I got to the point of dosing NOPOX where there was a white film all over. Nitrates and phosphates down but not zero. Was up to 15ml for a 50 gallon. Ended up moving to an algae scrubber which I've been very happy with.
Using Nopox for the first time
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Why dont you do water changes?
KleineVampir
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I believe it does.
LIreefguy
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Yes it can. But using nopox really won’t help that. Nopox is better at nitrate removal doesn’t remove phosphates nearly as well.
Gha does a much better job
KleineVampir
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Not getting into that here!
KleineVampir
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So what you're saying is, I should get an algae scrubber? xD
LIreefguy
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yes I probably would. I am thinking about adding one but with 550 gallons and 45 fish I would probably need at least 2 big ones and that seems very expensive. Might try to make my own
Brs is actually doing a video soon to see if algae scrubbers stop algae from
Growing in main tank. Like to see the results
but nopox in your case won’t help.
KleineVampir
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Really? Seems like I'd be cutting off the nitrate and phosphate supply. Why wouldn't that work?
LIreefguy
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Because gha algae might be using up the phosphates before our test kit can measure them because there are 2 firms of phosphates. Inorganic and organ. Plus phosphates or phosphorus binds with things in your aquarium and then solwely releases it feeding gha. That’s the theory with phosphates. That’s why doing 100 percent water change won’t lower your phosphates. While nitrates don’t work like this. If you have 50 ppm nitrates and do 50 percent water change you will get close to 25ppm in your tank. Nopox is carbon dosing. The ingredients in nopox feed the anaerobic bacteria that breaks down nitrates to nitrogen gas. Our skimmers then help skim the excess out of the tank. If you don’t have testable nitrates nopox won’t help. The reason the bottle says it reduces phosphates too is the bacteria needs some phosphates and food too. Not just nitrates but the ratio of nitrates to phosphates is much higher. Think redfield ratio.
RMS18
I keep water chemistry as my hobby
I'm not sure if it was said or not yet but please be careful. NoPox was the cause of my dino outbreak. There is a delayed function with this stuff and by the time I knew it my nutrients were bottomed out and even after discontinuing it took a couple of weeks to get them back up. By then it was to late and here we are 5 months later and a ton of money spent, finally winning the battle on Dino's. I'll never use NoPox again. Instead find other ways to slowlyyyy reduce nutrients.
BTW the acros and lps I do have left after dinks in that tank look better now sitting at .1ppm of po4 and 15ppm of no3 than when they were uln.
BTW the acros and lps I do have left after dinks in that tank look better now sitting at .1ppm of po4 and 15ppm of no3 than when they were uln.
ylreefer
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Apologies if I missed it but I don't believe we know your NO3 reading. As much as hobby grade test kits are not as accurate as we would hope, and there are other reasons why we may get false readings we have to have something to go by so I'd start finding the solution based on that test result.
Let me first say me personal experience with Nopox is been very positive, although it does take around 6 weeks to start working, during which time manual removal is required to assist this. I have 110g med stocked corals and about 14 fish, I feed 2 cubes of frozen a day, pellet once a day, reef roids once a week, reef energy A/B once a week. I run a skimmer which does a very good job and have no refugium and do 10% WC every 2 months or when test show I need it. I currently dose 15ml of Nopox a day. My NO3 is stable at between 2-5. My po4 is always around 0.03-0.25.
As already stated GHA will more likely be feeding of PO4, which isn't the main purpose of NO3-PO4-X. although it does reduce po4 at the rate 16/1 No3/Po4.
Therefore in your case if NO3 is under 10 Nopox isn't really going to help you.
It sounds like your aiming to establish a no water change free tank, I have spent 8 months trying to do this and I have to say, if you consider every trace element that needs to be accounted for, then source them individually and calculate how much of each you need it is a very very difficult process, and one that I haven't given up on but for now I have to say for me a 10% water change every 8 weeks Is way easier. You may consider this until the system is stable enough to start experimenting with.
If you insist on no WC for now then an algae scrubber maybe the best approach, or for cost effectiveness and if space allows a refugium.
I would be carful of adding bottles of solution to solve an algea issue, adding to many cocktails will always do more damage than good in the long run. I'd love to tell you there is a magic ottle of something out there that will solve your GHA but in all honesty I haven't your found one.
Good luck with it, in my experience it will subside with a little bit of elbow grease. Annoying af but it will vanish sooner or later.
Keep on it.
