Reef Foundation A/B/C

[GoVols]

Thank you for the insight and advice. I'm at that point now. I am getting consistent 0 readings for my nitrate and phosphate tests. Im even dosing under the recommended amount for NoPox (5ml/day for a ~130g total volume tank). Recommended amount is close to 10ml/day. Only reason I dropped the amount was becasue my skimmer was going crazy.

Good advice though and a thought process I will look into changing. Currently tweaking the dose and trying to get readable amounts of nitrate/phosphate before adding corals.

I found my own way to break away from carbon dosing and it was the best move that I've made.

Have not had a new cyano bloom in almost two years.

I've been using Vibrant to knock out bubble algae and it does contain some carbon, but I'm feeding more and my nitrates are still holding at about .7 ppm.

Carbon dosing is fuel for good and bad bacteria.

If your on rock bottom zero, then there's no need to carbon dose. I'd rather be a little high on phos. and nitrates than zeroed out.

EDIT:
I do run an GFO reactor to control phosphates, but I have a need in that area.

 

[HolisticBear]

I think @HolisticBear and @justingraham uses NoPox with Triton.

Guys,
You got any feedback for @mjlash22 ?

There is nothing magic about Triton, it's more a style of reef-keeping than a set of chemicals.

I consider Triton Other Methods 100% interchangeable with ABC+ Powder w/ Colors CD, AF's 123, ATI & Fauna Marin's balling solution. Regular Triton just includes a few more algae inducing ingredients, which may be nothing more than a extra capful of Red Sea Color C.

I'm running NoPox and Triton Other Methods. I would like to transition to 100% fuge rather than carbon dosing. But that's because I'd rather not buy another doser for NoPox.

Red Sea Colors works with most calicum solutions, I has think BRS had a video on how to use their 2 part for Calc/Alk and use Red Sea for Trace.

 

[GoVols]

There is nothing magic about Triton, it's more a style of reef-keeping than a set of chemicals.

I consider Triton Other Methods 100% interchangeable with ABC+ Powder w/ Colors CD, AF's 123, ATI & Fauna Marin's balling solution. Regular Triton just includes a few more algae inducing ingredients, which may be nothing more than a extra capful of Red Sea Color C.

I'm running NoPox and Triton Other Methods. I would like to transition to 100% fuge rather than carbon dosing. But that's because I rather not buy another doser for NoPox.

Red Sea Colors works with most calicum solutions, I has think BRS had a video on how to use their 2 part for Calc/Alk and use Red Sea for Trace.

Micheal,
Great Point!!!

I had very good success with Aquaforest Comp 1+ 2+ 3+ balling too.

Lots of nice products out there.

Bottom line, it's up to the reefer to keep up with and understand their water chemistry.

Many ways to skin a cat... ;Wacky

 

[HolisticBear]

I am getting consistent 0 readings for my nitrate and phosphate tests

As Justin said, running 0 is not good. Arguably running 0.0 NO3/PO4 in a dry rock immature system is the worst possible water chemistry option out of all the options.

NoPox is carbon dosing. With regular Triton, they advocate you let the fuge algae die and breakdown, which is their form of carbon dosing. Some people like the all natural (fuge) approach. Other people prefer the NoPox approach since it's a consistent daily amount and the fuge waxes and wanes. There is this grey area where each hobbyist needs to figure out how much to trim the fuge and how much to let die off. In some ways, NoPox is simpler.

 

[justingraham]

As Justin said, running 0 is not good. Arguably running 0.0 NO3/PO4 in a dry rock immature system is the worst possible water chemistry option out of all the options.

NoPox is carbon dosing. With regular Triton, they advocate you let the fuge algae die and breakdown, which is their form of carbon dosing. Some people like the all natural (fuge) approach. Other people prefer the NoPox approach since it's a consistent daily amount and the fuge waxes and wanes. There is this grey area where each hobbyist needs to figure out how much to trim the fuge and how much to let die off. In some ways, NoPox is simpler.

Yea I agree whatever way is easier for you I would use
To me another product to dose and take care of was not the answer I was looking for I want reasons to keep my hands out of the tank and not tinker because that’s the style tank I want I test alk every two days change my Skimmate every Sunday along with cleaning the glass that’s what I need and makes this hobby. Fun for me so whatever works for u I think u should do
But if your nitrates and phosphates are zero I would be scared

 

[mjlash22]

Micheal,
Great Point!!!

I had very good success with Aquaforest Comp 1+ 2+ 3+ balling too.

Lots of nice products out there.

Bottom line, it's up to the reefer to keep up with and understand their water chemistry.

Many ways to skin a cat... ;Wacky

I didn’t think AF’s component 1-3 contained the foundation elements? I thought those were comparable to Red Sea’s color program. Doesn’t AF have their own foundation A/B/C plus component A/B/C?

 

[GoVols]

I didn’t think AF’s component 1-3 contained the foundation elements? I thought those were comparable to Red Sea’s color program. Doesn’t AF have their own foundation A/B/C plus component A/B/C?

Component 1+ 2+ 3+ is Cal, Alk, Mag and trace elements.

Simple way to put it.
Comp 1+ = Cal
Comp 2+ = Alk
Comp 3+ = Mag and micro elements.

But, AF is like KZ and they have a ton of stuff

Always had trouble with their reef salt parameters from batch to batch or bucket to bucket, but the Comp 1 - 3 was great.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-balance-out-comp-1-2-3-to-three-even-doses.303726/

 

[GoVols]

@mjlash22
FWIW:
If I have not gone with the cal reactor, I would have (most likely) stayed with the Red Sea program.
It was solid as a rock and gave the best results that I ever had, before.

I would have fired back up my DOS pumps and ran the Red Sea program just like @SPR1968 does and just dosed the "Colors" by hand.

 

[mjlash22]

That's my plan as of now. I plan to dose Red Sea A/B/C through my dosing pump then manually dose the colors once a week based on the calcium consumption. Even though it's more components, I feel through my research and through comments in this post, Red Sea is the way to go for me.

 

[SPR1968]

That's my plan as of now. I plan to dose Red Sea A/B/C through my dosing pump then manually dose the colors once a week based on the calcium consumption. Even though it's more components, I feel through my research and through comments in this post, Red Sea is the way to go for me.

That’s exactly what I do and it’s very simple.

Once you get the daily usage calculated I just do a weekly test normally on Sunday and then just adjust the dosage up or down for the following week. Easy.

I recently left my system untested for 2 weeks and when I did the tests everything was still within the correct parameters as if I had been there.