Red Sea NO/POX and cheato

[Bob Escher]

i know in all reality this is competing products per se but I'm addicted to having as little nitrate and phosphate as is. Which some say is good and some say is bad. I'm confused ( just a little)

But I want to run no/pox only when needed and have cheato In my fuge all the time should I just run cheato and do away completely with the Red Sea or only use when necessary ( I want to run cheato for copepods)

Thanks all

 

[lion king]

I run a refugium in one tank, and nopox in two tanks. They both work, with nopox you really don't use as needed. You need to establish a regular daily regimented dose. I have my nopox set up on a doser with a specific amount dosed daily to maintain a low level of nitrates and phosphate. I occasionally test and adjust as needed. Nopox does not instantly work, and it takes a while to fine tune your dosage to be effective.

It all comes down to the success of your own individual reef, there is no need to sign into the debate of "what level of no3 and po4". I've had awesome tanks with no issues and great success with both high and low levels of both. I keep lps tanks, so my tanks do like to run with some nutrients.

 

[Reefnewb]

Whats your nitrate at? you might not even need NOPOX.... and as mentioned above NOPX isnt something you start and stop. Its carbon dosing pretty much which needs to be on a daily basis.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I would say that, depending on how heavily you feed, you won't get to zero nitrates with Chaetomorpha alone. However, with carbon dosing, if you get the nitrates where you want them, you won't have any Chaetomorpha. The macroalgae simply can't compete with the bacterial population induced by carbon dosing.

I think you really have to pick one. Do you want to grow Chaetomorpha or do you really want nitrates as low as possible? It's very difficult to balance them both since they are competing mechanisms.

 

[beaslbob]

IMHO marco algae or other algae are the best. Not only do you get the pods but nitrogen (ammonia and nitrates), phosphates, and carbon dioxide are converted to fish food and oxygen.

But that's just my .02

 

[Bob Escher]

Right now I'm dosing 1 ml a day of noPox. Just started I have run it before but just manually dosing it. Nitrates are good at .050 and phosphates at .075 but I do feed heavy and that's my worry trying to cut down down and working on it.