Red Sea NOPOX

[Jamesjugs]

Hi guys,

This week is my fourth week of dosing Nopox; currently I haven't seen any drop in nitrates. Skimmer is set on wet pulling out tea coloured crap every day. Any idea on when I'll see some results? They were probs at around 200ppm. Fish only tank I'm thinking as the skimmer is pulling out waste; perhaps more is unbundling from the substrates?

Anyone know timeframe wise how long this is gonna take?

 

[garygonzales]

are you dosing per directions...i had high nitrates as well..it did take several months to kick in..especially if your that high...

 

[Uncle99]

Took me 2 months to go from 40 to 5ppm.
I been using NoPox for 2 years, but super slowly reducing the amount as my tank has matured and bacteria is sufficient to export what the tank imports.

If your in a hurry, why not just make more/larger water changes?

 

[Jamesjugs]

I've been dosing 7ml now up to 10ml for the 100GAL; minus the rocks etc so I'm probably slightly below the dose if anything...I done 4/5 water changes of 30% but it doesn't make much difference as it does drop and then is back up...hence I think atm the removal just results in more leaching out from rocks etc...when the drop happened for you was it linear or did it rapidly go down?

 

[Uncle99]

200 is a very high number.
How much rock?
How long running?

Now nitrate levels in a FO tank don't need to be as low as 5 ppm, that's a reef tank, but I might guess 30-50 is achievable.

It's odd that WC would not effect your nitrate level. Either you have virtually no bacteria or something is producing nitrates, I assume you have no canister type filters on your setup?

If it's tank age/ bacteria count, this will just take time dependant on the surface area available fir the bacteria pop. If something is creating / leaching nitrate other than fish and food, that's a problem that must be rectified first.

In my case it took 2 months to go from 40ppm to 5ppm, down about 5 ppm per week.
On a 70g mixed reef I started with 8 ml increased to 10 ml in second week, ran 10 ml for 21 months, now lowered (very slowly) to 4 ml which results in a constant nitrate level of 3-5 ppm

To me, NoPox just helps manage nitrate, and to a lesser extent phosphate, until bacteria count and ability to export match with import....then it's of less value.

Hope that helps

 

[mmmbacon]

Hi guys,



This week is my fourth week of dosing Nopox; currently I haven't seen any drop in nitrates. Skimmer is set on wet pulling out tea coloured crap every day. Any idea on when I'll see some results? They were probs at around 200ppm. Fish only tank I'm thinking as the skimmer is pulling out waste; perhaps more is unbundling from the substrates?



Anyone know timeframe wise how long this is gonna take?

Hey James read your troubles and thought this would be a good read for you . Best thing to reduce nitrates is dilution with water changes ,, that high of nitrates you need to do multiple in a few days than figure out why it was that high .. check this out Good luck : )
http://www.melevsreef.com/articles/getting-nitrates-under-control


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[mmmbacon]

Hi guys,



This week is my fourth week of dosing Nopox; currently I haven't seen any drop in nitrates. Skimmer is set on wet pulling out tea coloured crap every day. Any idea on when I'll see some results? They were probs at around 200ppm. Fish only tank I'm thinking as the skimmer is pulling out waste; perhaps more is unbundling from the substrates?



Anyone know timeframe wise how long this is gonna take?

Sorry if I posted twice it's not showing that I replied, . Here's a great article James .. If this was me ,I would cut down the nitrates with water changes . Than maybe maintenance with nopox .. that's how I would approach it .. than figure out why it was that high ,,


http://www.melevsreef.com/articles/getting-nitrates-under-control



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[Jamesjugs]

We are talking about 20year setup here...rock is about 40kg I'd say....there's 5 canisters that have all been cleaned on a monthly rotation...some were very dirty....1.5l of continuum balance balls etc...

 

[mcgyvr]

Get it up to the maximum dose recommended and maintain that (or go a bit higher)..
Not sure how you are even measuring 200ppm as most kits don't go that high unless you are adjusting the amounts for an ultra high range sample..
With that high of a nitrate level I'd surely push the dose up until I got cloudy water/bacterial snot formation and then drop it some and maintain that..

Its going to take a while to fix that much of a problem.. Patience..

Adding some more rock wouldn't be a bad idea either as you are pretty light on the amount.. That will get you some more surface area/low oxygen areas for bacterial colonization.

 

[Uncle99]

Why 5 canister filters? I have not seen that before. Well, I have, but usually followed by high nitrate complaints.

To me, canister filters are good for trapping particulate including uneaten foods and deploying carbons and GFO but are not a great filter for the reef.

The rock and its surfaces is the true filter. I use only 1 canister type filter and it has to be cleaned once per week or nitrates will rise.

Something seems to be creating an unusually high nitrate (except for tanks which are not regularly maintained) and my guess is that your canisters are a contributor.

 

[nereefpat]

I would like to add that rock/sand can not leach nitrate. It can bind and then release phosphate, but it doesn't work like that for nitrate.

 

[Jamesjugs]

Quick update
6 weeks of dosing Nopox and using Deltec400 skimmer.
Nitrates are now 15 from a starting point of 200+
I probably done about 70-90% of the recommended dose. This does work you just need to be patient.

During this time I haven't bothered with water changes either.
I now plan to slowly reduce it to Zero and only start again if the nitrates rise.

 

[mcgyvr]

Good you are seeing results...
Note that nitrate reduction is only one reason for water changes.
They also help raise/maintain major and trace elements as well as remove other elements that are in excess..doc/metals,etc...
Reducing or eliminating water changes should be done with knowledge about what else may need to be dosed or exported in other ways..