High NO3 and ZERO PO4 - how to proceed using NoPoX?

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rocknut

rocknut

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@holdyourlight
Actually, I do have an update. I completely switched over to the Red Sea system (foundation elements, Colors, Energy, etc), and did a series of 25% water changes with Red Sea salt to reduce my NO3 to between 4-8 (PO4 remained constant at zero). This was early/mid August. Also put Brightwell NeoPhos on my doser and started with something like 5ml/day along with the NoPoX trying to get nutrients in balance and kickstart the NO3 reduction. At this point I was trying get the NO3 down to a reasonable level with the water changes, and just maintain it with the NoPoX. With this scheme my NO3 would still rise slightly between my normal 12% weekly water changes, which was really frustrating.

In mid September I decided to try something new and bought a Kessil H380 LED grow light, made a sump section divider in the return section of my sump, got a handful of chaeto and fired it up. I continued to dose the same amount of NeoPhos, and reduced my NoPoX way down to 1.5 ml/day (the plan being to slowly reduce it until I take it offline completely). Chaeto took off and grew from a handful to a 12” x 12” x 12” cube in the first week, and by week three I had undetectable NO3 for the first time ever. I have increased my feeding from 2 cubes a day to 5, and have increased my dose of Energy as well.

So, although I absolutely know that NoPoX is a great product, for whatever reason it just didn’t work with my tank - I have no idea why. That being said, dosing the other Red Sea products (Energy & Colors) along with their salt is working really well, and in conjunction with the chaeto things are looking really good. I’m sure the Iron supplement in the Colors program helps a lot with the chaeto growth as well. SPS colors are great, and growth is really good - Alk consumption has gone from 35ml/day to 80ml/day.
 

FutureGraffiti

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My heart sunk after reaching the end of this epic tale lol. I don’t have room in my sump for a Refugium (Waterbox Marine 70.3), so still planning to go down the dosing journey... would LOVE a cubic foot of algae removing nutrients. Some day haha.
 

FutureGraffiti

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My heart sunk after reaching the end of this epic tale lol. I don’t have room in my sump for a Refugium (Waterbox Marine 70.3), so still planning to go down the carbon dosing journey... would LOVE a cubic foot of algae removing nutrients. Some day haha.
 

becon776

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dude i have a HUGE fuge and my po4 is a steady ZERO with nitrates being thru the roof (25-50 w nyos it doesnt do good with higher levels). i was drastic tonight since doing a big wc timorrow and added 16 ml into tank. i calculated it should take me to .05 in my reefer 450 with after market sump ~110 gallons. i guarantee that it will prob read zero po4 tomorrow. i should go test right now, lol its 9:30 pm and h380 just kicked on.
ayuh: po4 was .02 added 16 more ml of neophos to bring me to .04-.05. will test again in am
** just saw the year on this post.. sorry for the resurrection. hopefully this are going well for yiu and your tank!
 
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