Nopox

[joshrohrer91]

So.. I’ve been dosing nopox for around 2 weeks and haven’t seen any results.. but I’m still patiently waiting .. but was curious about this sugar dosing I keep seeing around YouTube .. anyone do it?? Can I sugar dose and dose nopox at the same time?? Fish only tank 125 gallons with the exception of 2 Kenya trees(wife’s idea).. all parameters are good except nitrates .. thise are as high as bob marley.. everything in tank is doing just wonderful .. just trying to get nitrates back down to where they should be

 

[Lasse]

It can take months before a DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon) like NoPox taking effect on nitrates. Do you have sand in the aquarium - lot of rocks? How is your phosphate? Dosing sugar is just dosing more DOC - you can rise the NoPox instead - but be careful - NoPox is potent.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[blaxsun]

What’s “high”? My nitrates are in the 7.5-12.5ppm range, which some would consider high (I don’t).

 

[joshrohrer91]

What’s “high”? My nitrates are in the 7.5-12.5ppm range, which some would consider high (I don’t).

100plus

 

[joshrohrer91]

It can take months before a DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon) like NoPox taking effect on nitrates. Do you have sand in the aquarium - lot of rocks? How is your phosphate? Dosing sugar is just dosing more DOC - you can rise the NoPox instead - but be careful - NoPox is potent.

Sincerely Lasse

Yes sand and rocks .. marine bi pure balls and blocks as well to make up for my lack of rocks

 

[Lasse]

Yes sand and rocks .. marine bi pure balls and blocks as well to make up for my lack of rocks

DOC (NoPoX is a type of DOC) will handle nitrite in normally two pathways - uptake (together with phosphate) by a growing population of heterotrophic bacteria. If phosphate hit zero - this route is closed. The other major pathway is denitrification by (often) the same bacteria in anaerobic environment (bi-pure and deep in sand) there they use nitrate instead for oxygen in their metabolism. They need some phosphate to for their growth but when denitrification is established - it use very much more nitrate than phosphate. This take time (to establish a denitrifikation) so I would wait a month or two before any changes.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[GARRIGA]

DOC (NoPoX is a type of DOC) will handle nitrite in normally two pathways - uptake (together with phosphate) by a growing population of heterotrophic bacteria. If phosphate hit zero - this route is closed. The other major pathway is denitrification by (often) the same bacteria in anaerobic environment (bi-pure and deep in sand) there they use nitrate instead for oxygen in their metabolism. They need some phosphate to for their growth but when denitrification is established - it use very much more nitrate than phosphate. This take time (to establish a denitrifikation) so I would wait a month or two before any changes.

Sincerely Lasse

Still getting my bearings on the Redfield ratio but if I understand it correctly and based on what you've provided then regardless of nitrate levels the phosphates becomes the limiting factor and best practice would then be to elevate phosphates to 10:1 of current nitrates while dosing NoPox or carbon dosing in general. Is my understanding correct or flawed?

I'm in the process of testing several theories based on my experience since the 70s supplemented by what I've read over the decades yet wasn't able to implement for various reasons. In my current 20H I created a large enough area to allow depletion of DO where denitrification can occur although currently still fishless and wanted to test the assumption using NoPox as my carbon source. Goal is to rely on detritus post addition of fish and corals.

Due to my approach to fishless cycling which incorporates incremental amounts of ammonia to raise the ability of the nitrification biomass the nitrates get to above 200 ppm and post 50% water change is still hovering around 80 ppm. Didn't want to go 100% because I want nutrients in the system to test my theory. Have added NoPox and didn't see a reduction therefore I ordered NeoPhos to supplement my phosphates to bring them to the 1/10 ratio. Since lights are still off there is no current ugly phase and don't expect it based on past experiences.

Therefore, before I go mad scientist and add phosphates to bring my estimated ration to 10:1, am I getting this right as to my high nitrates assumption not being the issue and merely the addition of the correct amount of phosphates will allow NoPox to bring the levels down. Assuming this is correct. Logically sounds about right then future maintenance will be as easy as increasing phosphate levels to manage nitrates as a supplement to the denitrification that I expect will be occurring.

BTW, when i first added NoPox the dosage was three times recommended based on the fact my nitrates were through the roof plus not having fish allows me to purposely push the limits to test my theory. Water never became cloudy although it did get extremely yellow which GAC solved. Seems to indicate the hetetrophich bacteria may have had suffieicent substrate or the excess dosage was not a problem because of the high nitrates. Could be the nitrates receeded but were so high that even reduced was above the testing range.

 

[Backreefing]

I recently discovered the effects of coral on water parameters namely nutrients. Lately my 37 gallon. Humming along with a couple frags of acropora and macro algae.
I bought 4 frags of montipora, added them to the water . And in a day or two the corals depleted all nutrients. The nitrates went from 4 ppm to 0 ppm ( Red Sea ) . This killed my macro algae in just two days ( rats! ) . This persisted and started bleaching corals as well. I added a couple of fish and started doseing sodium nitrate. But currently I’m at .5 ppm nitrates. I’ve witnessed similar results in reverse on a 90 gallon. It had 0 nitrates. A move and bad well water killed a significant amount of corals and from 0 to 64 in no time !
this maybe useless information but I’m still learning. I hope this helps .

 

[Backreefing]

What I was trying to suggest is to add a few corals and macro algae. After a significant water change. This may help consume the nitrates . Depending on what your lights are. Good luck