppm Nitrate and 0.15 phosphate. Not quite 10:1 but getting there. Loooking to add more corals in a few weeks. Any issues with those numbers? I expect the nitrate to come down a bit.
You are doing this correctly, just give it time to balance out. This didn't happen over night, its not going away over night. Your doing all the right things, now patience.
I dose NP Bacto Balance and their Trop A & K trace. Working fabulous for me. nitrates were 30 and Phosphates were .15. I' at 3-5 on Nitrates and .03ish on Phosphate. Been on this regiment for about 2 - 3 months max. The reef has never looked better. Stay steady and don't go to fast. You got this !!!! Bravo
I dose NP Bacto Balance and their Trop A & K trace. Working fabulous for me. nitrates were 30 and Phosphates were .15. I' at 3-5 on Nitrates and .03ish on Phosphate. Been on this regiment for about 2 - 3 months max. The reef has never looked better. Stay steady and don't go to fast. You got this !!!! Bravo
RODI with preferred Salt choice.... not RODI 25% only.
V A R I A N T
Active Member
Start viewing at 32:35
juniorgomez708
Community Member
How has your carbon dosing been going?
Thanks for asking. Looks like I’ve stabilized around 30ppm nitrate and .1 ppm phosphate. A little higher than I’d like but at least stable. I’ve been doing 25% water changes weekly but I’d like to go back yo half that weekly. Might think about doing the Elimi-NP to get my numbers down to 10ppm and .05ppm.
olonmv
Valuable Member
I’ve been beating this drum relentlessly recently but only because it’s cheap to make and gets great results.
www.reef2reef.com
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