Don't want to overdose nopox

[saullman]

I have a hair algae problem in my 45 gal JBJ. I am about to start dosing nopox in my tank. I have never used it before. I have been told to make sure I follow Red Seas recommendations to the T. Red Sea is recommending that I dose 3 ml daily for every 25 gallons if your nitrates are above 10 ppm which mine are. My thought process is that out of 45 gallons my substrate and Rock are probably taking up about 10 gal. leaving about 35 gal. Based on that I was thinking of adding 4.5 ml daily. Does this sound right? What are your thoughts?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

What is your no3 and Po4?
It doesn’t kill algae. It lowers nutrients. If you have no nutrients then don’t use it.

I’d calculate the dose and cut it in half and go from there really. Every tank is different so you have a safety net so you don’t bottom out the nutrients and you run less risk of cyano.

I’d go toothbrush and more snails for gha myself.
My nutrients are nuts.

 

[saullman]

What is your no3 and Po4?
It doesn’t kill algae. It lowers nutrients. If you have no nutrients then don’t use it.

I’d calculate the dose and cut it in half and go from there really. Every tank is different so you have a safety net so you don’t bottom out the nutrients and you run less risk of cyano.

I’d go toothbrush and more snails for gha myself.
My nutrients are nuts.

My phosphates are at zero, my nitrates are usually at between 20-30 ppm. Sometimes it's hard to tell with nitrates. I am using an API test kit and you get one color when you hold the test tube against the white background compared to when you hold it a little off the color chart.

Also, I've tried adding more snails multiple times, but Everytime I buy snails the hermits seem to think that they are lunch and just eat the snails. I just gave up on buying snails. I just bought 2 large snails a few weeks ago and they are both already dead. [emoji34]

 

[saltyhog]

Nitrates in that range are not bad, but if your phosphate is really zero you're walking on thin ice.

I would get rid of the hermits. They don't contribute nearly enough to justify themselves if you consider the drawbacks. Snails (trochus, turbos, ceriths, nerites, conchs are what I keep) are much more effective at controlling algae IMO.

 

[Subsea]

My phosphates are at zero, my nitrates are usually at between 20-30 ppm. Sometimes it's hard to tell with nitrates. I am using an API test kit and you get one color when you hold the test tube against the white background compared to when you hold it a little off the color chart.

Also, I've tried adding more snails multiple times, but Everytime I buy snails the hermits seem to think that they are lunch and just eat the snails. I just gave up on buying snails. I just bought 2 large snails a few weeks ago and they are both already dead. [emoji34]

With respects to useful janitors, CUC areas of expertise should be viewed in relation to each other but differrent functions: detrivores, herbivores, omnivores and opportunistic. In my experience, with 48 years of reefkeeping, sandbed detrivores are the most important component of the clean up crew. If sand bed detrivores are chosen judiciously, in addition to clean up, the sandbed becomes a nutrient recycling biological filter that uses complex food webs to turn inorganic & organic nutrients into live food to feed coral. Snails that burrow in the sand and that come out at night are a most powerful member of these janitors. Hermit crabs are creeps, they will eat your snails and wear the shells for hats. Replace the hermit crabs with bristle worms. Bristle worms or opportunistic scavengers that will feed on uneaten food and will feed larvae to hungry mouths.

@saullman
Because you have the wrong janitors in your tank, you must now do that job yourself. If it were me, I would fire the hermits for “offensive behavior”.

 

[Katrina71]

I wouldn't use NoPox. JMO

 

[Subsea]

With respects to useful janitors, CUC areas of expertise should be viewed in relation to each other but differrent functions: detrivores, herbivores, omnivores and opportunistic. In my experience, with 48 years of reefkeeping, sandbed detrivores are the most important component of the clean up crew. If sand bed detrivores are chosen judiciously, in addition to clean up, the sandbed becomes a nutrient recycling biological filter that uses complex food webs to turn inorganic & organic nutrients into live food to feed coral. Snails that burrow in the sand and that come out at night are a most powerful member of these janitors. Hermit crabs are creeps, they will eat your snails and wear the shells for hats. Replace the hermit crabs with bristle worms. Bristle worms or opportunistic scavengers that will feed on uneaten food and will feed larvae to hungry mouths.

@saullman
Because you have the wrong janitors in your tank, you must now do that job yourself. If it were me, I would fire the hermits for “offensive behavior”.

Fat fingers are sorry

 

[brandon429]

Agreed
No pox doesn't address the detritus clouding I could find in the rocks and in the sandbed if any. The right way to fix the algae is to kill it all at once and clean the tank of the clouding detritus feeding the algae. No water treatment is the right approach for a nano though it may earn an initial temporary kill.

A thread just below this one has nitrate at 4 ppm with gha.

 

[Subsea]

The logic on a rip clean is sound.

Brandon & I have much insight and experience. And we often see differrent solutions to the same thing and the reality is that “there is more than one way to skin a cat”.

I focus on non evasive natural solutions. Hurricanes & tornadoes are natural phenomena in the real world. Even though destructive on a macro level, Hurricanes flush out nutrient loaded/detritus loaded sediments in bays and waterways. While I don’t normally advocate “rip clean”: At my level of involvement with NPS & Sea Apples, I design detritus processing into my biofilter using micro fauna & fana.

