Offical Eco-Bak Thread

[schooleyosis]

Are you watching your nitrates as well? I'm running between 500-750mL's on my tank and my nitrates are undetectable but the phosphates are around 0.12. I plan on running ChemiPure Elite to help bring the phosphates down just a little more...

 

[shellynjason]

Are you watching your nitrates as well? I'm running between 500-750mL's on my tank and my nitrates are undetectable but the phosphates are around 0.12. I plan on running ChemiPure Elite to help bring the phosphates down just a little more...

Wow what are the chances - both of us are stuck at .12. I was changing GFO every couple days and could get it down to .06 but only for 1/2 day then up it would go.

My nitrates have been zero on the api test kit since mid january. I know the kit semi-works because my qt tank show 10-20 nitrates. So figured the algae and soft coral are consuming the nitrates (maybe). that is why i have not unplugged the gfo yet. I just added three fish so my nitrates should start going up - LOL. I also have added 'bacteria' every week or two (special blend).

 

[schooleyosis]

Interesting. I don't add any bacteria.


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[Dowtish]

Interesting. I don't add any bacteria.


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It is not necessary to add bacteria. but since she is adding more pellets to some existing pellets it wont hurt. The bacteria that colonizes on the pellets is naturally occurring in the system, but by adding some different bacteria strains you create a better diversity of good bacteria in the system which helps against cyano and other slime type algaes.

 

[schooleyosis]

Good info Chris.


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[shellynjason]

Chris - that is exactly why I add the bacteria , for the defense of 'cyano' and not for the ecobak. I have had cyano in the past and it took months to get rid of - argh!

So checked my phosphates after work and they read .07 , but also had more algae growth on the glass. Good thing I'm using that MAGNUM algae scrubber now - LOL

 

[shellynjason]

Well the Salifert Nitrate test kit came it and I closely followed the directions and my NO3 still shows zero ... that does seem odd. Something is absording the heck out of my NO3.

 

[orthokardia]

Rock, sand, and even clams will use no3

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[gmoney243]

Well the Salifert Nitrate test kit came it and I closely followed the directions and my NO3 still shows zero ... that does seem odd. Something is absording the heck out of my NO3.

Its the pellets they use nit:phos at a 10:1 ratio

 

[shellynjason]

Its the pellets they use nit:phos at a 10:1 ratio

I suspect the ecobak isn't working yet because the Nitrates are to low. Nitrates showed zero before I started using pellets ... but I do have alot of rock and some sand, maybe the soft coral are consuming it. Because I had nitrates in this tank before I added coral.

 

[Dowtish]

I suspect the ecobak isn't working yet because the Nitrates are to low. Nitrates showed zero before I started using pellets ... but I do have alot of rock and some sand, maybe the soft coral are consuming it. Because I had nitrates in this tank before I added coral.

Feed Feed Feed!!!!

 

[shellynjason]

Feed Feed Feed!!!!

Argh! I am so torn on this. I do feed fairly good because I have an nice size NPS sun coral.

Last Friday my po4 showed .07, saturday .11 and sunday .20 so I changed out the HG GFO again.

I am afraid my feeding is causing high po4 and the GFO isn't good enough to absorb it and the ecobak isn't ready yet because my nitrates are low.

But hoping the big foxface and lawnmower blenny will help produce some nitrates. Loving the blenny he is an algae eating maniac *smile*.

 

[Dowtish]

You must have some serious phosphates leaching out of your rocks. I have never heard of someone using HC GFO as much as you do, and still have GHA and phos levels like you do.

Like I said before, if you have GHA, then you have nitrates, they are just being consumed by the GHA, and they are not showing up on your "hobby" grade test kit. Give the pellets some more time, dont give up on them. But at the same time, it sounds like you might have to keep using GFO until this phos leaches completely out.

 

[schooleyosis]

I believe my tank is experiencing the something that Chris is describing. I have a thin layer of green hair algae across all of my rocks but read 0 nitrates from my RedSea Pro test kit and 0.12 phosphate from the same brand. I added a large bag of Chemi-Pure Elite to help with the phosphates. Just added it last week and will test next week to see if it is helping.

So far the urchin I added is the biggest helper in removing the algae from the rocks. There is a blenny in my future as well!


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[shellynjason]

Yeah I have no GHA ... just the brown stuff on the glass. My sand is white and rocks are algae free (thanks to the CUC). The Lawnmower Blenny is my new best friend - he is all over the back glass eating the algae.

I am definately not giving up on Ecobak - I know it is a benefit to the tank as a whole. Just working 'slowly' on leaching out the phosphates I do have alot of rock and ran the tank 15 months without ever testing po4 so it's all good ... I am getting lower then I was in January with .81 and Feb with .41. Now atleast I am seeing .20-.07 ranges.

 

[schooleyosis]

What kind of rock?


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[shellynjason]

What kind of rock?


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Not sure of the type of rock ... probably three different types. Alot came with the tank when I bought it off a guy 1.5 years ago and I just bought a few pieces off a guy in Mt. Juliet over a month ago (said it was from Marshall Islands). It's very porous looking and looks like old dead coral embedded in it you can see the skelaton fossils.

What kind of rock do you have Ryan?

 

[schooleyosis]

I have roughly 125 pounds of Marco Dry Rock. I've heard people have issues with this rock leaching phosphates...

 

[shellynjason]

PO4 read .07 today (calc 420, mag 1200, dk 8, salin 1.026, ph8) ... maybe the Eco-bak is kicking in now that there is Lawnmower Blenny poop *smile* (boy can that thing excrete)

 

[Tennsquire]

I started Eco-Bak in my 75 gallon reef in late March. My PO4 levels have always run a little high, which I think it partly due to the fact that my live rock has been in my tank forever (12+ years; it originally came from "Flying Fish Express" if that rings a bell with anyone). I've been running GFO for a while as well, but was still seeing levels of up to .30 PO4 with a Hanna Checker. I also run Seachem carbon and, occasionally, Seachem's phosphate product (the name escapes me right now). I'm using a PhosBan reactor with the Eco-Bak, and I used about 1/3 of the recommended dose to begin with and haven't added any. I've been dosing with bacterial additive, although I also use prodibio (bio digest and bio-optim) every other week. Nitrates have typically been low, but are now reading undetectable (Salifert). Yesterday's water testing indicated that I'm finally at 0 phosphates, which surprised me. I'm even seeing some of the caluerpa in my system dying off, so I knew something was working. I've also noticed that the skimmate the system is generating absolutely stinks; more so than it has in a long, long time. No ill effects on any sps corals, which is why I used less EB than recommended. I'm not totally happy with the phosban reactor, but I'm going to keep running EB. Good stuff that's showing some results for me after about 6 weeks.