started redsea no3po4x last night on 125g.

[mos90]

i started no3po4x yesterday on my 125g mixed reef. i want to provide everyone with weekly updates on the effectiveness on my tank of this product.

i will start with my tank setup. 125g tank (72x18x20), 25gal sump/refugium, lifereef skimmer, lifereef calcium reactor, brs dual gfo/carbon media reactor, 1200ghp overflow, mag 18 return, tunze ato, jbj chiller, neptune aquacontroller.

for lighting i have 4-aquailllimination sol-blues, 12" awl set at 52/52/52 for max intensity (for now). lights are on from 1-10pm.

125lbs of brs ecorock and 3" sandbed.

for flow i have 2-mp40's on either side and an mp-10 on the back in shortpulse at 85% and 1-korellia 1000gph for extra flow in the rear of the tank.

in the refugium i have 15lbs of miracle mud and cheato.fuge light on for 20hours per day.

water parameters as of last night are.

temp-78
alk-8.7
mag-1400
cal-440
nitrate -3ppm
phos- between .02 on hanna uls meter/.06 on redsea phos pro kit.

normally i use 150g of phosban that i replace when i see phos start to rise. usually 6 weeks. and 1/2 cup of brs rox carbon i replace every 2 weeks.

according to redsea starting dose with no3 and po4 were i am at will be 2ml per 25g. i have just a little over 100g of total water volume so i will dose 8ml per day to start.

as far as gfo removal, instructions say to remove 15% per weeks, after 45% removal, if po4 is stable then remove the remaining gfo.

i plan on using a doser and doing 4/2ml doses spread out over the day, but for now i am doing manual dosing.

i also plan to dose redsea reef energy after 2 weeks.

i will give weekly updates on progress.

here is a picture. from october. at this time the tank was 3 1/2 months old. i will get some current pictures.

 

[mos90]

forgot to mention. i use kalk in topoff water and my ph ranges from 8.2-8.4

saltinity is at 1.025.

 

[mos90]

update. 1/16/12

no3- 2ppm
po4 - .04

lights 55/55/55 staying there for at least 1 month.

started dosing reef energy. 8ml of each part a&b daily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Seems like no appreciable change?

 

[mos90]

not yet. i am feeding rather heavily. 3 or 4 light feedings per day.

my goal is to eliminate gfo and keep no3 under 1ppm and po4 under .05.

redsea has what they call accelerated growth . no3 at 1ppm and po4 at .1ppm. dkh 12. my dkh is closer to 9. im not sure i feel comfortable with it at 12.

i feel that po4 at .1 is rather high. im going to keep it around .04.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That sounds good. When I started vodka and later vinegar, I wasn't looking for a change, but looking to use less lighting in my refugia.

 

[mos90]

what does the vinegar do?

i was using a jbj 25w adjustable refugium light .it was 6000k but didnt seem to bright. macro algae (cheato) didnt do well. i switched to a 15w spiral cf 6500k and a cheap metal reflector. it seems to be twice as bright and marco algae has taken off since.
i will test them with my par meter to see the difference.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Vinegar does the basically the same thing as No3PO4X (which is driving bacterial growth), but I know what it is (the Red Sea product is largely a secret) and it is cheaper.

 

[jimrawr]

Do you have algae problems right now or just using it as preventative and keeping NO3 and PO4 low?

 

[Steve175]

not yet. i am feeding rather heavily. 3 or 4 light feedings per day.

my goal is to eliminate gfo and keep no3 under 1ppm and po4 under .05.

redsea has what they call accelerated growth . no3 at 1ppm and po4 at .1ppm. dkh 12. my dkh is closer to 9. im not sure i feel comfortable with it at 12.

i feel that po4 at .1 is rather high. im going to keep it around .04.

Why not just try feeding less, using the GFO, and skipping the additive? Your parameters are not that far off IMO . . . small changes in this hobby are often the right ones.

Having said that, I am curious how your experiment goes (however, I usually also am that guy who slows to gawk at the wreck on the highway).

 

[mos90]

Why not just try feeding less, using the GFO, and skipping the additive? Your parameters are not that far off IMO . . . small changes in this hobby are often the right ones.

Having said that, I am curious how your experiment goes (however, I usually also am that guy who slows to gawk at the wreck on the highway).

this is something id like to try. i would love to eliminate gfo if possible. ive also heard good things about reef energy. anything that make this hobby easier im willing to give it a shot. im sure it will work.

the only thing that is not very clear is dosing trace elements. i know iron is good for macro algae. but its difficult to get an accurate reading, especially potassium. so the question is if u cant get an accurate reading should u dose?

after saying that. ive been dosing 1/2 the recommended amount of brightwell iron and potassium (5ml each)once a week. along with my 5-10% w/c's every 2 weeks.

when i say im feeding heavy. its really not that much more then normal. it may not even be that heavy to some peoples standards.

the good thing is i have no algae at all in tha tank. the bad thing is im having problems with 1 of my corals stning from the base. it started when i dosed chemiclean for a cyano outbreak a while back . i have not been able to stop it. i may have to frag it. its a nice sized coral i hate to cut it up.

ok back to the update.

last night i removed another 15% gfo. so far removed 30%. i have not seen any rise in p04 so far. i will test no3 and po4 again tonight.

i tested the par output of both the refugium lights. apogee meter.

jbj 25w cf adjustable fuge light- par at 1" - 250 , par at 6" -45

lowes special- cheap metal clipon reflector with 15w 6500k spiral cf bulb.
par at 1"- 800, par at 6"- 250 .

like i said before, macro algae is taking off since bulb switch.

i will update no3-p04 tonight.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

the only thing that is not very clear is dosing trace elements. i know iron is good for macro algae. but its difficult to get an accurate reading, especially potassium. so the question is if u cant get an accurate reading should u dose?

after saying that. ive been dosing 1/2 the recommended amount of brightwell iron and potassium (5ml each)once a week. along with my 5-10% w/c's every 2 weeks.

.

Unless you use zeovit zeolites or a similar material, I do not think you are likely to be deficient in potassium.

 

[mos90]

i think we touched base on this before randy.

can i hurt anything if dose potassium?

do corals consume potassium?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not know what happens if potassium rises above natural levels.

Anything living uses potassium, and any food added delivers it. But it is not appreciably deposited into coral skeletons the way the main things we dose are, such as calcium, alkalinity, magnesium (and a few others, such as strontium).

 

[mos90]

i will stop the potassium dosing. i still plan to do weekly iron dosing.

i read 1 of your articles on supplimenting strontium. im pretty sure i dont need to suppliment.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't generally recommend strontium dosing.

 

[mos90]

UPdate.

No3 - 1ppm.
Po4 - 0 ppb on Hanna meter. Tested 2 times.

I saw a small bit of cyano in the fuge so I cleaned it out and did a 10 gal w/c.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So far so good.

If the cyano continues, maybe consider backing off a bit on dose.

 

[mos90]

I will keep an eye on it.

Still not able to stop STN on my 1 coral. Very frustrating.

 

[mos90]

Added a small powerhead for extra flow in the fuge. Might help with cyano.