Dosing NOPO4-x for Nitrates

pdiehm · Jul 24, 2015

I've been dosing my 120 gallon with this stuff because of high nitrates with how I cycled. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have kept dosing ammonia to cycle the tank like I would a freshwater tank. Essentially I kept dosing ammonia trying to get nitrites to read 0 after 24 hours. Only after I read an article from Randy about nitrites in the marine tank did the light come on. I could have stopped dosing ammonia when ammonia spiked, and fell to 0 in a 24 hour period.

Regardless, in doing what I did, my nitrates were WAY high, like over 100ppm. I was able to tackle them hard with water changes (did 25g changes twice a week), and eventually got the nitrates down to under 40. I have since started dosing this product, and doing my normal 10gallon changes once a week.

I started out using the vinegar dosing table for 100 gallons. My total system volume is approximately 115. That was 3 weeks ago. I tested Nitrates today and it's at 0ppm!

Should I cease dosing? or start to wean down the dosing like I built up to 14ml? I have no fish in the tank, just some snails, so my nitrates were from how i cycled, not overfeeding. I was getting some hair algae (normal in a new tank from what I've read because it's just not mature enough at this time), but that is dying off. Instead of looking like blades of grass, it looks like a droopy flower stem

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 24, 2015

I'd drop the dose back considerably and rapidly, unless the nitrate rises again. I'd keep some going, assuming you are feeding the tank now.

pdiehm · Jul 24, 2015

There isn't anything in tank except snails. I drop in a pinch of pellets once a week or si

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 24, 2015

Then I'd drop back to a very low dose. Maybe 1/10 of what you are dosing now, or even less.

Volpone · Jul 25, 2015

Good input ,do u have the charted for vinegar dose ?
I had same of ur issue in my old system and i tried almost everything to drop nitrate .
I hope also tgat Randy will share his experience with vinegar dose .

pdiehm · Jul 25, 2015

Volpone · Jul 25, 2015

pdiehm said:

Thx for ur reply ,for ur experience with vinegar ,have u notice any change in parameter ?do u use kalk to keep ur parameters stable while u dose vinegar?

pdiehm · Jul 25, 2015

Experience? Not my my friend. I am a tank newbie.

I don't dose anything. I was dropping the required dose in the morning. My pH per Apex stays in the 7.9-8.0 range. May be a tad low, but still acceptable as it very little from those numbers

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 25, 2015

FWIW, despite that chart being linked into one of my articles, I don't fully agree with it. There's no reason to think a 1000 gallon tank only needs twce the dose of a 25 gallon tank.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 25, 2015

Volpone said:
Thx for ur reply ,for ur experience with vinegar ,have u notice any change in parameter ?do u use kalk to keep ur parameters stable while u dose vinegar?

I don't track most things, but you can expect a significant nitrate drop, a smaller phosphate drop, and a pH decline. The effect on anything else should be fairly minor, especially with regular water changes.

Volpone · Jul 25, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, despite that chart being linked into one of my articles, I don't fully agree with it. There's no reason to think a 1000 gallon tank only needs twce the dose of a 25 gallon tank.

Thx Randy , so do u have any another charted to follow dose ?
And which acetic u prefer in vinegar 5% or 6 %