Just started carbon dosing...

so tonight is day 3 and I just in one day have peeled several long nasty jelly like cyano mats off my sand. This is like super cyano, I've never seen anything like it before. It is heavy, like jelly, and peels off in long strips and sections like tape. Since starting dosing, it gives the look of "letting go" and just kinda waves around so it makes it easier to peel..

I'm seeing more of my sand bed and rock than I have seen in MONTHS and seeing coraline taking up home on specs of rock that it was never on.. To boot, i haven't had to clean my glass since the first day, while before carbon dosing I would have to clean every single day otherwise it was hard to see inside.

Just observations so far.
 
So it's been almost a week and I'm up to 10ml now... Some noticeable improvements actually.. Sorry for the crappy pictures.

I haven't seen this actual rock in MONTHS.. Cyano went away several days ago, and has not come back at all.. What has come onto the rock, that nice speck of purple coraline! I'm seeing this all over the various parts of the rock! Cyano disappearing, coraline appearing! What's nice is, this bare rock spot is actually getting bigger daily!

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This rock was completely covered in cyano just like every other... Notice a difference?

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Same here, was completely covered.

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This is just after a couple of days... Nasty half wet skimming still producing this!

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So far so good. my pH hasn't moved since I started, and I am just doing manual dosing right now.. Should this continue to get better which if the results so far are an indication they should, I will get a dosing pump and just dose daily when I find the maintenance dose. I also some banded trochus, nassarius vibex, margarita and mexican turbos yesterday.. First time owning banded trochus, and man are these guys like little lawn mowers! Hoping they spawn like others have had happen...

Good stuff so far, and will continue to update as I move along in the process. I'm planning on potentially next weekend doing a nice large WC and using a hose to suction out as much cyano as possible. I've done this in the past but it has just come right back. With a large dose by next weekend, should keep it away and let more coraline take over that rock. Apparently cyano doesn't like to hang out on rock that has coraline all over it... at least not in my tank!
 
Dosage increases tomorrow from 10ml to 15ml... So much more rock is clearing up! can't wait to see what 15ml brings.
 
So today started with 15ml... Skimmer is continuing to work its butt off, and more spots of my rock are becoming cyano free, and staying that way.... It's nice to see rock I haven't seen in months..

I realize to most this doesn't look like much, but staring at almost 100% covered cyano rock for three months, this is amazing. I'm slowly reclaiming my tank back.

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This overflow was completely covered in cyano as were the grates on the bottom.. Quite a big difference!

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tassod said:
What vinegar dosing schedule are you following? How long and how often were you dosing 10ml?
Click to expand...

I'm using the guide from randy holmes farley on ReefKeeping.. Google vinegar dosing and you'll find it... Right now I am on day two of 15ml. It's interesting because nightly, mats of cyano are just "letting go" from my rock and all over and I spend several minutes just peeling chunks off my rock.

I'm planning on starting to mix water, and do a WC this weekend and changing out GAC & GFO. Really think that between carbon dosing & GAC & GFO, it is making a lot of progress. My skimmer is pulling out 1" of gunk twice as fast.
 
i wouldnt use gfo until the end. carbon ok. but i think its a waste of money. use gfo to remove the p04 that the carbon dosing doesnt remove, i dont though, im might now that i think about it.
 
So nothing terribly new today at 15ml. There is less cyano on the rocks but it comes and goes but overall I'm seeing more rock since I started carbon than I did in a long while. My sand isn't getting covered in cyano anymore, it's gone for red cyano to brown'ish and now disappearing in spots. My skimmer is working it's butt off still doing an excellent job. Overall, less cyano, so that's a great start!

The biggest thing, is not having to clean my glass every single day like before.. it would be caked like a powder'ish rusty residue before, now I haven't scrubbed the glass since Saturday morning and it's spotless! I think running carbon with GAC\GFO is def helping.. I'm putting an order in for the high capacity GFO from BRS and seeing if that gets me anymore results than the regular stuff. Anyone have opinions on it? Is it worth the money?
 
back to the whole p04 and nitrate thing. i wouldn't use gfo until your nitrates are 0. the nirtates need a p04 to bond to to be removed. if im not mistaken.
 
skunkmere said:
oh cool, i just hate gfo for being too expensive. and it clogs up fast with carbon dosing.
Click to expand...

yea, I've never had a nitrate issue, at least as far as my test kit is concerned but to be honest I'm sure I had something there, not much but something.. Since I'm doing this to mainly reduce phosphates I realize it will take a long while, much longer than if I was going just for nitrates... In the end the goal is to have both nitrates and phosphates undetectable and be able to feed heavily. It's getting there, albeit slowly which is fine for me.

Two interesting observations... I haven't cleaned my glass since Saturday, and it's spotless, so obviously something positive is happening. I used to have to do it daily and it was caked. Two, one of the chalices I bought a while back that was thriving went from like 15 eyes to four.. I thought we would lose it, but those four have stayed alive. I've noticed that in the last two days it has started growing actually and getting a little larger, and adding some color! This is awesome..... There is generally less cyano, and I really do think that between another WC this weekend, changing out GFO&GAC this week, plus the continued dosing, we'll get there. I'm ordering a dosing pump today so I can automate the process ASAP.
 
Chalice is growing and is actually a relief since it was on deaths door. It's been almost four days and barely anything on my glass which is just amazing. Skimmer is still working, and even my chaeto is starving a bit..

The real big test will be this weekend, when I can suck out all of the cyano from the rocks, do a big WC and replace GAC & GFO. We'll see how much of the cyano comes back because in the past it would be a day or so and would be covered again. I haven't seen my rocks this clean in a long long time.
 
Subscribed! Looking forward for more developments. Would it be wise to start carbon dosing on a tank that's about 4 months old?
 
topenjoin said:
Subscribed! Looking forward for more developments. Would it be wise to start carbon dosing on a tank that's about 4 months old?
Click to expand...

Honestly I don't think age has anything to do with it.. It's easier to start when you aren't dealing with the issues I was, and maintaing a ULNS, but the way I'm doing it is working just fine too.
 
Just got my BRS dosing pump and am in the process of calibrating it right now.. I can't wait to have this automated finally not to mention it's much slower than me doing the dosing.

I will probably go up to 20ml tomorrow after being on 15ml since this last weekend..
 
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