Stay the course?

burtbollinger · Jul 24, 2017

LPS-frag dominant (+ montis) 8 month old Red Sea Reefer 170 with 2 clowns and a royal gramma (no more fish are planned)....Rock is 22 lbs of Walt Smith 2.1 and a plate of Marinepure...20 lbs of Tonga reef flake sand.

Nitrates hover around 7.5.
Phosphates have always been undetectable 0.00 with the basic Phosphate Hanna Checker (not the fancy ULR Phosphorus checker)
Dosing small amounts of ESV 2-part...(less than 3 ML @ 3x per week) every few days keeping Alk @ 8.8 - 9 and Calcium at @450. Mag @ 1400
Dabbling with dosing @ 3ML of Red Sea Reef Energy 1x per week + broadcast feeding of Reef Chili (I feel Reef Energy was perhaps fueling diatom blooms)
Salt mix is Fritz RPM, 20% weekly change. 1.025-1.026
Fish fed once per day with LRS Reef Frenzy Nano.

Filtration had been simply a Red Sea mesh filter sock replaced 3x a week and a BM Curve 5 skimmer, plus occasional use of 0.8 rox carbon in a filter sock changed weekly

Tank sits in a VERY well-sunlit room where it gets direct sun for 1.5 hours per day.

Had noticed consistent diatom blooms...and was having to clean the glass almost 2x a day.

Fed up, I ceased the Reef Energy and about 3 weeks ago, did the following:

Passively run bag of Purigen
passively run GFO
2 hour reduction in the amount of the white lights on the tank to compensate for the amount of natural light hitting tank.

This has made a night and day difference. Moving forward, I have just purchased a small Avast Spyglass reactor for the GFO, and want to run a small amount on a maintenance basis....and continue running the Purigen passively...occasionally running the Rox carbon for polish purposes.

I've also started to dose Reef Energy + Reef Chili again, and so far, no more diatom blooms.

Is this an ok approach? Was I still in new-tank mode and just freaking out? (previous tanks never had these sorts of diatom issues) Any glaring mistakes or thing's I'm missing? I have read so much about dosing NoPox, and recently read about Mr. R-H-F, who I really respect (and almost fear), perhaps running carbon, GFO and NoPox...but I'm kinda scared to get started with all that if the Purigen and GFO is working.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 24, 2017

What type of water do you use for evaporation replacement?

burtbollinger · Jul 24, 2017

o TDS water from a BRS RO/DI unit purchased new with the tank in December stored in a bucket connected to a Tunze ATO...

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 25, 2017

I'm not sure why you'd have ongoing diatom issues. The GFO is a good choice as it will reduce silicate as well as phosphate, and putting it into a reactor will make it a lot more effective than passive use.

burtbollinger · Jul 25, 2017

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond...it means a lot.

After doing a lot of research, I am very interested in cautious vinegar dosing to bring the nitrates down....the few montipora cap, undata and digitata frags seem to be doing fine, but as this is planned to be a LPS-dominant tank, would you bother? Nitrates are steady hovering @ 7-10...and I am committed to phosphate control with my incoming reactor.

The alternative would be to proceed slowly... not carbon dose, simply keep up on water changes, skim, continue purigen use and see how adding the reactor positively impacts my tank...

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 26, 2017

I wouldn't initiate organic carbon dosing only for purposes of lowering nitrate that is 7-10 ppm. That's no substantial concern and accidentally driving it too low is more of a problem.

That said, there are other benefits of organic carbon dosing , such as bacteria feeding filter feeders, and that may be a more useful reason to use it (IMO).

naptalene · Jul 26, 2017

My 2c is if the tank is looking happier and you are getting decent results, carry on without the vinegar dosing.
It would appear the changes you have made are for the better so why add another variable in such a short space of time?

Another issue is that you wouldn't normally run GFO permanantly with a carbon dosing based nutrient export regime.
Others can confirm that with you

OOPS!!!! Randy had replied and my browser didn't show it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 26, 2017

naptalene said:
Another issue is that you wouldn't normally run GFO permanantly with a carbon dosing based nutrient export regime.
Others can confirm that with you

I think many people do (myself included).

naptalene · Jul 26, 2017

Hi Randy,

My main experience with dosing was with VSV for a short stint, then Zeovit for 3 years , so please bear with me as that is my reference point.

I have two assumptions (apparently misunderstandings

)

1. One runs GFO to remove PO4
2. I thought you'd only run the GFO to get your PO4 lower when you already have a very low NO3 level, and then take it offline and use as necessary to maintain these levels.

I've just started VSV again and have been avoiding GFO because of these assumptions. The ZEOvit worked wonderfully for me, but I am keen to start a bigger tank and it's not financially viable , so I'm testing my method before starting up the new tank.

Do you run the GFO to take up excess PO4 with continually low NO3 or for other reasons?

naptalene · Jul 26, 2017

Thanks for answering my questions before I knew I had them lol.......

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nopox-and-gfo-use.301856/

burtbollinger · Jul 26, 2017

adding another variable into the mix, confusing things further has been a main thought as I contemplated dosing. For now I will carry on as I am without dosing. Thank you so much for your feedback!