city hunter Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 I'm going to start dosing pretty soon. Well if I dont polish off this vodka first. I think I'm going to start with vodka, but the diy nopox sounds interesting. Is anyone adding the denatured alcohol, or just sticking with vinegar and and vodka. I really need to start getting on top of my nitrates. I'm pretty sure it's up around 90ppm I need to retest. I lost some random lps that came with thye life rock I bought when I started the tank last january. It has a heavy bio load and I feed heavy. I have no plans to change it. My softies are doing great, same with sponge, some monitpora is doing alright, I did lose some lps, but I cant think of the name at the moment. gsp is also rediculous. I was battling cyano, but increased flow in the tank and thats basically been keeping it in check. I need to start a refugium, but for now I think I will start dosing. What does everyone prefer and why? I dont keep hard to keep corals btw. I'm leaning towards vodka as its in the house, but kinda wondering if I should just start with diy nopox instead. I think I need a vodka cran. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandVib3s Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 Vodka works but it'll feed all the bacteria and the cyano may return but worse. A refugium with good macro will be better for long term. It would probably be cheaper and better to just do the water changes till the numbers are closer to the norm ranges. But that's also if you want to chase numbers, corals adapt. It is less cleaning with lower phosphates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandVib3s Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 Live phyto dosing is probably better but can cost alot if you don't make your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 In my experience, both vodka and NoPox dosing take down your nitrate rapidly and don't reduce phosphate very much. If you use either of these to reduce your nitrates, make sure that you also use something, like GFO or Lanthanum chloride, to bring your phosphate down as well. Low nitrate and high phosphate can lead to all sorts of problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
city hunter Posted November 5 Author Share Posted November 5 I tried it for a bit, but decided to stop. I wasn't really seeing results. I've since added a baseball size poiece of chaeto about 20 days ago, and running the light 24/7 on it, and the thing is now about 3/4 the size of a basketball in the sump. About 5 days ago I tossed a small return pump in the sump to get better circulation and that seems to be helping a lot with growth. I'm not sure if that api ammonia kit was a false poisitve. I know they arent great. I also had a small pearly jawfish disappear after adding it. I figure it died, but it's the second small one I have lost. I must have one hell of a cleanup crew as I never saw any body and no jumpers. I have a fully enclosed lid. Anyhow, I just started checking phosphate today. I also did a dose of 2 part for the heck of it as I've had it forever when I bought a used tank. I think my phosphate explains some issues with some of the coral dying off and others not quite as happy as they use to be. I'm actually impressed with how fast the chaeto has taken down my nitrates. They were above 100 before the first test after a 20 gallon water change as well. Here are my tests 10-20-23 nitrates 100 ammonia .25 10-31-23 nitrates below 100, above 50 11-4-23 nitrates 25 phosphate 1 I think I wanna try lanthanum soon. I've been reading a lot. It looks like I need to run good flow though a filter 10 micron filter sock to capture the bound phosphate/calcium and slow dose it into that sock. My question is, should I get the seaklear, or try agent green which I believe is just dilluted more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted November 6 Share Posted November 6 I went for almost a year with increased PO4 and NO3, and trying to gradually bring them down. (peaked around 0.35 and ~100) During that year, my corals grew like crazy. But I knew I didn't want them to increase, so went for methods to bring down... gradually. No Lanthanum for me, no NoPox. I did Chaeto, phyto, and carbon dosing. (via Tropic Marin NP-Elim) Looking at your measurements above, I suspect you're not using Hanna test kits. What I found is I needed the increased accuracy, to see what was happening. and I tested every, every other, every 3rd day - for weeks! I'm using these test kits, and find them easy, consistent, and relatively fast. HI736 and HI782 (Hanna) I know there's an alternative Hanna phosphate test kit, and I don't know the real difference. Maybe others will weigh in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
city hunter Posted November 6 Author Share Posted November 6 I'm using salfert kits. I don't keep any crazy corals, so I don't really wanna invest a ton into it. I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted November 6 Share Posted November 6 1 hour ago, city hunter said: I'm using salfert kits. I don't keep any crazy corals, so I don't really wanna invest a ton into it. I Fair enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eatfrenchfries Posted November 6 Share Posted November 6 Lanthanum Chloride can be too effective on phosphate saturation. Drip slow. Does work very well. Never had a problem with Seaklear. I do have lanthanum chloride in powder form. I can offer some to try or dilute it for you.......if you're okay with my math. Another carbon source is propylene glycol. It's quite a bit stronger. Works great for my reef projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
city hunter Posted November 7 Author Share Posted November 7 7 hours ago, Eatfrenchfries said: Lanthanum Chloride can be too effective on phosphate saturation. Drip slow. Does work very well. Never had a problem with Seaklear. I do have lanthanum chloride in powder form. I can offer some to try or dilute it for you.......if you're okay with my math. Another carbon source is propylene glycol. It's quite a bit stronger. Works great for my reef projects. Wish I had seen this earlier. I ended up ordering some agent green. From a calculator im looking at. It's 5ml for 50g to lower around .5. I figured I would use a dosing pump to do it over 24 hours into a 10 micron bag. I'm thinking I will run a spare pump that pumps water into the bag into my sump instead of trying to run it into my return. Do you think I can get away with setting up a slow drip vs a dosing pump? I'd rather not have to buy a dosing setup, but I will do what needs to be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eatfrenchfries Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 Drip is fine. Just use drip / IV bags. The flow is adjustable and can last a couple days before needing to be checked. I have a couple BRS dosing units preset at 1.4mL ish that are collecting dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
city hunter Posted November 12 Author Share Posted November 12 I ended up going with the iv bag, did a drip about every 4 seconds. calculated for 50 gallons so 5ml mixed with a full bag of fresh rodi water. I used a 4 micron filter stuck hanging near the return pump. Used a small return pump from a aio I had and pumped it into the filter sock and put the drip in the filter sock. So far so good. I checked phosphates this morning and they were somewhere between .25 and .03 That color gradient is hard to tell for me.The fish are all fine. The softies seem ok. I think I will do another dose. probably just 1ml to see if I can bring it down a bit more. I need to get a alk test to see whats going on with that. I've been tossing some 2 part bionic in the tank over the last few days as I think the ph is a tad low, but My old hana checker probably needs to be recalibrated, maybe even a new probe. one of these days. It's showing 7.5, ro is showing 9.3 and tap is around 8.5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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