Overdosing NeoPhos and PO4 still won't rise.

[Jib]

Long story short, my NO3 and PO4 bottomed out. Dosing NeoNitro & NeoPhos to try and raise them to help battle a dino issue I believe was caused by the bottomed out nutrients.

I've managed to get my NO3 up to 2.5 and it has been steady with a 1ml daily dose of the NeoNitro.

My PO4 is still at zero after a week of dosing. I started with 50% (.5ml) below the recommended dose to ensure I could watch what was happening and not shock my small tank. Have been working my way up with larger doses. Yesterdays NeoPhos dose was triple the recommended amount (3ml) and today my PO4 is still reading zero. Looking at the instructions, Brightwell suggests my system could be carbon limited, and to dose their BioFuel. Before I buy another product, was hoping someone could weigh in with thoughts.

Thank you,

Jib

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There is zero reason to think carbon limitation is causing excessive consumption of nitrate and phosphate. There's no mechanism for that to happen.

If you believe your kits, dose more. Do you know what that dose corresponds to in ppm nitrate and phosphate?

 

[Jib]

If you believe your kits, dose more. Do you know what that dose corresponds to in ppm nitrate and phosphate?

It's a Salifert Kit...I did get a positive reading with it before, but only once a while ago. I guess I could also test it by putting some NeoPhos in the test water.

I'll try to answer your second question. For Nitrate, 1ml would be approx .83ppm. The bottle states 1ml will increase 1 gallon by 7.5ppm. My tank has approx 9 gallon of water, so divided 7.5 by 9. Let me know if this is the correct way to do this.

Using the same logic for Phosphate. 1ml to increase 1 gallon by .25. .25 by 9 = .02777777*3 (for the 3ml I'm dosing) = .083

Edit, also just to be clear with my first post, yesterdays Neophos does was 3 ml. Which was triple the 1ml which should be required to raise my PO4 by .03 per the instrcutions.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There's nothing wrong with dosing any amount of nitrate and phosphate as long as it is getting consumed, and a few ppm nitrate per day is what I recommend starting at anyway.

 

[Jib]

There's nothing wrong with dosing any amount of nitrate and phosphate as long as it is getting consumed, and a few ppm nitrate per day is what I recommend starting at anyway.

Thanks for the insights. I gradually keep dosing more of the NeoPhos until i get to my desired levels.

 

[Crustaceon]

Dose and test daily. Something is likely absorbing it. Things likely need to reach “saturation” before you get a stable set of numbers.

 

[Jib]

Dose and test daily. Something is likely absorbing it. Things likely need to reach “saturation” before you get a stable set of numbers.

That's what I've been doing so far. Every day around noon I test the dose.

The saturation thought makes sense. To get my Nitrates up to 2.5, I had to dose 2.5 ml for the first few days. I've now backed it down to 1ml to maintain that same 2.5ppm number.

 

[Lloydo 123]

That's what I've been doing so far. Every day around noon I test the dose.

The saturation thought makes sense. To get my Nitrates up to 2.5, I had to dose 2.5 ml for the first few days. I've now backed it down to 1ml to maintain that same 2.5ppm number.

I read this post today as have same issue of zero PO4 - been adding neonitro for 2 days at recommended dose for my 50gal mixed reef tank. Wondered how things worked out for you?

 

[Lloydo 123]

Wondering if you had an update on your low po4, neophos treatment? I’m on day 2 using 2ml/day in my 50 gal mixed reef - so far po4 still 0, but couple of lps look retracted

 

[Jib]

I read this post today as have same issue of zero PO4 - been adding neonitro for 2 days at recommended dose for my 50gal mixed reef tank. Wondered how things worked out for you?

Wondering if you had an update on your low po4, neophos treatment? I’m on day 2 using 2ml/day in my 50 gal mixed reef - so far po4 still 0, but couple of lps look retracted

PO4 has been pretty good for me lately. It was an initial struggle though to get it where it needed to be. To get it detectable, I was dosing Neophos from brightwell. I started with the recommended dose to acheive the numbers I was looking for, and increased daily until at one point I was dosing 10X the recommendation on the package. Once I hit my desired numbers, I started backing down my dosing. I also added another fish, and feed frozen food each night. Now I'm no longer dosing the Neophos, and PO4 holding around .04 - .05.

For reference, at my highest dose it was 8ml for a 14g tank.

I'd keep raising the dose gradually until you get the numbers you are looking for.

 

[Billldg]

I was also dealing with Dino's, and, I was having to dose 80ml of NeoNitro and NeoPhos daily and feed extremely heavy for almost to months before I was able to get my N03 and P04 up.

 

[Yazannreef]

I had the same problem with phos being 0 even dosing neophos for a good stretch. One day I came in the the tank to find that my phos was at 0.13.

I guess what? Not because the neophos. It's because my skimmer overflown for whatever reason and dumped skimate back to the tank and that raised my phos dramatically.

I am not sure if anyone doing it with that method but it definitely worked.

Now I'm in the process of bringing it the the decided level of 0.05.