Carbon dosing without a skimmer?
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EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Thread 'Carbon dosing without a skimmer' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carbon-dosing-without-a-skimmer.681489/
YOYOYOReefer
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Depends. Why are you carbon dosing? For nutrient export? Then ya you want a skimmer.
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MartinM
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I tend to have 0 nitrates but higher phosphates. I’m dosing a lot of NeoNitro to correct this. It has worked on my smaller system (no3 now about 1ppm and po4 about .01).
M smaller system is populated by a wide variety of invertebrates and macro algae species, oysters of a variety of species, lots of tube worms, sponges, and even lots of plankton that swarm around day and night. There is a huge amount of invertebrate life, so I think that they can consume the bacteria. In my large system, there are fish, so there are less invertebrates, although there are still oysters and sponges. The other inhabitants are all of zoas, clams, haddoni anemones, and goniopora.
However, carbon dosing has been ineffective so far at reducing phosphate on my large system, which uses an ozone reactor and UV. my small system does not. So I’m wondering if that’s reducing the bacterial population too much.
Ironically, I have noticed a growth slow down in my small system and growth is still very fast in my large system. Everything seems to like much higher phosphates that I would’ve thought. My large systems phosphates are .6! And they’ve almost always been high like that, whereas no3 ranges from 0-5ppm depending on how much neonitro I dose.
M smaller system is populated by a wide variety of invertebrates and macro algae species, oysters of a variety of species, lots of tube worms, sponges, and even lots of plankton that swarm around day and night. There is a huge amount of invertebrate life, so I think that they can consume the bacteria. In my large system, there are fish, so there are less invertebrates, although there are still oysters and sponges. The other inhabitants are all of zoas, clams, haddoni anemones, and goniopora.
However, carbon dosing has been ineffective so far at reducing phosphate on my large system, which uses an ozone reactor and UV. my small system does not. So I’m wondering if that’s reducing the bacterial population too much.
Ironically, I have noticed a growth slow down in my small system and growth is still very fast in my large system. Everything seems to like much higher phosphates that I would’ve thought. My large systems phosphates are .6! And they’ve almost always been high like that, whereas no3 ranges from 0-5ppm depending on how much neonitro I dose.
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Pod_01
Valuable Member
Just a warning, I have seen nothing good happen with those numbers. Unless it is older established system. I find 0.05 to be the bare minimum. Also your observation seems to support this.
If the large system is functioning I would bring that PO4 down very slowly. You can use GFO or lanthanum or Al based absorbers. Randy did create a lanthanum DIY.
Based on your number it will take some time to get it down.
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MartinM
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I almost never 'chase numbers' and I'm going to back to doing what I've done for the past 2 years: Not even bother to test. Everything is growing like crazy in the big system (and has been for a long time) so I think I shouldn't have messed with anything. I only did because I saw a growth slowdown in my small system, but I think it has more to do with it being so overstocked (since everything has grown so much) than numbers. Both systems are a little over 3 years old, and were both started from high quality, fresh-from-the-ocean live rock. Time to just change more water
Randy Holmes-Farley
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IMO, you can carbon dose without a skimmer, yes.
