Nitrates High - Using NOPOX

Dhd666 · Dec 25, 2017

Hi all,

I’m beating my head in... been using NOPOX for 9 Months now and had weird results but Nitrate would not go below 25... now it’s back up to 50 and Phos is at 0,5.

There was a stage when my phos was 0 but Nitrate was still at 50 and wouldn’t budge. I Read up on the Redfield Ratio and thought that maybe if I fed more flake I could increase my phos, and in return reduce my Nitrate... but no luck... so as it stands I am now at 50 Nitrate and 0,5 Phos...

I am dosing 3ml NOPOX for 100l,
Running Matrix,
Running Seachem de Nitrate
Ceramic rings
Red Sea Reef Spec skimmer
Tons of live rock
Tank is a Red Sea Max 130D 130 liters

What can I do???

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 25, 2017

Dhd666 said:
Hi all,

I’m beating my head in... been using NOPOX for 9 Months now and had weird results but Nitrate would not go below 25... now it’s back up to 50 and Phos is at 0,5.

There was a stage when my phos was 0 but Nitrate was still at 50 and wouldn’t budge. I Read up on the Redfield Ratio and thought that maybe if I fed more flake I could increase my phos, and in return reduce my Nitrate... but no luck... so as it stands I am now at 50 Nitrate and 0,5 Phos...

I am dosing 3ml NOPOX for 100l,
Running Matrix,
Running Seachem de Nitrate
Ceramic rings
Red Sea Reef Spec skimmer
Tons of live rock
Tank is a Red Sea Max 130D 130 liters

What can I do???

Have you tried adding more NOPOX?

Dhd666 · Dec 25, 2017

I have stuck with the recommended 3ml of NOPOX which is the max for 100l. I tried 4 ml for a while with not much difference

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 25, 2017

Dhd666 said:
I have stuck with the recommended 3ml of NOPOX which is the max for 100l. I tried 4 ml for a while with not much difference

While there may be other undesirable effects, such as visible bacteria, I cannot see how sufficient organic carbon dosing wil fail to reduce nitrate if there is also sufficient phosphate available.

I'd try dosing more for a while. The max dose is a somewhat arbitrary number.

Dhd666 · Dec 25, 2017

Thanks I’ll give it a shot

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 25, 2017

Let us know what happens.

roberthu526 · Dec 25, 2017

Recommended dosage is a broad guideline. If your nitrate is high after dosing for a month then you should increase the dosage. I am currently at 1.5 of the recommended volume and my nitrate is steady at 4-5 ppm. Don’t be afraid to increase the dosage slowly until you see levels drop.

Dhd666 · Dec 26, 2017

roberthu526 said:
Recommended dosage is a broad guideline. If your nitrate is high after dosing for a month then you should increase the dosage. I am currently at 1.5 of the recommended volume and my nitrate is steady at 4-5 ppm. Don’t be afraid to increase the dosage slowly until you see levels drop.

Thanks! Should I maybe dose 3ml in the morning and then 2ml at night to make up 5ml for the day for 100l?

tsav87 · Dec 28, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 28, 2017

I'd dose more during the day and none at night when pH and O2 is low.

tsav87 · Dec 28, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
While there may be other undesirable effects, such as visible bacteria, I cannot see how sufficient organic carbon dosing wil fail to reduce nitrate if there is also sufficient phosphate available.

I'd try dosing more for a while. The max dose is a somewhat arbitrary number.

How much (ratio maybe?) PO4 is needed to continue NO3 reduction with NOPOX?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 28, 2017

tsav87 said:
How much (ratio maybe?) PO4 is needed to continue NO3 reduction with NOPOX?

It's not a ratio. If you can detect it, its likely enough. If you cannot, it may not be. 0.01 ppm phosphate is enough.

Cory · Dec 28, 2017

The recommended dosage is also a detterrant to overdosing and oxygen depletion. Although im not sure oxygen could be depleted with a good skimmer and water movement.

Dhd666 · Dec 31, 2017

Phos is down to 0,25 but Nitrate is still at 50

azreeftank · Dec 31, 2017

I was seeing similar results as OP using NoPox and with the cost of that stuff it was almost $40 every six weeks. So I stopped and switched to dosing vinegar instead. Not only did it save me $$$$$$ but within 2 months my nitrate was below 15 (could never get under 50) and my phosphate was under 06 consistently. I feed a lot and have full tank and found vinegar to be much better than NoPox. I now dose 115 ml a day during daylight (like 15ml per hour) and seeing great results at the cost of like $2.00 per month with white vinegar.

Dhd666 · Dec 31, 2017

azreeftank said:
I was seeing similar results as OP using NoPox and with the cost of that stuff it was almost $40 every six weeks. So I stopped and switched to dosing vinegar instead. Not only did it save me $$$$$$ but within 2 months my nitrate was below 15 (could never get under 50) and my phosphate was under 06 consistently. I feed a lot and have full tank and found vinegar to be much better than NoPox. I now dose 115 ml a day during daylight (like 15ml per hour) and seeing great results at the cost of like $2.00 per month with white vinegar.

How did you wean your tank off nopox for the switch to vinegar?

azreeftank · Dec 31, 2017

As soon as I ran out of NoPox I started out with 10ml of vinegar per 100 gallons per day so it was 20ml per day for my 200 tank. Each week I increased by 5ml per 100 gallons so week 2 it was 30ml and so on until I got up to the current dose of 115ml per day. Once I saw my nitrate drop to the levels I wanted I started cutting back the vinegar until I found the maintenance level for my tank.