So my phosphates are actually zero now which is not good I know. I did a large water change yesterday, cleaned the back chambers/sponges, replaced the carbon and filter. I’ve been dosing less than 1 ML like a few drops for the past few days. My nitrates came down from 30 to 28 in the last week and since yesterday. So that’s good I don’t think it happened too quickly. But why do I feel like I’m about to see a giant dino bloom?
Did you run a skimmer though? I was so cautious before and I bought a skimmer. I know the water has to be super oxygenated etc.
I have made it 5 months without water changes and use nopox to keep nitrates down. I dose about 4ml a day. Only during day light I add it. I dose a large amount maybe 15-20 ml if nitrates get high or I have algae. Clears out my algae but it can suffocate the fish. I have a 20 gallon tank. There is extra oxygen from photosynthesis during the day from algae, and other stuff so it’s more balanced in my opinion.
What media have you used to drop phosphates? Carbon dosing doesn’t drop phosphates that fast you must of added a phosphates binding media to the system or you may have a error in the test, can you double check if is indeed zero?
I did. I put the vial back in multiple times. I can start a whole new test and I did just replace the carbon too but I didn’t do anything else different or special. The only media I have are sponges, bio balls, and carbon.
Could it be that your first test was in error then? Zero phosphates will explain why carbon dosing may not lowering the nitrates, it’s virtually impossible to lower nitrates via carbon dosing without phosphates, you may have to look at dosing phosphates as you are at risk of dinoflagellates and nutrients won’t lower effectively wile phosphates not detectable
Perhaps added more than system could handle. I've only seen that once and it was less than I had stress tested in the past yet this one time the system reacted adversely. Could see fish gasping. Never know all the parameters at play.
I agree with this.
Just a skimmer is required for carbon dosing to remove bacteria from the system. Carbon dosing works the same way as a refugium although it’s relying on the protein skimmer to remove nutrients Vs a refugium that will be manually removed every time algaes gets cut down.
Shes stubborn. Let her learn the hard way like most of us did. Been saying just stick with water changes constantly and to not trust the LFS water...
I've been carbon dosing since October 2021 with zero WCs and no skimmer but do have a large bacterial filter which might help provide structure for the heterotrophic bacterial bloom that occurs when carbon is added.
Yea the hetertropic bacteria uses the vinegar and alcohol in nopox it’s like sugar for them. They breathe oxygen release carbon dioxide. They also use up nitrate like crazy. Why your tank gets starved of O2 if you put too much nopox in.
Just what i read here on R2R, fascinated by the concept of producing bacteria in tank to manage waste which could also be used as food by corals.
Just wondering if you have to use phosphates absorbing media to keep phosphates in check?
Are you sure it is eating?
The question to Garriga is more related to carbon dosing.
Is what eating lol?
perks of nano. You can make your own nopox with vodka and vinegar in large amounts gallons for cheap.
