Anyone dosing more nopox than stated??

waxhawreefer · Apr 2, 2017

Been battling diatoms for over a month, my tank is four months old, nitrates are zero, phosphates are 0.0 -Hanna, but I'm know that they could be up to .04, using extra gfo, feeding less light cycle down, added like 40 extra snails all different sizes but cant get rid of it, 20% weekly water changes, I'm thinking that this brown algae is consuming nitrates so that's I'm getting a zero measurement, so I was wondering if upping my dose might deplete the nitrates before they are consumed by the algae, I only have lps in the tank and they are all fine, anyone done this before??

Highgrade · Apr 2, 2017

I wouldn't dose more. Its caused cyanno for me along with many others. Diatoms is part of your tank maturing. Maybe try more frequent water changes and change out filter socks/floss more often. Vibrant will help with Diatoms also.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 2, 2017

Are you using tap water?

How do you know the problem is diatoms?

They usually become self limiting by using up the available silicate.

leepink23 · Apr 2, 2017

I wouldn't dose more. I went up to 15 ml for my 150 gallon and had a huge bacterial bloom. Not sure if it was co-incidence or not but my yellow tang also died during that, I had this fish for 5-6 years. I switched to dosing vinegar after that. So i definitely would not go beyond the maximum dose recommended.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 2, 2017

FWIW, I'm not nearly so concerned about particular doses as some folks. Folks using organic carbon dosing use a very wide range of doses, usually without issue until they drive nutrients too low. I've dosed organics very high (very!) and then backed off when the water eventually got hazy and some corals and anemones browned up a bit from extra zoox. But my system was not a low nutrient system either, even at very high doses of organic (400+ mL vinegar per day to a 120 display with about 300 gal total system volume)

Certainly, side effects such as cyano get more likely at higher doses, but you can always reduce again if you want.

waxhawreefer · Apr 2, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, I'm not nearly so concerned about particular doses as some folks. Folks using organic carbon dosing use a very wide range of doses, usually without issue until they drive nutrients too low. I've dosed organics very high (very!) and then backed off when the water eventually got hazy and some corals and anemones browned up a bit from extra zoox. But my system was not a low nutrient system either, even at very high doses of organic (400+ mL vinegar per day to a 120 display with about 300 gal total system volume)

Certainly, side effects such as cyano get more likely at higher doses, but you can always reduce again if you want.

The normal dose is 12ml for my tank which is 110 total volume, I'm dosing 15ml once a day, I know that it is normal but it seems not to be getting better dispite all I do, when I'm finished with this bottle I'm going to try my diy version that I got from another thread, two parts vinegar to one part vodka, hope that will be equivalent!!