NOPOX advice/thoughts

[larryfl1]

hi guys,

i have a 350 gallon mixed reef tank.. fish, soft, lps, stonys...

fish density is medium to heavy...feeding pretty heavy

tank has been in operation over a year

i was running prodibio and not happy with the lps and soft results, seemed to be starving.....so discontinued that a month or so ago..

currently running carbon and gfo...

calcium reactor using arm extra large and running about 6.5 ph in reactor... effluent flow rate about 70 ml/minute

water currently tests

nitrate around 3
phosphate low range, not detectable hatch colorimeter
alkalinity around 8.5 duh

what is the recommendation on how to dose this stuff correctly? do i turn off the gfo...do i need to wait for some phosphates to exist first?

also who has used this method compared to biopellets? pros/cons/?

any special thoughts? can i heavily feed with this like people are with pellets?

will the lps look ok after a while....i want them to flourish and grow

thanks

larry

[RedSea Aviad]

Dear Larry,
It's hard for me to answer you in more than one thread.
It’s harder to keep track.
Please concentrate your questions in one thread so I can get a better picture of what your goals are.
That way I can give you a more professional answer.

As I said here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2097798
The Accelerated Growth mode will not support bright SPS coloration, it is highly important to allow the coral to host high density Zoox population in order to get all the metabolic needs required for growth.
The Coloration mode is aimed to starve the coral, by reducing the algae nutrients, reduce Zoox population and cause the creation of pigment.
Most softies and some LPS will suffer in low NO3 PO4 systems, and this is the problem a lot of hobbyists encounter.
It’s hard to get to the fine balance point, and maintain it for a long time period.


Keep the GFO at the beginning, just in order to not shock your system.
When the bacterial population has established, after a couple of weeks- you will see when the NO3 and PO4 drops.
You can remove the GFO, and start monitoring NO3&PO4 and adjust the dose accordingly.
Pick a thread and let’s stay on it.

Hope I helped.
Have a wonderful day,
Aviad