Nopox AND Biopellets

[ReefKeeperElite]

Also to note, long time ago I tried dosing vinegar and just like you did nothing to lower my 50 to 60 ppm nitrates and went to really high dose and corals suffered. So stopped. But tried again with nopox but learned needed to kikick start it with bacteria and boom worked. I wished I knew to dose bacteria the first time with vinegar which is another carbon dose. Wish you luck

Thanks for all the good advice and for sharing your experience. At this point I’m going to stay the course with biopellets, and add in Microbacter since I’m already following that path, plus nopox still has me apprehensive. Hopefully it works, but still open-minded in case it doesn’t.

 

[moz71]

Thanks for all the good advice and for sharing your experience. At this point I’m going to stay the course with biopellets, and add in Microbacter since I’m already following that path, plus nopox still has me apprehensive. Hopefully it works, but still open-minded in case it doesn’t.

Sounds like a good plan. Just remember it takes a awhile for biopellets to really kick in. Stay the course. Good luck

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

I've been dosing 40ml MB7 per day into my 200g tank for the past week, continued 4ml nopox per day, and have been tumbling 200g worth of biopellets (4 cups). I know the biopellets are far from colonization, but so far there has not been much movement on the nitrates (see below), although it looks like its trending in the right direction. I plan to continue the same MB7 dosage until I get better response, and will update in another week.

 

[moz71]

I've been dosing 40ml MB7 per day into my 200g tank for the past week, continued 4ml nopox per day, and have been tumbling 200g worth of biopellets (4 cups). I know the biopellets are far from colonization, but so far there has not been much movement on the nitrates (see below), although it looks like its trending in the right direction. I plan to continue the same MB7 dosage until I get better response, and will update in another week.

Let’s see what another week or two bring! Thanks for updating. Will prove to be interesting

 

[1ocean]

following along...as I am upgrading my sump on my 300...My tank is almost bare bottom, except for 15 pounds of sand far back corner for wrasses. So I am working on making up for lack of sand in tank. My rock structure is mostly ledges. Sum I built is 5ftx2ftx18inches. Yes, water passes through the media in the sump but now I want to add some with forced water through some media and remove some media that just sits in a chamber in the sump. I am building reactors each for some siporax, Brightwell bio cubes, bio pellets, GFO and a 36 inch tall air exchange tower. I will also have a carbon reactor/ chemipure blue to use as needed with cation as we have tangs.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

Let’s see what another week or two bring! Thanks for updating. Will prove to be interesting

I am optimistic regardless of the slow nitrate decline, because I have seen improved water clarity, corals are becoming brighter and more colorful, skimmer is producing nicer fine bubbles, which is extracting good skim every day, and fish seem to be playing around more. These things alone make me think it is effective, and is encouraging me to continue the daily regimen.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

following along...as I am upgrading my sump on my 300...My tank is almost bare bottom, except for 15 pounds of sand far back corner for wrasses. So I am working on making up for lack of sand in tank. My rock structure is mostly ledges. Sum I built is 5ftx2ftx18inches. Yes, water passes through the media in the sump but now I want to add some with forced water through some media and remove some media that just sits in a chamber in the sump. I am building reactors each for some siporax, Brightwell bio cubes, bio pellets, GFO and a 36 inch tall air exchange tower. I will also have a carbon reactor/ chemipure blue to use as needed with cation as we have tangs.

I don't believe I mentioned it in this thread, but my 200g is also bare bottom, which I believe is part of the problem, since there is less surface area to which bacteria can colonize. I enjoy the bare bottom look, and no need to maintain sand, but obviously comes with its own challenges, such as this.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

I've been dosing 40ml MB7 per day into my 200g tank for the past week, continued 4ml nopox per day, and have been tumbling 200g worth of biopellets (4 cups). I know the biopellets are far from colonization, but so far there has not been much movement on the nitrates (see below), although it looks like its trending in the right direction. I plan to continue the same MB7 dosage until I get better response, and will update in another week.

Approaching the end of week 2, and still not seeing impressive results (see below) after dosing 40ml MB7 per day, 4ml Nopox per day as usual, and biopellets for 200g. The Nopox is on a schedule to dose 1ml every 6 hours, which I'm thinking may not be sufficient to sustain the newly dosed bacteria. Was thinking to do an additional 4ml immediately before dosing the MB7 to see if this hypothesis is correct. The intention is still to get off Nopox completely once the biopellets colonize, but I'm thinking in this interim period, the bacteria may be starving. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

I never added the extra Nopox because I found a big reason why my nitrates were rising despite the MB7: The addition of the bio pellet reactor changed my system flow due to the water displacement, and caused water to start flowing through the emergency drain, which I did not notice until a couple days ago.

Since I use a rollermat connected to the main drain, any water overflowing into the emergency drain is not filtered through the rollermat.

Since this situation causes such a big issue, I added a sensor (DSL_WL) in the overflow to let me know if the water level is approaching 1/2 inch of the emergency drain, and code to EMAILALM to notify me if it is CLOSED, so I can correct before this happens again.

I made flow corrections yesterday, and this mornings nitrate reading was down big:

I will be continuing with the heavy MB7 treatment for another week or so to analyze further now that this issue has been identified and corrected.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

I never added the extra Nopox because I found a big reason why my nitrates were rising despite the MB7: The addition of the bio pellet reactor changed my system flow due to the water displacement, and caused water to start flowing through the emergency drain, which I did not notice until a couple days ago.

Since I use a rollermat connected to the main drain, any water overflowing into the emergency drain is not filtered through the rollermat.

Since this situation causes such a big issue, I added a sensor (DSL_WL) in the overflow to let me know if the water level is approaching 1/2 inch of the emergency drain, and code to EMAILALM to notify me if it is CLOSED, so I can correct before this happens again.

I made flow corrections yesterday, and this mornings nitrate reading was down big:

I will be continuing with the heavy MB7 treatment for another week or so to analyze further now that this issue has been identified and corrected.

Discontinuing this thread due to lack of response/interest.

 

[juniorgomez708]

Whatever happening to the high nutrient levels?