ksicard
09/19/2013, 10:00 AM
Basically my tank is stocked pretty heavily and my nitrates wont budge from 5-6ppm on my 75g tank. I already have a oversized skimmer and have cut back on feeding a large amount for the last 3 weeks or so. So I think it's time I implent some further filtration. It seems like some form of carbon dosing is the way to go since I already have about 110lbs of LR in my 75g so there's plenty of LR.
The methods I'm looking at is:
1.) vodka dosing (I'd rather stay away from this so I don't need to manually dose daily)
2.) Biopellets
3.) Matrix by seachem run in a bag in the sump
Those are the main 3 I'm looking at, primarily numbers 2 and 3 so I don't have to dose anything manually. I'm curious as to which carbon dosing method I should go with? I wanted to hear other's opinions on the products and which one is the better choice for a 75g heavily stocked tank, that's nitrates stay at the 5-6ppm range and doesn't really go any higher or lower despite my best efforts. My only concern is that I run my DKH at 9.5DKH-10DKH, would using the above methods require me to drop my alk to 8ish? My overall goal is to maintain 1-1.5ppm nitrates.
In terms of preperation I've already cut my GFO reactor off so that my PO4 builds up since you need both No3 and Po4 for carbon dosing to work. Now just waiting on advice as to which is the better method.
Thank you in advance.
The methods I'm looking at is:
1.) vodka dosing (I'd rather stay away from this so I don't need to manually dose daily)
2.) Biopellets
3.) Matrix by seachem run in a bag in the sump
Those are the main 3 I'm looking at, primarily numbers 2 and 3 so I don't have to dose anything manually. I'm curious as to which carbon dosing method I should go with? I wanted to hear other's opinions on the products and which one is the better choice for a 75g heavily stocked tank, that's nitrates stay at the 5-6ppm range and doesn't really go any higher or lower despite my best efforts. My only concern is that I run my DKH at 9.5DKH-10DKH, would using the above methods require me to drop my alk to 8ish? My overall goal is to maintain 1-1.5ppm nitrates.
In terms of preperation I've already cut my GFO reactor off so that my PO4 builds up since you need both No3 and Po4 for carbon dosing to work. Now just waiting on advice as to which is the better method.
Thank you in advance.