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Unread 02/16/2018, 06:09 AM   #1
dubmaneh
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N0P0x: N03 rising, P04 falling

Cant quite figure this out and would appreciate some thoughts.

Been dosing N0P0x for months now as per the instructions. N03 did come down but when I reduced the dosage to 2ml/25gal, N03 slowly creeps from 5ppm to 10ppm over a couple weeks. But.....my P04 is steadily decreasing (from 0.15ppm to 0.05ppm).

Why would my P04 be falling while N03 is rising? I thought that the N0P0x is more effective on the N03.

I feed pellets 3x/day on a feeder and 1 cube of frozen on a 60gal(net volume) system.
10 fish in the system
10L Siporax in the sump

No algae on rocks/glass (other than a little bubble algae) and only have to scrape the glass 1x week (if that).

Do I just dose more N0P0x and feed more frozen to maintain a stable P04?


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Unread 02/16/2018, 06:36 AM   #2
reeftanker3295
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I have the same problem, undetectable po4 and the nitrates won't come down from 15 even after weeks of dosing. No algae growth on rocks or glass. Interested to see responses. On the other hand, my corals look great so I'm not too worried about it, how's your tank doing with 10 nitrate?


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Unread 02/16/2018, 07:20 AM   #3
hegeh
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Imo its still an acceptable ratio.. look out for corals. If they look healthy with good PE.. i wont be bother with the readings

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Unread 02/16/2018, 08:03 AM   #4
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i had never have this issue with nopox, with 16:1 ratio, it's hard to imagine to have NO3 at all.
i have to dose NO3 into the tank to keep the PO4 in check.


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Unread 02/16/2018, 08:21 AM   #5
dubmaneh
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Originally Posted by hegeh View Post
Imo its still an acceptable ratio.. look out for corals. If they look healthy with good PE.. i wont be bother with the readings

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Corals looking terrible. LPS struggle with P04 this low in my system and 90% of my SPS slowly fade. Of course there are two frags that are look great and can't figure out why. Go figure.

May be tied to previous param swings though.


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Unread 02/16/2018, 08:41 AM   #6
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post a pic of your tank and corals.


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Unread 02/16/2018, 09:25 AM   #7
dubmaneh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ClownNut View Post
i had never have this issue with nopox, with 16:1 ratio, it's hard to imagine to have NO3 at all.
i have to dose NO3 into the tank to keep the PO4 in check.


About a year ago I was in the same boat and dosed sodium nitrate to keep N03 detectable.

Shoe is on the other foot now and trying to figure it all out. Lol!


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Unread 02/16/2018, 10:50 AM   #8
Tripod1404
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You cant get nitrates down if phosphate is limiting. Did you use GFO before?


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Unread 02/16/2018, 11:37 AM   #9
dubmaneh
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Originally Posted by Tripod1404 View Post
You cant get nitrates down if phosphate is limiting. Did you use GFO before?


I've used both GFO and lanthanum chloride previously. Managed to strip the tank of P04. Wasn't pretty.

Agreed that either can be limiting but thought that it was consumed at roughly a 16:1 ratio. Given that, I'm struggling to figure out why my P04 continues to decline while NO3 is rising.

Maybe It is just the peculiarities of my system and simply need more P04.


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Unread 02/16/2018, 12:43 PM   #10
Hitch08
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I'm not sure that I understand the ratio you all are talking about. NOPOX is generally understood to consume nitrates to phosphates at about a 16 to 1 ratio? Sort of, 16 nitrates for 1 phosphate?

I'm having a similar issue with my tank. Phosphates are not detectable with a Hanna ULR, yet nitrates are still rocking.

I'm not feeding as much as Dubmaneh. Although I ran GFO for a bit, I stopped when I switched to NOPOX.


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Unread 02/16/2018, 03:25 PM   #11
Tripod1404
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dubmaneh View Post
I've used both GFO and lanthanum chloride previously. Managed to strip the tank of P04. Wasn't pretty.

Agreed that either can be limiting but thought that it was consumed at roughly a 16:1 ratio. Given that, I'm struggling to figure out why my P04 continues to decline while NO3 is rising.

Maybe It is just the peculiarities of my system and simply need more P04.


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I doubt that 16:1 ratio is the consumption rate. It is the ratio of nitrogen to phosphate that is strikingly well preserved all across the ocean in a large number of distinct habitats. This is known as Redfield ratio.

Here is a quick summery of it from Wikipedia;

Redfield ratio or Redfield stoichiometry is the atomic ratio of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus found in phytoplankton and throughout the deep oceans. This empirically developed stoichiometric ratio was originally found to be C:N:P = 106:16:1 (and has more recently been revised to 117:14:1[1]). This term is named after the American oceanographer Alfred C. Redfield, who first described this ratio in an article written in 1934 (Redfield 1934). As a Harvard physiologist, Redfield participated in several voyages on board the research vessel Atlantis. Alfred Redfield analyzed thousands of samples of marine biomass across all of the ocean regions. From this research he found that globally the elemental composition of marine organic matter (dead and living) was remarkably constant across all of the regions. The stoichiometric ratios of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus remain relatively consistent from both the coastal to open ocean regions.


