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Gwitness
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Thanks!! That's what I figured!Nutrients may rise, but I don't think it will do substantial harm.
Nutrient control question......
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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You're welcome.
Happy reefing.
Happy reefing.
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Gwitness
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You're welcome.
Happy reefing.
I'm still dosing the 70ml a day of the white vinegar and my nitrates are still stuck between 5 and 10!What do you think I should do next? I don't over feed at all either and I don't have much fish....any other ideas on why the nitrates will not go down? also should I up my dosage of white vinegar?
5-10 is not bad. Are you still having algae issues?
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Gwitness
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Just some brown cyano and a little on rocks to ther than that nothing too bad....I'm not trying to have a ulns by any means and I know a little phosphates and nitrates is good but I thought 5-10 nitrates is still too high??
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If you want it lower, I think a higher dose is certainly a reasonable thing to try. What size is the system?
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Gwitness
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165 gallons roughly .....I just didn't know if there was a max out number on the vinegar....like is 100ml a day too much? Or 150?
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Gwitness
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For an update.....Its been about 2 months now and I am still fighting the cyano or whatever it is on the sand, I recently ran chemi clean about 2 days ago and it still didn't get rid of all of the stuff on the sand?? Maybe it's not cyano....LPS, SPS and 2 anemones are doing good still....I have been dosing 70 ml a day of the vinegar and recently did a 50 gallon water change and nitrates are STILL reading 5 on salifert kit with only about 10 fish and not overfeeding at all and I don't feed the corals.....I am still maintaining my weekly 20 gallon water change routine on my 160 gallon system....The only other thing that is weird to me is that my snails don't die all at once BUT I have lost a lot of snails over the last 2 months?? Maybe ph or oxygen change from the vinegar doses?? Or maybe my cyano isn't cyano and its dinos?? but its not long and stringy at all on my sand, so I really don't think that's what it is......
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Gwitness
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For an update.....Its been about 2 months now and I am still fighting the cyano or whatever it is on the sand, I recently ran chemi clean about 2 days ago and it still didn't get rid of all of the stuff on the sand?? Maybe it's not cyano....LPS, SPS and 2 anemones are doing good still....I have been dosing 70 ml a day of the vinegar and recently did a 50 gallon water change and nitrates are STILL reading 5 on salifert kit with only about 10 fish and not overfeeding at all and I don't feed the corals.....I am still maintaining my weekly 20 gallon water change routine on my 160 gallon system....The only other thing that is weird to me is that my snails don't die all at once BUT I have lost a lot of snails over the last 2 months?? Maybe ph or oxygen change from the vinegar doses?? Or maybe my cyano isn't cyano and its dinos?? but its not long and stringy at all on my sand, so I really don't think that's what it is......In the past 2 1/2 months My nitrates have pretty much stayed in the same range when I started the vinegar dosing?? Maybe I should just stop it all together and try something else? What is your opinion on what I should do or try?
Damon
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Like randy said, up the dose of vinegar a little at a time. Your probably just not adding enough..
And for the algea on the sand, take a close up picture and post it. That would be helpful for identifying.
And sometimes, chemi takes 3 to 4 days to actually clear the issue. And even then, sometimes, you have to do a second treatment..
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Gwitness
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Pics are terrible but that's what it is and that's after I just did a 30 gallon water change....i know it has to be nutrients because flow is fine and this is in high flow areas also....my thing is I'm dosing 70 ml a day right now on my tank, how much higher of a dosage can I even do? Is there a cut off point?? Also since dosing the vinegar my nitrates are literally in the same range as before I started dosing the vinegar?? That makes no sense to me either....
Damon
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Take a read at these. They will answer all of your questions... They should.. A fundamental understanding of this by the user is pretty critical since "you are there" and we aren't..
I would suggest reading these, employing some of the strategies, unless randy says otherwise, and then see how it goes..
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/
http://www.reefaquarium.com/2012/carbon-dosing-in-laymans-terms/
http://saltwater-conversion.com/pages/carbon-dosing
I would suggest reading these, employing some of the strategies, unless randy says otherwise, and then see how it goes..
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/
http://www.reefaquarium.com/2012/carbon-dosing-in-laymans-terms/
http://saltwater-conversion.com/pages/carbon-dosing
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Gwitness
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Thanks for sending that stuff.....I pretty much knew most of that already from researching it before I started the dosing but in the one article it said carbon dosing could be bad in a mature tank that was leaking nitrates and phosphates from the rock....my phosphates are in a good range so I'm not worried about those but maybe my nitrates are leaking in the water.....it says if that is happening I could keep increasing and increasing my dosage and then it will finally work but my dosage will be too high and could harm the tank....at least that's how I translated it....not sure if that is my case or not.....I mean my tank is doing great except for nitrates still reading 5-10 and the dumb cyano,diatoms, or Whatever it is on my sand.....maybe I should just chill and just see what happens over time....i have been siphoning the sand again maybe I should stop doing that?? But when I do siphon the sand, the water in the bucket is definitely brown
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Gwitness
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What would you do if you were me?
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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Assuming the kit is working it means that you've attained an equilibrium between inputs and exports. How much total water volume do you have?
How good is your skimmer?
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Gwitness
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I have 155- 160 gallons roughly
Randy Holmes-Farley
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70 mL of vinegar per day is not necessarily too much. Too much for me was effectively about 3.6 times that amount (410 mL per day in ~250 gallons).
So adding more is a fine experiment.
So adding more is a fine experiment.
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Gwitness
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Haha oh wow!! Okay sounds like a plan then....I will increase to 50 and just go up 5 ml a week...thanks and I'll be back with an update !
fragit
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So I just read through almost every line of this thread. There are three questions that I did not see asked, maybe I missed them. Do you use RO/DI for your top off and water changes? When where the filters and membranes last changed if you do. The third question relates to earlier in the thread when you showed a pic of your tank and I could see in your sump. On the left hand side you had two little white containers with blue lids on them. They looked like a fish food that I used to feed in my last set up. I didn't think I over fed either, however always had this same problem and hair algae too. Have you tried switching foods?
