Which Doser for NOPOX

[Mageau11]

I’m 1.5 years in to the hobby and man have I learned a lot! Through the help of many of you on R2R I have gained some great best practices, and countless ideas for a tank upgrade down the road.

Some may say I’ve been learning the hard way as my 1st tank is a 54 gallon Aqueon Corner Bowfront that is NOT drilled for a sump.

I’ve been running a Fluval 406 Canister Filter along with the Aquamaxx HOB-1 Skimmer, and CPR AquaFuge 2 HOB Refugium for the past 18 months.

I’ve dealt with GHA outbreaks, tried removing by hand, finally went to Fluconazole dosing which really worked, but I get some patches of GHA here and there.

I’ve been dosing NOPOX manually adding 6 ml to a 12 oz glass of tank water and using my Accudrip to dose the tank over an hour or so. It’s tedious but it’s helped. I find that it drops my pH less rapidly when I use the Accudrip versus just pouring 6ml into the DT.

Great news is I just upgraded my filtration to the CPR HOB Overflow Box CS90 and installed my new Trigger Systems Sapphire Cube Sump. I’m running the Aquamaxx FC-80 Skimmer along with a Vectra S1 for my return pump.

I’d like to invest in a doser to start dosing my NOPOX. I do have an APEX system so their DOS is tops on my list just for fluidity of the system. Anyone using the DOS to dose NOPOX, or do you recommend another doser?

 

[McArcher]

I use a BRS 1.1ml/min doser hooked to my Apex. Works perfectly. You will be amazed at how stable your nutrients are once you get it dialed in. My NO3 has been at 3ppm and PO4 at .04 ppm steady for months now.

 

[Reef Able]

Tagging along...i currently dose anywhere between 5ml to 9ml manually...the only reason i dose it manually is because of my peace of mind...nopox is carbon dosing and if a dosing pump malfunctions i do not want the tank to crash however thts just me thinking maybe too much...i really would like to see how many people use dosing pump to dose nopox.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I also use a BRS 1.1 pump. My concern was the alcohol and acid on the rubber tubing, and then I found out it is impervious to these chemicals in NOPOX. Note that I use a DIY version of NOPOX.

 

[mcarroll]

I’ve dealt with GHA outbreaks, tried removing by hand, finally went to Fluconazole dosing which really worked, but I get some patches of GHA here and there.

Treating GHA that way is ineffective since a tank is highly likely to be reinfected in the future. Same goes for cyano. It is not a mere chance introduction like the intended target, bryopsis. Re-treating a tank with something like fluconzaole (which is a serious antibiotic) should be avoided in almost all cases, even bryopsis.

That means even if you do a "treatment" you still need a long term biological/ecological solution.

GHA, thankfully, is easy. Snails will eat the daylights out of it. If you are moderate in your tank management practices, it doesn't even grow that fast. That means only add livestock in small quantities and wait a month+ between additions.

Bryopsis needs a bit more attention to exclude it from your tank – you have to know the source and make sure there are no new introductions of bryopsis. If you can't do that, you really should not treat your tank at all since there's a strong possibility of reinfection from the original source – instead wait until you figure it out.

Hopefully someday we'll know more about it's biology/ecology and come up with an easier, antibiotic-free approach.