Dosing Brightwell NeoPos

specialk · Feb 20, 2017

Welp .. it has come down to this. I need to dose Brightwell Aquatics NeoPos (p04) ... and never in a million years would I think I wanted to dose p04!

My issues were outlined here in case you are wondering http://reef2reef.com/threads/weekend-ruined-lesson-learned.289517/page-4#post-3527312

BUT ... the meat and potatoes is this.

* 125 gallon system (155 total w/sump)
* sps frag dominant
* Alk - 8.3
* Mag - 1350
* Calcium - 450
* salinity 1.026
* p04 - 0.00
* nitrate - 8
* Protein Skimmer

Previously was running heavy GFO, Roxx carbon and stripped the system of all p04 and p03. Sps started to struggle. Dosed stectraside stump remover and got the nitrate up. However p04 still at 0.00.

So basically... I was running an ULNS and totally deprived my system of nitrate and phosphate. Sps = NOT HAPPY!! SO... NOW I have good nitrate levels, but no P04 ... which as we all know this imbalance is not good.

Tried for the last week and half to bring the p04 up with over feeding, frozen food, etc .. the normal suggessted "over feeding route" ...still not moving at all.

Been researching this and found on many forums and from many an expert that often times the over feeding simply will NOT do it and will not bring it up. This is when p04 dosing is needed.

So going to SLOWLY bring it up and test by dosing with Brightwell Aquatics NeoPos.

Wondering if anyone has any last minute tips for me or anything at all that I should be aware of or watch out for.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 20, 2017

Shouldn't be anything special to watch for. Just go slow.

3mm3 · Feb 20, 2017

Tagging along have the exact problem. Just dosed flourish phosphorus few hours ago. I also have NeoPos arriving soon. I hope you get good results soon!

specialk · Feb 21, 2017

3mm3 said:
Tagging along have the exact problem. Just dosed flourish phosphorus few hours ago. I also have NeoPos arriving soon. I hope you get good results soon!

I'll make sure to post some results!!

specialk · Feb 22, 2017

FINALLY! LET THERE BE PO4!!!

Been dosing 25 drops (out of the droppette provided) a day ...which for my system and 155 gallons, 25 drops will raise p04 by 0.01) ....and I am FINALLY getting p04 readings!

Going to take it up to around 0.04 - 0.05 range.

Nitrates holding steady around 8. So hopefully my sps start thanking me!

Rick.45cal · Feb 22, 2017

specialk said:
FINALLY! LET THERE BE PO4!!!

Been dosing 25 drops (out of the droppette provided) a day ...which for my system and 155 gallons, 25 drops will raise p04 by 0.01) ....and I am FINALLY getting p04 readings!

Going to take it up to around 0.04 - 0.05 range.

Nitrates holding steady around 8. So hopefully my sps start thanking me!

See you've already figured it out!

specialk · Feb 22, 2017

Rick.45cal said:
See you've already figured it out!

Now just need those sps to start coloring back up!!

Bayinaung · Feb 22, 2017

wow. didn't realize so many are doing this now. It's crazy! I'm shocked your nitrate only dosing didn't cause issues. Which is good. I'm in the same boat. doubling feeding isn't nudging numbers up. So I am going to dose both N and P. will be following your progress.

specialk · Feb 23, 2017

Bayinaung said:
! I'm shocked your nitrate only dosing didn't cause issues.

Actually it DID! My sps were brown and struggling before, then I dosed nitrate and the imbalance caused them to start getting worse. Started noticing white spots (bleaching) on some of them.

Now when I started over feeding, a couple of them lost their white spots and it colored back up, BUT a majority of the sps stayed in the "ticked off" state. So this is when I started to really test for p04 (previously was not testing for p04) and realized I was at 0.00. Over feeding was NOT bringing the #s back up.

So started dosing NeoPhos and WOW .. immediate p04! So gonna give it some time here and hopefully they start talking to me!