Redfield ratio

[rage1199]

Do I sacrifice Low phosphate to battle nitrates. :uzi: Before everyone say's water changes I change 50 gallons every two weeks on my 150 gallon. My nitrates are at 100 salifert and phosphate at .04. I tried Vinegar for 4 months and all I got was higher nitrates and lower PH. I tried Vodka and I got a slime that was everywhere after 1 ml a week for 4 months stopped at 14 ml. I started this battle in February when my nitrates where at 5. Bio pellets caused red slime and also raised the nitrates. The only change has been that in December of last year I got rid of my sand and went Bare Bottom.

 

[knukles55]

What's your tank specs?

 

[Blueline12]

That's way too much vodka for a 150 hence your white slime outbreak. I only dose about 5mls or so per day on my 180g. Vodka dosing works better when used in conjunction with Brightwells Microbacter7 and a very good skimmer. Four months was not enough. I've been doing it for years and have well balanced low nitrates and phosphate.

Nick

Do I sacrifice Low phosphate to battle nitrates. :uzi: Before everyone say's water changes I change 50 gallons every two weeks on my 150 gallon. My nitrates are at 100 salifert and phosphate at .04. I tried Vinegar for 4 months and all I got was higher nitrates and lower PH. I tried Vodka and I got a slime that was everywhere after 1 ml a week for 4 months stopped at 14 ml. I started this battle in February when my nitrates where at 5. Bio pellets caused red slime and also raised the nitrates. The only change has been that in December of last year I got rid of my sand and went Bare Bottom.

 

[AquamanE]

Do I sacrifice Low phosphate to battle nitrates. :uzi: Before everyone say's water changes I change 50 gallons every two weeks on my 150 gallon. My nitrates are at 100 salifert and phosphate at .04. I tried Vinegar for 4 months and all I got was higher nitrates and lower PH. I tried Vodka and I got a slime that was everywhere after 1 ml a week for 4 months stopped at 14 ml. I started this battle in February when my nitrates where at 5. Bio pellets caused red slime and also raised the nitrates. The only change has been that in December of last year I got rid of my sand and went Bare Bottom.

100 Nitrates, 70% WC per month?????? Something does not add up. test kit is wrong. 70% is too much except to take care of major issues.

 

[AquamanE]

Get your stuff stable and in order before trying carbon dosing, if at all.

 

[AquamanE]

Nick- whats your Vodka/Micrbackter 7 regimen?, and where did you get the info?

 

[rovster]

Eddie I was using the. Carbon dosing and microbacter in my 30. That's why I had the extra mb7 laying around.

I would dose 1-2 drops of the mb7 daily and 4ml of a vodka vinegar cocktail daily as well. I was using 8 parts vinegar to one part vodka. It absolutely worked as my 30 had some great colors.

I'm not doing it now because since the beginning I have had 0 nitrates. This is when I brought up dosing nitrates in an attempt to improve my red field ratio so my tank could process the phosphates more naturally and I could cut my GFO usage.


Only thing I'll add to this thread is that carbon dosing is amazing at reducing nitrates. You have to follow the program though and slowly ramp up that dose and give it a chance to do it's thing. Took me a couple of months to settle on a dose and I purposefully went slower than recommended.

 

[rage1199]

That's way too much vodka for a 150 hence your white slime outbreak. I only dose about 5mls or so per day on my 180g. Vodka dosing works better when used in conjunction with Brightwells Microbacter7 and a very good skimmer. Four months was not enough. I've been doing it for years and have well balanced low nitrates and phosphate.

Nick

I use Biodigest Probido every 2 weeks for 3 months now. Is that not better than MB7. The problem with MB7 is that I need to turn off the skimmer for hours a day to dose.

 

[rage1199]

Get your stuff stable and in order before trying carbon dosing, if at all.

Eddie things are stable as my corals are growing and you have seen the pics. It is just not at full potential. I have every test kit but ELOS. They are state the same.

 

[DRThompson]

How about a methanol denitrater; assuming you have the space

 

[doggydoc]

Denitrator is the way to go if you have the space. I have one set up. Only issue I am having is that it's taking forever to cycle nitrates inside denitrator t more often than once every 36 hours! But I believe once I get it dial in--every 8-12 hours--it will be the solution to high nitrates.

 

[DRThompson]

Denitrator is the way to go if you have the space. I have one set up. Only issue I am having is that it's taking forever to cycle nitrates inside denitrator t more often than once every 36 hours! But I believe once I get it dial in--every 8-12 hours--it will be the solution to high nitrates.

Hey doc,
what internal pump are you using? I've found the stock pumps dont move nearly enough water. Also, they clog up to quickly. I use a WP10 in my little 10gal chamber running at full.

 

[doggydoc]

I am using a small Eheim 300 compact.
Pretty small pump but efficient. Rogger picked it for me.
What do you think? Do I need more flow? I thought the entire point was to be able to be ANAEROBIC? So less flow was optimal?

 

[DRThompson]

I am using a small Eheim 300 compact.
Pretty small pump but efficient. Rogger picked it for me.
What do you think? Do I need more flow? I thought the entire point was to be able to be ANAEROBIC? So less flow was optimal?

Yes, more flow! ....You want as much flow as possible without causing too much surface tension. A large koralia or wp10 or wp25 is perfect.

 

[doggydoc]

Ok. I was under the impression that too much flow was bad. Maybe that explains why it's not cycling that often.

 

[DRThompson]

Ok. I was under the impression that too much flow was bad. Maybe that explains why it's not cycling that often.

I use to run the same pump and noticed that all the biomass was building up near were I was dosing at the top. Basically the reaction was just happening in the top 2" of my chamber. Once I changed to a pump with more flow I noticed my cycle times getting shorter. I started to experiment with different pumps.

pumps used in my 10gal chamber:
small eheim pump
maxi600
koralia nano
wp10
wp25

The wp10 knocked my cycle time, for nitrates, down to about 4 hours. I have given this advise to others with similar results. Make sure you are dosing the methanol on the same side as the pump so it can properly mix it in the chamber.

Remember, the heterotrophic bacteria create the anaerobic environment by using up all the oxygen at the beginning of the reaction. They then grab the electrons for energy from the oxygen in NO3; eventually breaking the nitrogen bond completely and releasing N2 gas. All in the presence of organic carbon source (methanol). IMO, the increased circulation aids in this reaction.

 

[doggydoc]

Thanks a lot. I am dosing right on top of the pump now. So will use a small tunze I have laying around and see what happens. Thanks for all the info and sorry for hijacking the thread b

 

[rage1199]

I can fit a 10 gallon chamber. Do I need a controller for this. I was thinking of getting a Sulfur denitrator.

 

[AquamanE]

OMG- Frankenstein Tanks!!!! :uzi:

Guys.... come on man........ how about just controlling input vs output?

Why put 86 fish in a 120, why load up your tank to the point it cant take it without bringing in race fuel, and lightning to it?

Keep it simple.

This train of though IMHO defeats the purpose of bring in new folks into the hobby by making this hobby into a huge Manhattan Project instead of an enjoyable hobby.

Sure some choose to go this route and is admirable, but the OP has a simple issue that can very likely be resolved with simple measures. :bounce2:

 

[doggydoc]

There are wayyyy too many ways to peel a potato!