6 months old, I was testing for nitrates and it seem my nitrates were being undetected even with the increase in food. Then I dose No3 which was a mistake and now my nitrates are sky high
Well just a little background on my system. I haven't done a water change in 4 years+. I have 15 fish and lots of corals. Ive been dosing 10 to 20ml of nopox daily the last 4+ years with no ill effects. So the nopox does not cause any detrimental effects on beneficial bacteria or corals of all kinds. You could do the water change but if you spend some time dialing in the amount of nopox you dose daily it will solve your issue most likely. Heres a pic of my tank so you can see that nopox does not harm a thing, by the way my fish get fed 12 cubes of Hikari a day.
Because you were the cause of the nitrate increase, i.e., you dosed it, you can remedy the situation with water changes. Just remember, the water changes will also reduce your phosphates.
NoPoX will work eventually, but isn't designed as an instant NO3 reducer. NoPoX is a food source for the bacteria that will reduce your NO3. It will take time for that bacteria to grow to a sufficient number to start brining down your NO3. You will also need to run a skimmer, preferably wet, for the NoPoX to work well.
You have a 20 gallon tank, the easy answer is water changes. IMO, keep it simple.
Ya i understand the difference from tank to tank what works in 1 might not work exactly in another. As for your nopox question I was dosing it within a day of setting up my current tank. A little history to explain how this tank came together. 5 years ago I had 3 other smaller tanks than this one running. 2 were fowlr and one had corals and fish. At that point in time I decided to tear down the other tanks and just go with one my current tank to simplify things. So I used all the live rock, fish, corals, water, pumps, lights etc.. for this tank. So since the water of all the other tanks combined was enough to fill the new tank and all the live rock and knowing I wouldn't be dealing with a cycle since I was using everything from the others it was basically a new tank but with all the things coming from my existing tanks I didn't change my regimen. So I can attest that nopox is very effective at lowering nitrates and phosphates to a smaller degree. The key is getting the dosage amount perfected. And I must also mention i haven't done a water change in 4+ years. Hope all that helps clarify some things questioned.
