Sign of overfeeding? N-DOC

[Chris Villalobos]

So my tank is having outbreaks of Cyano and Dinos on the sand. I have a great NO3 and PO4 export system in that I have to continually dose them to keep them from going to zero. The problem is that my organic nitrogen is very high. I'm running a skimmer and using activated carbon. Also though my tank is old it lacks mature coral colonies. My next step is to reduce my feeding and still dose NO3 and PO4. Any other ideas?

 

[Chris Villalobos]

I must be in uncharted territory.

 

[JohannesFFM]

Hi there,
i have also minial NO3 and P04 . My ndoc show also more n from other sources. I talked to triton and one explanation is that the skimmer is underperforming. do you have 100% life rock? my therory is that with an underperforming skimmer and not enough flow to much detritus bulds up and you have to much amino acids in your system. since you have also to much si and sn i would do some big water changes. check your rodi unit and di resin. high si supports dynos.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Hi there,
i have also minial NO3 and P04 . My ndoc show also more n from other sources. I talked to triton and one explanation is that the skimmer is underperforming. do you have 100% life rock? my therory is that with an underperforming skimmer and not enough flow to much detritus bulds up and you have to much amino acids in your system. since you have also to much si and sn i would do some big water changes. check your rodi unit and di resin. high si supports dynos.

My super expensive Tunze skimmer has shown little reduction in organics (I have an N-DOC test with it off and with it running for a month). I'm wondering how well skimmers really work in a tank with low NO3 and PO4 to begin with. Now that there is a test for organics it will be interesting to see the actual benefits of skimmers on a reef tank.

I clean my sump once a month and siphon my sand twice a week. It's not a detritus problem. I believe it's an overfeeding problem and possibly too much livestock. Also not enough coral mass. We are able to strip NO3 with Chaeto but not organic N which needs to be broken down by bacteria or utilized by corals.

 

[pigmo]

I must be in uncharted territory.

they say in space no one can hear you scream

 

[Julian@Triton]

So my tank is having outbreaks of Cyano and Dinos on the sand. I have a great NO3 and PO4 export system in that I have to continually dose them to keep them from going to zero. The problem is that my organic nitrogen is very high. I'm running a skimmer and using activated carbon. Also though my tank is old it lacks mature coral colonies. My next step is to reduce my feeding and still dose NO3 and PO4. Any other ideas?

Do you have a TRITON ICP reading for PO4? If so then please let us know what it is.