Nitrates and NOPOX

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

So I have REEFER 525xl.

I used the redsea mature method which seemed to work out great.

But my issues are with nitrates.

using the redsea test kits, my NO3 is holding at 8 and I’m dosing 3.5ml a day with a DOS.

i can’t seem to get the NO3 to lower. If I increase the NOPOX my water with cloud within day due to bacteria...

any suggestions?

I also have a refugium running with cheato which seems to be growing. I have two clowns and 3 tangs and feed 2 times a day With flake and nori

Redfoxtang · Nov 17, 2019

Does a 20-30% water change help lower the NO3. My problem with using it long ago and it stayed like your saying then the bottom fell out and had tons of algea and then dinos.

mta_morrow · Nov 17, 2019

A couple things. I have a 525xl as well and a lot of fish. My nitrates for almost 2 years have been in the 10-16 range. I dose 12 ml of NoPox daily now.
In order for carbon dosing to work, you must have phosphates as well. What are they measuring?
What is your target for nitrates, and why?
What is your alkalinity?

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

ALK is around 8.4
CAL is around 420

Phosphate are showing 0 but i don’t this that is accurate either as I am getting some algae of the walls and my cheato is growing. That said, i did start looking ways to raise phosphates and trying to learn about the red field ratio.

my goals were to mimic my last reef tank (I set them up exactly the same) NO3 1-2 and PO4 .08. granted this tank is double the size and I know every tank is different.

just frustrating. If I follow the NOPOX dosing instruction my tank will look like a milk shake. Also, my nitrates where around 30. But steady now between 8-10. my end goal is to have SPS and with my ALK at 8.4, i figured my NO3 needs to be lower (Based on reading posts and talking to the redsea folks) the 525xl is only two months. I know this is part of the equations too.

just wandering what I shout try, or if I am good, or maybe I should remove the cheato.

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

Funny I was already following your tank build thanks in advance for the help

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

Redfoxtang said:
Does a 20-30% water change help lower the NO3. My problem with using it long ago and it stayed like your saying then the bottom fell out and had tons of algea and then dinos.

So I have a separate DOS running an AWS program. I am doing 1.5 gallons a day.

i though about increasing that to 2.0 gallons. But not sure if that will help.

Dkeller_nc · Nov 17, 2019

Your nitrates don't need to be lower than 8 ppm to keep SPS. Many of us deliberately keep SPS in water with a nitrate concentration of around 10-15 ppm, and a phosphate concentration of about 200 ppb.

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

The SPS world is a little new to me. I have been running tanks for 15years but never tried SPS.

So I am learning. Sadly the bottom glass broke on my last tank see below

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

mta_morrow said:
A couple things. I have a 525xl as well and a lot of fish. My nitrates for almost 2 years have been in the 10-16 range. I dose 12 ml of NoPox daily now.
In order for carbon dosing to work, you must have phosphates as well. What are they measuring?
What is your target for nitrates, and why?
What is your alkalinity?

love your tank brother. Are you running a UV?

mta_morrow · Nov 17, 2019

Jason Bretzke said:
love your tank brother. Are you running a UV?

Yes, 24/7. And thank you for the compliment!

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

mta_morrow said:
Yes, 24/7. And thank you for the compliment!

which UV sterilizer are you using

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 17, 2019

Dkeller_nc said:
Your nitrates don't need to be lower than 8 ppm to keep SPS. Many of us deliberately keep SPS in water with a nitrate concentration of around 10-15 ppm, and a phosphate concentration of about 200 ppb.

I agree, 8 ppm is fine. If you really want it lower you may just need to use more organic dosing.

mta_morrow · Nov 17, 2019

Jason Bretzke said:
which UV sterilizer are you using

I run an Aqua UV, 25 watt 24/7. I run low flow thru it to kill stuff bs higher flow for just water clarity.

User1 · Nov 17, 2019

Jason Bretzke said:
The SPS world is a little new to me. I have been running tanks for 15years but never tried SPS.

So I am learning. Sadly the bottom glass broke on my last tank see below

Totally unrelated to your tank - more on that in another post - but I really dig the tall vase on the left of the tank.

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

saf1 said:
Totally unrelated to your tank - more on that in another post - but I really dig the tall vase on the left of the tank.

