Jumping into the Gfo reactor game.

[AdamNC]

I just ordered a BRS Mini Reactor and some Rowaphos. For my 40 gallon SPS/LPS tank my Po4 is getting a bit high at 0.14 ppm per my Hanna ppm Checker. I’d like to keep it below 0.03 - 0.04 ppm. I also daily dose nopox at 2ml/day. Weekly 5 gallon water changes are not keeping up. Po4 will drop to about 0.05 but then by next weeks testing it’s back up to 0.08 - 0.12. Is there anything I need to be aware of before I start using the reactor to not cause harm to my coral?

 

[road_runner]

...

 

[AdamNC]

I’ll look into carbon dosing and gfo, thanks.

 

[lifeguard101284]

Or maybe do two 5 gallon water changes a week or one 10 gallon water change a week to keep down phosphate and nitrates. It will keep them down evenly and save you the trouble of dosing.

 

[AdamNC]

Ok so reading more about the relationship of nopox and gfo together is it can be done BUT you must monitor it very closely to not hit 0/0 on both. And if I happen to hit 0/0 I have NeoNitro and NeoPhos on hand.

 

[road_runner]

Ok so reading more about the relationship of nopox and gfo together is it can be done BUT you must monitor it very closely to not hit 0/0 on both. And if I happen to hit 0/0 I have NeoNitro and NeoPhos on hand.

Yup as I said.
I do not like dosing chemical to increase po4 and no3. Just avoid is by testing and not bringing down your po4 to zero...it can happen over couppe of day.
So test my friend.

 

[SPR1968]

Ok so reading more about the relationship of nopox and gfo together is it can be done BUT you must monitor it very closely to not hit 0/0 on both. And if I happen to hit 0/0 I have NeoNitro and NeoPhos on hand.

I’ve used Nopox for over 3 years and it’s very good for nitrate reduction but not so good for reducing phosphate levels. You also need to wet skim

Many of us have to use GFO in addition, I personally use rhowaphos in a reactor and keep phosphate locked down at around 0.03ppm so very low and if you can do this you will avoid many algae and other issues.

But, you don’t want zero nitrate, or again you may encounter problems and also starve your corals and personally I target around 10ppm nitrate, but I’m currently at around 18, so the Nopox dose is increasing.

It’s just a balancing act with Nopox and you will soon get used to it. I’m currently dosing 32ml/day (in about 550 litres/145 USG) which is around double the maximum recommended dose (raised very slowly and carefully monitored) but, well, I like fish so.......

I think in summary, if your trying to reduce phosphate alone, I personally wouldn’t use Nopox as the method, I would use GFO and maybe Nopox at a low maintenance dose to keep nitrate in check. And if nitrate is to low, maybe add a few more fish.

And if my Hanna phosphate reads zero, I am delighted because it has a +/- error margin I think around 0.04, so it will just be very low because of the amount of live stock.