Based on this info, people made the assumption that in order to have a healthy, algae-free tank, the ratio should be close to 16:1. Otherwise which ever components is excess, cant be utilized and accumulates in water. Normally, in an aquarium, the limiting factor is carbon. And since only autotrophic organisms like algae and cyano bacteria can fix CO2 (so in a sense not limitted by C), only they have the capacity to use the excessive pools of N and P, hence it mostly cause algae growth.

This makes me think your 16:1 ratio is much higher at nitrogen end of the ratio. And this makes uptake trough carbon dosing ineffective.



Last edited by Tripod1404; 02/16/2018 at 03:31 PM.
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Unread 02/16/2018, 08:38 PM   #12
ajoe
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Pretty sizeable bio-load with 10 fish in a 60 gal not to mention all that food. What is your water change schedule? Siphoning the sand bed? Using any other media reactors?


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Unread 02/16/2018, 11:51 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tripod1404 View Post
I doubt that 16:1 ratio is the consumption rate.
I agree. The Redfield Ratio wasn't based on carbon dosing techniques, so there's no reason to think that it'd apply very well here. Feeding a bit more food might help keep the phosphate up. I'd give it a shot.


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Unread 02/17/2018, 07:29 AM   #14
dubmaneh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tripod1404 View Post
I doubt that 16:1 ratio is the consumption rate. It is the ratio of nitrogen to phosphate that is strikingly well preserved all across the ocean in a large number of distinct habitats. This is known as Redfield ratio.

Here is a quick summery of it from Wikipedia;

Redfield ratio or Redfield stoichiometry is the atomic ratio of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus found in phytoplankton and throughout the deep oceans. This empirically developed stoichiometric ratio was originally found to be C:N:P = 106:16:1 (and has more recently been revised to 117:14:1[1]). This term is named after the American oceanographer Alfred C. Redfield, who first described this ratio in an article written in 1934 (Redfield 1934). As a Harvard physiologist, Redfield participated in several voyages on board the research vessel Atlantis. Alfred Redfield analyzed thousands of samples of marine biomass across all of the ocean regions. From this research he found that globally the elemental composition of marine organic matter (dead and living) was remarkably constant across all of the regions. The stoichiometric ratios of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus remain relatively consistent from both the coastal to open ocean regions.


Based on this info, people made the assumption that in order to have a healthy, algae-free tank, the ratio should be close to 16:1. Otherwise which ever components is excess, cant be utilized and accumulates in water. Normally, in an aquarium, the limiting factor is carbon. And since only autotrophic organisms like algae and cyano bacteria can fix CO2 (so in a sense not limitted by C), only they have the capacity to use the excessive pools of N and P, hence it mostly cause algae growth.

This makes me think your 16:1 ratio is much higher at nitrogen end of the ratio. And this makes uptake trough carbon dosing ineffective.


Thanks. That actually makes a lot more sense. Was thinking the ratio was relatable to carbon dosing.


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Unread 02/17/2018, 07:31 AM   #15
dubmaneh
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Originally Posted by bertoni View Post
I agree. The Redfield Ratio wasn't based on carbon dosing techniques, so there's no reason to think that it'd apply very well here. Feeding a bit more food might help keep the phosphate up. I'd give it a shot.




Makes sense. I'm going to increase frozen feedings and see what happens.


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Unread 02/17/2018, 07:35 AM   #16
dubmaneh
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Pretty sizeable bio-load with 10 fish in a 60 gal not to mention all that food. What is your water change schedule? Siphoning the sand bed? Using any other media reactors?


It is but I knew that getting into it. Was planning on carbon dosing/skimming as a means to export the excess nutrients.

Have been at 0 N03 before so I know it's not impossible with this setup but something is off/out of balance.

10% weekly WC. Less than 1/2" sand to syphon so not much of a sink there. GAC in a reactor that also gets changed weekly.


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Unread 02/17/2018, 09:02 PM   #17
ajoe
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NoPox is pretty clear that a skimmer is necessary and must be maintained at a pretty good pace. No other carbon dosing should take place with NoPox. If you do not have a skimmer that alone would likely solve this issue entirely. NoPox is cranking out the bacteria which is consuming a lot of nutrients. That absolutely needs to be exported by a skimmer. Water changes alone won't do it. I would start 20% weekly water changes going forward and try and siphon the sand bed once in a while. It doesn't have to be weekly but now and then. I am betting that these two changes combined will get things in balance pretty quickly. Selling forum always has a steady stream of used skimmers for sale and I bet you can pick one up there at a nice price. Check that out here.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2

Keep us posted.


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Unread 02/18/2018, 12:49 PM   #18
dubmaneh
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NoPox is pretty clear that a skimmer is necessary and must be maintained at a pretty good pace. No other carbon dosing should take place with NoPox. If you do not have a skimmer that alone would likely solve this issue entirely. NoPox is cranking out the bacteria which is consuming a lot of nutrients. That absolutely needs to be exported by a skimmer. Water changes alone won't do it. I would start 20% weekly water changes going forward and try and siphon the sand bed once in a while. It doesn't have to be weekly but now and then. I am betting that these two changes combined will get things in balance pretty quickly. Selling forum always has a steady stream of used skimmers for sale and I bet you can pick one up there at a nice price. Check that out here.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2

Keep us posted.