Before going any further In this thread, let’s establish this.

Mature reef tanks operate differrent than new tanks under 5 years.

In my living room, I have four tanks between 10 & 25 years mature totaling 500 gallons.

@saullman
I searched your threads. Did you use fluconazole?

 

[saullman]

The logic on a rip clean is sound.

Brandon & I have much insight and experience. And we often see differrent solutions to the same thing and the reality is that “there is more than one way to skin a cat”.

I focus on non evasive natural solutions. Hurricanes & tornadoes are natural phenomena in the real world. Even though destructive on a macro level, Hurricanes flush out nutrient loaded/detritus loaded sediments in bays and waterways. While I don’t normally advocate “rip clean”: At my level of involvement with NPS & Sea Apples, I design detritus processing into my biofilter using micro fauna & fana.

Before going any further In this thread, let’s establish this.

Mature reef tanks operate differrent than new tanks under 5 years.

In my living room, I have four tanks between 10 & 25 years mature totaling 500 gallons.

@saullman
I searched your threads. Did you use fluconazole?

No, I have not used anything yet.

 

[Subsea]

No, I have not used anything yet.

A tank journal assist everyone. Instead of repeating questions to find information, do you have a tank journal? If not start one.

How long has this 45G tank been set up?

What is your level of reefkeeping experience?

Also, a picture of your tank would assist in interpreting “gha problem”, it could be a “normal algae cycle”.

 

[redfishbluefish]

It's hard to believe your nitrates are that high and phosphates are at zero.....unless you're using some phosphate absorbing product.

Realize, for any type of carbon dosing, both nitrates and phosphates are needed for the bacteria to fluorish. If one or the other is missing, no bacterial growth and therefore no reduction in either nitrate or phosphate. The other necessary thing is a skimmer....no skimmer, and that N and P loaded bacteria do not get removed.

My recommendation starting NOPOX....start at 1 ml/25 gallons for week one; week two is at 2mls, and week three go up to 3 mls. Continue at that dose until your N's and P's are in an acceptable range and then drop back down to 1 ml/25 gallons.

 

[saullman]

A tank journal assist everyone. Instead of repeating questions to find information, do you have a tank journal? If not start one.

How long has this 45G tank been set up?

What is your level of reefkeeping experience?

Also, a picture of your tank would assist in interpreting “gha problem”, it could be a “normal algae cycle”.

I started a maintenance journal on my tank. It's kept on iCloud so I can access it anywhere.

I would say my level of reef keeping is beginner. I have never had corals before.

 

[saullman]

A tank journal assist everyone. Instead of repeating questions to find information, do you have a tank journal? If not start one.

How long has this 45G tank been set up?

What is your level of reefkeeping experience?

Also, a picture of your tank would assist in interpreting “gha problem”, it could be a “normal algae cycle”.

My tank has been up and running for a year and a half.

 

[saullman]

It's hard to believe your nitrates are that high and phosphates are at zero.....unless you're using some phosphate absorbing product.

Realize, for any type of carbon dosing, both nitrates and phosphates are needed for the bacteria to fluorish. If one or the other is missing, no bacterial growth and therefore no reduction in either nitrate or phosphate. The other necessary thing is a skimmer....no skimmer, and that N and P loaded bacteria do not get removed.

My recommendation starting NOPOX....start at 1 ml/25 gallons for week one; week two is at 2mls, and week three go up to 3 mls. Continue at that dose until your N's and P's are in an acceptable range and then drop back down to 1 ml/25 gallons.

I did just remove rowa phos from my tank. I used it for a few weeks then took it out when I cleaned my tank.

Also I do have a tunze skimmer that I've had on the tank from day one.

 

[Subsea]

I started a maintenance journal on my tank. It's kept on iCloud so I can access it anywhere.

I would say my level of reef keeping is beginner. I have never had corals before.

In general, corals & algae absorb carbon:nitrogenhosphorous in the ratio of 560:30:1.

Those are the major nutrients.

“Photosynthesis is not limited by the most abundant nutrient, it is limited by the least abundent.”

As you skew the N ratio, good photosynthesis is reduced and nuisance algae abounds. You will find that low (what you are calling zero) nutrients favor nuisance algae.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea, ditch the nopox.
Get a toothbrush and some more snails maybe a tuxedo urchin.

IMO , don’t chase the numbers.

Look.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-home-tank.296635/

A fwiw , nitrates are constantly produced in a tank , both by fish ammona and decomposing waste. Thier production and accumulation has nothing to do with phosphate production.

 

[saullman]

Yea, ditch the nopox.
Get a toothbrush and some more snails maybe a tuxedo urchin.

IMO , don’t chase the numbers.

Look.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-home-tank.296635/

A fwiw , nitrates are constantly produced in a tank , both by fish ammona and decomposing waste. Thier production and accumulation has nothing to do with phosphate production.

2- How do you suggest that I get the algae off the rocks and sand bed? Obviously I know to use a toothbrush. But when corals are all glued to rocks, am I just sticking my hands in the tank and scrubbing with a toothbrush fish and all.

3- How do I get the algae off the sand bed?

4- fwiw? Sorry, new to all the terminology.

 

[Subsea]

@saullman
On the sandbed, vacuume it out with a major water change. On the rocks, use a toothbrush and a siphon hose to dislodge and siphon out at the same time.