Kent marine nitrate sponge or the like

[five.five-six]

In the past my NO3 has been low, around 0 but an outbreak of Dino’s prompted me to raise NO3 about 3 months ago as part of the attack and that did the trick. No sign of Dino’s in 2 months.

Fast forward and NO3 is holding fast at ~50-60 PPM even after 5X 20% water changes in a week 2 weeks ago (I had a electrical plug fall into the sump unnoticed for several weeks)

Anyways, is it safe to use the Kent marine nitrate sponge or similar product as a 1 time fix to bring down nitrates? What are the possible side effects?

TIA

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It won't be very effective (meaning costly per drop in nitrate), and I'm not convinced it actually binds any nitrate from seawater. It may bind some ammonia, and prevent its conversion into nitrate. In general, I'd look to other methods.

 

[five.five-six]

Well, I’m running a bunch of those bioblocks, reduced feeding, done a bunch of WC, and amd dosing iron to promote the chaeto growth and one of the problems it hat PO4 has been below measurement (salefert) for a little over a month now

I think PO4 may be a limiting factor but I don’t know that I can bring myself to dose phosphate


Binding of amonia seems plausable as the testimonials on the product says it takes several weeks to “kick in“

 

[five.five-six]

What about adding vingar to my limewater to dose carbon? Any idea how much to use? Everything I have read on the subject sounds a little like voodoo science.