NO3 block by brightwell -- anyone using without carbon dosing?

[CTaylor]

Hi,

I just put the block in my sump, 120 gal total approximately. My NO3 is 20-30 ppm. Phosphate nearly undetectable (not ideal). I'm trying to lower my NO3 to 3-5 without dosing carbon.

**Anyone using this brick able to do that without using C dosing?
**How long did it take to get your nitrates down without C dosing? I'm thinking I should see something within 2 weeks (?). Maybe not down to 5, but hopefully half of what it is now -- so ideally 10-12. Maybe 5 after a month (?)

It looks like anything over this 20-30 I'm at now stressed my acros. Bnest not happy at this level now, but was very upset when it was 40 last week. I got it down by 25% water change. And I used prodibio, but that stopped lowering it below 20.

TY

 

[mcgyvr]

As stated before...if your system is lacking surface area for bacterial colonization then the block can help...if not it wont..
If your bacteria colonies are limited by available carbon then dosing is whats going to help..

Just like the probio I doubt the block is going to do anything by itself..

Just start carbon dosing already..geesh
Get some vinegar and go

 

[CTaylor]

As stated before...if your system is lacking surface area for bacterial colonization then the block can help...if not it wont..
If your bacteria colonies are limited by available carbon then dosing is whats going to help..

Just like the probio I doubt the block is going to do anything by itself..

Just start carbon dosing already..geesh
Get some vinegar and go

I knew you'd see this lol.. so I rushed to reply to my other thread. You'll see I pretty much agree with you, but I'm trying everything I can until I need to do C dosing. My tank is in status quo right now. Only coral that needs help is my bnest. But even if I turn the NO3 to 5 ppm right now, I think it's already been triggered to not turn around. So I'm goign to wait a month with the brick. Maybe it is a matter of surface area. Small chance.
**Like I said in that thread, pretty much if I can get a way to dose C not daily, but maybe in a doser and somehow it not take up too much space (I have none) and if it's pretty much preservative free, etc.. then I'm more on board. But that's in that thread.
This one I jsut want to see if anyone got the brick to 'work' without C dosing, and how their surface area was before it, etc..

TY

 

[CTaylor]

I"m going to start a thread on bioptim .. it looks like a replacement for carbon dosing. You dose this every two weeks.