I think the wife got that at pier one if I am not mistaken

OceanDiver · Nov 17, 2019

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I agree, 8 ppm is fine. If you really want it lower you may just need to use more organic dosing.

randy 1st love your articles I have been reading them and using them as reference for years.

so I am dosing 3.5 ml a day of NOPOX initially I was following the redsea instructions and dosing 12ml assuming my water volume is 100g. My nitrates dropped from 30 to 10. So per the instruction I dropped from doing 12 to 8. Then cloudy water showed up which I know is a bacteria bloom but makes the tank look terrible. So I called redsea and they said drop to 4 and I dropped it down 3.5 and the water is now starting to clear and my nitrtate are still holding at 8

what are you thoughts should I stay at my current dose and keep my nitrates at 8.

I was shooting nitrates Between 1-2 per the phamplet redsea sent me.

i would rather stay stable than chase numbers but just want to get to the right place before I purchase some acro frags

thanks in advance

OceanDiver · Dec 14, 2019

Update

NO3 holding at 4.0
and
PO4 holding at .02

nano reef · Jul 15, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I agree, 8 ppm is fine. If you really want it lower you may just need to use more organic dosing.

What is organic dosing? can I dose no pox if my po4 is in the low range and my nitrates are 28. I dont know how else to get them down? I dont have room for a fuge.

I was dosng mb7 alot like daily because I thought I had cyano but I am now thinking its diatoms or maybe just low flow spots because thats the areas its growing on and hard to get flow to.

The problem with having the diatoms (or whatever it is) its on my newer acryllic frag racks that are on the sand bed, sides and back of bowfront tank. Its killing off some of my zoas. I think the Mb7 was keeping nitrates lower dosing daily.

I dont dose it as often plus not sure if thats a smart way to keep nitrates down and how far you can go with that method.

It was happening in my other tank and coarline took over and all is well with the frag racks. Just cant get coarline to grow in this tank plus I need to lower nitrates anyway!

Sorry so long but just addressing some of the other issues! Maybe you can help me with that. Is it normal for diatoms to grow on new things in the tank especially in lower flow areas? I have been reading alot about it coming from silicates in the water too.

How can I address that without gfo or phosphate lowering resins. I dont want to try something new really because I just changed my gfo and I screwed up and didnt add enough and they went from 0.08 to 0.17 so now trying to get back down again! Corals arent so happy! Dont want to keep stressing them out!

FUNGI · Jul 15, 2024

OceanDiver said:
randy 1st love your articles I have been reading them and using them as reference for years.

so I am dosing 3.5 ml a day of NOPOX initially I was following the redsea instructions and dosing 12ml assuming my water volume is 100g. My nitrates dropped from 30 to 10. So per the instruction I dropped from doing 12 to 8. Then cloudy water showed up which I know is a bacteria bloom but makes the tank look terrible. So I called redsea and they said drop to 4 and I dropped it down 3.5 and the water is now starting to clear and my nitrtate are still holding at 8

what are you thoughts should I stay at my current dose and keep my nitrates at 8.

I was shooting nitrates Between 1-2 per the phamplet redsea sent me.

i would rather stay stable than chase numbers but just want to get to the right place before I purchase some acro frags

thanks in advance

Have you tried dosing everyother day?
I too have a 125G and I dose 2.5ml and my nitrates are at 8~10 and phosphates at .05 (I'm OK with that)...steady....

nano reef · Jul 15, 2024

OceanDiver said:
So I have REEFER 525xl.

I used the redsea mature method which seemed to work out great.

But my issues are with nitrates.

using the redsea test kits, my NO3 is holding at 8 and I’m dosing 3.5ml a day with a DOS.

i can’t seem to get the NO3 to lower. If I increase the NOPOX my water with cloud within day due to bacteria...

any suggestions?

I also have a refugium running with cheato which seems to be growing. I have two clowns and 3 tangs and feed 2 times a day With flake and nori

What is the red sea mature method and how would I find out more about that?

Can I ask what you nitrates and phosphates were at before dosing nopox?

I am in the process of getting po4 down from a GFO blunder and wondering if I can use nopox with my po4 being 0.03 ( I already added more GFO so its going down now) I am worried that it will lower po4 to much so mainly need it for the nitrates. Of corse once I pull out the gfo it will go up.

I didn't plan things well. I wasnt planning on using nopox until yesterday and found out how much adding some new corals and fish upped my nitrates. I have another big order of corals coming in and that wasnt planned well either!

They have had my corals for months and thats a very long story as if this isnt long enough..lol

I get very carried away on ebay auctions and especially ones that allow me to stay on for months waiting for my small order that turned huge! lol they have 3 auctions per week! lol PLus live sales and insane sales on website!