RowaPhos VS Red Sea N03P04

scfurse77 · Aug 1, 2016

I have smaller tank 40 gallons Total water with sump and after sand rock etc..

I have an extra spot on my doser for the N03P04. So that would be easy for me. But I also have an extra reactor that I can throw the RowaPhos in. I was told you should do one or the other and not both.

What do you guys think I should do?

fab · Aug 1, 2016

What are you intending to accomplish?

Rob Lion · Aug 1, 2016

NOPOX removes nitrates and a little bit of Phosphates
Rowaphos removes phosphates only.

All depends on your parameters and needs.... in time, you may need both.

scfurse77 · Aug 1, 2016

I was hoping to control nitrates and keep them below 5ppm and the same for phosphates. But i thought the NOPOX was used to control both. And i was told that i didn't want to combine the two products. Not really sure why. I guess i just figured that it was because the NOPOX pulled out the phosphates at a high enough level.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 1, 2016

scfurse77 said:
I was hoping to control nitrates and keep them below 5ppm and the same for phosphates. But i thought the NOPOX was used to control both. And i was told that i didn't want to combine the two products. Not really sure why. I guess i just figured that it was because the NOPOX pulled out the phosphates at a high enough level.

It does help both, but mostly nitrate and many folks need extra phosphate control along with organic carbon dosing because organic carbon dosing is an "unbalanced" export method, reducing nitrate more than phosphate.

Kungpaoshizi · Aug 2, 2016

You can use phosphate medias with nopox but they caution against using the white resin medias. I would guess with the white medias it's going to suck up more doc's (that contribute to nitrate; you'll need all you can get) and then the po4 media it will of course change the equation, but depending upon how much you use vs the nopox, you just need to be aware. (I would bet you would have to adjust things more as the media is used up and then changed out, with po4 medias, vs supplementing calcium/sodium/potassium nitrate)