Let me first say me personal experience with Nopox is been very positive, although it does take around 6 weeks to start working, during which time manual removal is required to assist this. I have 110g med stocked corals and about 14 fish, I feed 2 cubes of frozen a day, pellet once a day, reef roids once a week, reef energy A/B once a week. I run a skimmer which does a very good job and have no refugium and do 10% WC every 2 months or when test show I need it. I currently dose 15ml of Nopox a day. My NO3 is stable at between 2-5. My po4 is always around 0.03-0.25.
As already stated GHA will more likely be feeding of PO4, which isn't the main purpose of NO3-PO4-X. although it does reduce po4 at the rate 16/1 No3/Po4.
Therefore in your case if NO3 is under 10 Nopox isn't really going to help you.
It sounds like your aiming to establish a no water change free tank, I have spent 8 months trying to do this and I have to say, if you consider every trace element that needs to be accounted for, then source them individually and calculate how much of each you need it is a very very difficult process, and one that I haven't given up on but for now I have to say for me a 10% water change every 8 weeks Is way easier. You may consider this until the system is stable enough to start experimenting with.
If you insist on no WC for now then an algae scrubber maybe the best approach, or for cost effectiveness and if space allows a refugium.
I would be carful of adding bottles of solution to solve an algea issue, adding to many cocktails will always do more damage than good in the long run. I'd love to tell you there is a magic ottle of something out there that will solve your GHA but in all honesty I haven't your found one.
Good luck with it, in my experience it will subside with a little bit of elbow grease. Annoying af but it will vanish sooner or later.
Keep on it.
IslandLifeReef
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If you have a lot of detritus, that is most likely fueling the GHA. You can get rid of it without a water change by vacuuming your sand and rock and running the water into your sump through a filter sock. The sock will collect the detritus and you won’t lose the water. IMO, you won’t win the GHA battle until you get rid of the detritus. @brandon429 has a great thread on cleaning sand and rock to get rid of nuisance algae.
LIreefguy
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+100
honestly one of the best answered I seen on here in a while. Very well done response
KleineVampir
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Is it naive to think that there's a detrivore out there I could get to sift through the sand? I'd be cool to get a sand sifting goby of some kind. I just want something that isn't like a sea cucumber...trying to get away from big cuc members. Because they're always great until they die.
Or does anybody out there think that if I had enough blue legged hermit crabs, they would actually make a difference in the tank? Already had some now but what if I got like 200? Lol. I always think that next level of cuc is going to get me there but so far it never has. Still let me know if there are any reasonably good detrivores. I haven't really pursued that approach.
LIreefguy
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Honestly until you answer why you don’t want to do water changes to get rid of the built up detritus, how can we help
if your killing trochus snails and hermits with all that algae. Maybe your nitrates are higher than you think. What test kit are you using ? Plus you never stated what your nitrates are just thAt they are low.
Ps if your looking for a fish or a hermit or even a sea cucumber to eat all the detritus in your tank. Lol keep looking that fish , starfish, hermit doesn’t exsist. Trust me it be great if they did.
You could add a couple of bristletooth tangs to your tank but honestly you Don’t seem to answer to many questions you just ask another question
KleineVampir
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Some complete bs test kit. I've probably outgrown that thing. I mean it's just a basic API kit. But every time I use it I don't get anything significant; so I'm done using it for nitrates and phosphates, and nitrites and ammonia for that matter. It's never there. Just the algae!
Yeah it seems like cuc is often disappointing in that it never really gets the job done to the extent that you'd like. But at least they are pets that eat for free and still have a good impact on the tank even if it is a small one. Some of them I kinda like, like chitons and limpets. Some limpets survived the initial order, not many. Probably what I should do is send my water off to get tested in a lab, what is that, ICP testing?
But yeah I don't do water changes for a variety of reasons that I don't really care to get into. Other people have made videos on that. I'm not the only one. It's an extremely inefficient nutrient export method the destabilizes your tank every time you do it. I'm not working that hard for those kinds of results. I take it as a challenge to eliminate the need to change the water.
LIreefguy
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If you think water changes are extremely inefficient nutrients and destabilizes your tank. Honestly I am not the person to help you. I am 100 percent on the other side on this So good luck with your tank
Terri Caton
Valuable Member
Can I ask why you chose NoPox over, say, vinegar or vodka carbon dosing?
ylreefer
Active Member
Hi. No particular reason apart from its ready to go and I'm all about convenience me lol. As I upgrade to my 650 I may consider cheaper options but I like the results I'm getting and I don't really like changing things if their working well. We shall certainly see how the 650 runs and if its using a bottle a week I'll definitely be changing. Will be sure to uodate the build if I do
