Running GFO/Carbon while dosing Nopox?

[Ramon Estevez]

My tank has been running for about 4 months undetectable phosphates/Nitrates. I dose the Nopox once a week at recommended levels while also using carbon and GFO in my sump. My question is this necessary should I choose one over the other? Could this be running my tank to clean so natural algae growth and food are present for micro fauna in the tank to have something to eat? Have LPS and softies in the tank which I’ve heard may do better with a little higher Nitrates in the tank? 3 fish so definitely not a heavy bioload in the tank.

 

[TUSI]

If you are doing softies you will need nitrates and phosphates so I would stop the gfo especially if you are doing nopox and if you have no fish in tank you don't need to dose nopox either

 

[Daniel Waters]

Carbon is fine to use. GFO is okay, but unless your phosphates are really high and you're trying to reduce them, I'd cut it out or use sparingly. Algae growth usually can be handled with proper feeding, clean up crew, and maintenance routine. If you're only using the NoPox once a week and still have undetectable nitrate, I'd probably cut it out also until nitrates started getting too high. I figure 5 ppm of nitrate is probably a good target to shoot for, but there's probably a wide acceptable range.

 

[Ramon Estevez]

Well I have had higher phosphates before but I’ve got them under control and I do this even my LPS frags would do better with a slight rise in levels.

 

[roberthu526]

I have been dosing NOPOX for about five months now. I tried GFO and have taken it off line. My experience is the change GFO brings is too drastic and corals have a hard time adjusting to it. After I took GFO off line my nitrate and phosphate has slowly returned to a somewhat balanced level. Some corals I thought I had lost now are slowly bouncing back.
I still run carbon though because it makes the water crystal clear and absorbs some toxins released by coral.

 

[Ramon Estevez]

I have a 125 gallon system I figured I’d go through a lot of Nopox compared to GFO, maybe I need to run under the recommended amount or run the system with it then without.

 

[Ramon Estevez]

I didn’t want to start a new thread I figured somebody here would have suggestions. I cleaned my Skimmer and noticed a lot of GFO dust and I think it is affecting the efficiency of the skimmer. Is using Nopox enough to reduce Nitrates and phosphates or is GFO and Carbon preferred?