Newbie here. I’ve been through my cycle for about 6 weeks, tank is about 3 months old. One mistake I made was not curing my dry rock which is the culprit I believe of high nitrates. I was sitting at well over 100 ppm Nitrates so I started vinegar dosing. This has finally brought me down to 10 ppm nitrates. So I think I understand vinegar dosing to be feeding the bacteria with carbon that drives down nitrates.
I also just bought a Nyos Phosphate test and I’m at .5 ppm
I have a couple Vertex reactors and pumps ready to go so I figured I’d start with GFO to get my phosphates in check and while I’m setting that up I might as well start to run carbon.
Now here’s where my ignorance comes in with a stupid question. Running activated carbon through the reactor is not the same as carbon dosing to drive down nitrates correct? My understanding is that carbon is going to help remove impurities in the water where as carbon (vinegar) dosing is to feed bacteria. Please correct me if I am wrong and once I get carbon running through my reactor if I need to adjust my vinegar dose. Thanks in advance for the help.
I also just bought a Nyos Phosphate test and I’m at .5 ppm
I have a couple Vertex reactors and pumps ready to go so I figured I’d start with GFO to get my phosphates in check and while I’m setting that up I might as well start to run carbon.
Now here’s where my ignorance comes in with a stupid question. Running activated carbon through the reactor is not the same as carbon dosing to drive down nitrates correct? My understanding is that carbon is going to help remove impurities in the water where as carbon (vinegar) dosing is to feed bacteria. Please correct me if I am wrong and once I get carbon running through my reactor if I need to adjust my vinegar dose. Thanks in advance for the help.
