High P, Low N -- KNO3 vs. Carbon dosing.

[hart24601]

Ah I see. Just FYI I have run BRS high capacity GFO in Seachem's "The Bag" before and most times it doesn't clump for me. Small mesh size also doesn't let any dust escape, I did have it clump once, but I could break it up with my hand. It's not ideal compared to a reactor, but suits my purpose.

 

[larcat]

Well FWIW, we're in a much better spot now.

Algae is gone, we are dosing Nopox slightly above the recommended. No3 is still bottomed out. We do planted tanks as well, and have been dosing kno3 to about 5 ppm in our tank. Tank eats through about 2.5 ppm No3 a day. When we dose Kno3, Phos quickly bottoms out, but when we stop dosing it creeps back up relatively quickly.

Any suggestions for longer term stability?

 

[larcat]

Just wanted to bump this again. It's kinda crazy: With modest carbon dosing, our po4 levels are basically on a string via know dosing.

Still not sure on the long term solution but for the time being we're going to set up kno3 on a peristaltic to the tune of ~ 3ppm/day.

 

[Keiffer the reefer]

Regarding detritus if a refugium, I had this problem, too. I found a thread that detailed a "duplex" setup. It's basically using egg crate to create a shelf 4" off the bottom of the fuge, a 4" layer of live rock on the egg crate and the 4" of algae on top. This has worked like magic for me. About 18 mo in and no detritus in sight.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Any new development in corals or algae?