Weekly Testing Complete

bdare · Nov 23, 2019

Just finished my Saturday morning chores of testing all my water parameters:

PO4 - .02ppm (HANA ULR)
Nitrate - ~16ppm (Nitrate Pro)
Ca - 415 ppm (Salifert)
Alk - 8.40dKH (HANA)
Mg - 1395 (Salifert)

I've been dosing 60ml / day of DIY NoPOX to get nitrates down (~250 gallons total). In the last 2 weeks they have started to plummet. If I see nitrates fall any more my plan is to cut my NoPOX dose in half.

One interesting fact... I've been reading that NoPOX is better at removing nitrates than phosphate. Last week when I tested, PO4 was at .05ppm. I added some Seachem Phosphorous and tested 24 hours later. At that time my PO4 was at .20ppm. Now today they are back down to .02. I dosed more Seachem Phosphorous. I'd like to think it were being taken up by the cheato in my sump, however since I started dosing NoPOX my cheato has pretty much all died. I know folks say you can grow cheato and dose nopox but that hasn't been my experience even with high nitrate and dosing phosphate.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 23, 2019

It is true that all types of organic carbon dosing can be more effective at reducing nitrate than phosphate due to the potential for denitrification that lowers nitrate and not phosphate.

Quietman · Nov 23, 2019

Might want to watch the cutting back on NoPox. Your tank is much bigger than my 170l but I did a bit of a yo-yo effect there trying to end up where I wanted (and I was trying to be gradual). I'd recommend gradually reducing now and shoot for a soft landing where you want.

So, I find my phosphates are kept under control but I do add some Microbacter7 so maybe that's a factor. I also try to limit food to low in phosphates. But I could just be lucky for now.

bdare · Nov 23, 2019

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
It is true that all types of organic carbon dosing can be more effective at reducing nitrate than phosphate due to the potential for denitrification that lowers nitrate and not phosphate.

I just thought it was funny that my phosphate keeps dropping super fast and I'm having to dose it while my nitrates are taking their sweet time. No other filtration other than some ROX carbon and a skimmer. I'm assuming the phosphate is being sucked up by my rock and sand.