Phospates bottoming out while dosing nopox

[Cuong]

As the title says, I have been dosing nopox for the past month. Before dosing my nitrates were hovering at 15ppm and phosphates were at .04. For the past 4 days, my phosphates have bottomed out to zero but my nitrates have frozen at 8ppm. I don't want to overreact because I know I still have some P in the water because my chaeto is still flourishing. The question is, should I dose Neophos into the water? I want to get the nitrates just a little lower. Just confused on if I should lessen the dosage of nopox, or supplementally dose phosphates to help drive nitrates down more.

 

[reeferfoxx]

NoPoX was designed to target both. I would stop dosing it though. 8ppm isnt bad at all.

 

[Cuong]

I've got a lot of sps in my tank. Would like it a bit lower than where its at. Everything looks great so far in the tank. Just want to keep it looking like this, hence to questions. Shooting for 2-5ppm

 

[reeferfoxx]

I've got a lot of sps in my tank. Would like it a bit lower than where its at. Everything looks great so far in the tank. Just want to keep it looking like this, hence to questions. Shooting for 2-5ppm

How fast do your nitrates rise?

 

[Cuong]

Not that fast at all. I'm running continuous water changes in a 180 gallon system taking out 3 gallons a day.

 

[Velcro]

I had the exact same numbers using no3po4x after dropping nitrates from 20 to 8. I actually had to dose phosphate within a couple weeks of starting no3po4x because phosphorous went to zero and nitrates stalked at 12.

Last week my alk demand went down by 50% over the period of a few days. I ended up stopping the no3po4x, and 48 hours later my alkalinity demand went back up to normal overnight.

This is while my nitrates are still reading 8 and my phosphates phosphates are at 0.05 while dosing... I don’t know if the carbon dosing was causing organic phosphate/nitrate to be depleted by bacteria faster than the coral could or what, but this is basically the only thing that I’ve changed in the past few days and the alk demand is skyrocketing.

 

[Cuong]

I've been feeding heavily these past 4 days to compensate for the lack of phosphates. In the afternoon I feed about 3 cubes worth of Rods, LRS and mysis with a few scoops of reef roids and oyster feast for corals. Flakes once at night. I have about 12 fish

 

[reeferfoxx]

Do you have any pond matrix or seachem matrix? I think that would help more than carbon dosing. Especially if they arent rising fast. Just be careful, chasing nutrients like that can have some adverse reactions.

 

[Cuong]

I had the exact same numbers using no3po4x after dropping nitrates from 20 to 8. I actually had to dose phosphate within a couple weeks of starting no3po4x because phosphorous went to zero and nitrates stalked at 12.

Last week my alk demand went down by 50% over the period of a few days. I ended up stopping the no3po4x, and 48 hours later my alkalinity demand went back up to normal overnight.

This is while my nitrates are still reading 8 and my phosphates phosphates are at 0.05 while dosing... I don’t know if the carbon dosing was causing organic phosphate/nitrate to be depleted by bacteria faster than the coral could or what, but this is basically the only thing that I’ve changed in the past few days and the alk demand is skyrocketing.

So you stopped dosing nopox and haven't continued since??

 

[Cuong]

Do you have any pond matrix or seachem matrix? I think that would help more than carbon dosing. Especially if they arent rising fast. Just be careful, chasing nutrients like that can have some adverse reactions.

I'm running a 1" and a 4" marinepure blocks in there...

 

[reeferfoxx]

Is this an sps tank? Sometimes just raising alk will help with no3 uptake.

 

[Cuong]

8.5-8.8 throughout the day. I've never heard of raising alkalinity to affect NO3. Might look into it. Personally I don't think its gonna work with me. I have about 40 pieces in there. Most of them are still only 3 or 4 branchers.... I only have about 4 colony size pieces.

You guys are scaring me with this carbon dosing.

 

[reeferfoxx]

8.5-8.8 throughout the day. I've never heard of raising alkalinity to affect NO3. Might look into it. Personally I don't think its gonna work with me. Most of my coral are still only 3 or 4 branchers.... I only have about 4 colony size pieces.

You guys are scaring me with this carbon dosing.

Nopox is carbon dosing. That scares me lol!!

Ya raising alk will increase growth.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How are you measuring phosphate?

 

[Cuong]

I'm measuring via a ULR Hanna.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Choices would seem to including dosing less NOPOX, feeding more, or dosing phosphate somehow. I'm not really sure what is best.

 

[firefishalumacraft]

I though with Nopox that you should stop all other sources of nutrient export suck as a cheato, that could be your problem. I'd take the cheat out or stop dsoing no pox and get that cheato to take over as your main export.

 

[firefishalumacraft]

I though with Nopox that you should stop all other sources of nutrient export suck as a cheato, that could be your problem. I'd take the cheat out or stop dsoing no pox and get that cheato to take over as your main export.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I though with Nopox that you should stop all other sources of nutrient export suck as a cheato, that could be your problem. I'd take the cheat out or stop dsoing no pox and get that cheato to take over as your main export.

Not necessarily. IMO, having a variety of different sorts of export methods can be desirable.

I used organic carbon dosing (vinegar), GFO, growing macroalgae, large rock filled refugia, GAC (ROX 0.8), skimming, and water changes all at the same time.

 

[roberthu526]

I've got a lot of sps in my tank. Would like it a bit lower than where its at. Everything looks great so far in the tank. Just want to keep it looking like this, hence to questions. Shooting for 2-5ppm

This is where it gets tricky. You are trying to make changes even though everything looks great. I was like you three months ago and now I am starting over buying frags to fill my tank. Be careful chasing numbers.