I've got a vertex omega 150 skimmer going and it's cranking out some nasty stuff.

When enough P04 is present I get thicker skim mate with some chunks in there. When P04 drops it becomes thinner and more of a tea colour.

Skimming wet already as per the instructions. Can't skim any more wet as it starts to affect my salinity.

Totally anecdotal but when my skim mate is thick and chunky my corals look better.

Going to start vacuuming the sand bed every other water change and feed more frozen for now. See how those changes stack up.




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Unread 02/19/2018, 11:22 AM   #19
dubmaneh
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So I performed my 10% WC and rinsed my baskets of Siporax in the old water. Wow was there ever a lot of detritus hiding under there! Kinda making me take another look at my sump setup.

Thinking of adding some old powerheads into the sump to keep any detritus in suspension so it can be filtered out by the filter socks on its next pass into the sump. Currently My sump is a one chamber 40Gl breeder with filter socks on the drains, a skimmer, some live rock and two baskets of Siporax in there.

My only concern is that the detritus might settle in the display and not the sump but I think I have enough flow in there to prevent that from happening. Currently have 2 Tunze 6095 and 1 Tunze 6055 in there.

Thoughts?


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Unread 02/19/2018, 06:49 PM   #20
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Anything that prevents detritus buildup is likely to help with dissolved nutrients. I don't know whether more flow will help keep detritus out of such traps, though. You could give it a shot. It's very unlikely to cause harm.


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Unread 02/22/2018, 05:50 PM   #21
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I am in the same boat, tried NO3PO4X for some time, have a SPS heavy tank, skim heavily, lots of flow, only about 10 fish in a 150g cube.

My nitrates are typically 20-30, while my phosphates are close to zero when measured with a ULR Hanna Tester.

The nitrate levels stunt my SPS growth and make things unhappy.

Large water changes would help temporarily, but not a feasible long term solution.

I vacuum my sandbed from time to time, and my wrasses keep it pretty mixed up.

I recently removed my refugium that was just storing lots of detritus. Not sure what ill put in that sump chamber now.

Considering switching to dose vinegar regularly since it is cheaper than NO3PO4x and I think it will accomplish the same thing (which is not much at this time).

Anyhow, dont mean to hijack, just want to mention that you arent alone, I see very similar behavior between our systems.


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Unread 02/22/2018, 07:20 PM   #22
dubmaneh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NeverlosT View Post
I am in the same boat, tried NO3PO4X for some time, have a SPS heavy tank, skim heavily, lots of flow, only about 10 fish in a 150g cube.

My nitrates are typically 20-30, while my phosphates are close to zero when measured with a ULR Hanna Tester.

The nitrate levels stunt my SPS growth and make things unhappy.

Large water changes would help temporarily, but not a feasible long term solution.

I vacuum my sandbed from time to time, and my wrasses keep it pretty mixed up.

I recently removed my refugium that was just storing lots of detritus. Not sure what ill put in that sump chamber now.

Considering switching to dose vinegar regularly since it is cheaper than NO3PO4x and I think it will accomplish the same thing (which is not much at this time).

Anyhow, dont mean to hijack, just want to mention that you arent alone, I see very similar behavior between our systems.

Thanks. Not glad you're experiencing a similar issue, but glad I'm not the only one.

Hoping for some positive results from the increased feeding and flow in the sump but so far my LPS are retracted one SPS frag is bleaching. Another one that was fine is showing some STN.

Gonna do a full water test tomorrow before another 10% water change.



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Unread 02/23/2018, 04:21 AM   #23
tew47
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Are you running any carbon? I have always used a bag of Chemi pure elite in my systems and with neglecting water changes and using NoPox I don’t think iv seen nitrates over 5ppm in over a year - I have a 93 cube, sps dominate, 10 fish and use the chemi pure elite rated for 200 gallons


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Unread 02/23/2018, 06:33 AM   #24
RobZilla04
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Lately I've found myself on this boat as well, might need a ship if anyone else is gonna join.

All params in place with low Po4 (<.05). Been working on increasing No3 from 1ppm. Got them up to 5ppm using increased feeding of fish, reef roids, and reef energy A/B. Many SPS and a few LPS showing signs of STN, color loss, and generally not happy.

Also tried to reduce the lighting intensity, couple of 15%-20% WC's over the past month or two with no real results.

Although no dosing of NoPox, I do a very small dose of the DIY mix (Vodka, Vinegar + RODI). Also have a bag of GAC that I'm considering pulling out just to see what'll happen.

Very curious to get other opinions on this. Need to find the balance between clean water/no algae and algae/coral growth.


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Unread 02/24/2018, 08:45 PM   #25
Indiana Reefin
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I had the same issue. I had much better success with vinegar.
I had 0 PO4 and up to 50 NO3
Now I am .02 PO4 and 2 NO3


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