Carbon dosing solution?

[nicowboy]

Good evening guys,
I recently starter dosing Elimi-Np by tropic Marin to reduce my hight Nitrates and Phosphate, yesterday after testing my water it came out that my Nitrates are reading 0 (which probably explains why my ugly stage is almost over, I lost a lot of brown algae) but my Phosphate remains at 0.54 which is high.

Now with your experience, should I continue to dose Elimi-NP while adding some Nitrates and feed more to reduce the Phosphate or stop using the product and use the Elimi - phosphate rapid that the company sells ?
What should I do to get that down and raise my nitrates again ?

Thanks

 

[Jekyl]

Good evening guys,
I recently starter dosing Elimi-Np by tropic Marin to reduce my hight Nitrates and Phosphate, yesterday after testing my water it came out that my Nitrates are reading 0 (which probably explains why my ugly stage is almost over, I lost a lot of brown algae) but my Phosphate remains at 0.54 which is high.

Now with your experience, should I continue to dose Elimi-NP while adding some Nitrates and feed more to reduce the Phosphate or stop using the product and use the Elimi - phosphate rapid that the company sells ?
What should I do to get that down and raise my nitrates again ?

Thanks

Unfamiliar with the product but going from very high to none at all seems suspect to me. Are you using good tests? Gotten a second opinion? Chemipure elite worked to bring my phosphate down.

 

[Miami Reef]

I would use a product designed to lower phosphates if that’s the goal.

Carbon dosing is more effective for nitrate reduction because of denitrification. For every 50ppm nitrate dosed, you will add 2.3dKH of Alkalinity. There can be a lot of bound phosphates in the rocks, so carbon dosing doesn’t seem very effective for lowering phosphates.

Tropic Marin Elimi Phos is lanthanum chloride. That can work, and so can granular ferric oxide (GFO.)

If you decide to use Lanthanum chloride, just be aware that some people anecdotally claim it caused death in their tangs/certain fish. I personally never had any issue with my tangs, but the risk is worth noting.

Also, be aware that bottoming out either nitrates or phosphates is not recommended. You can cause much more problems like coral starvation or decreasing competition of pesky dinos. It‘s better to be too high than too low.

 

[bushdoc]

I would take a deep breath first.
"and feed more to reduce the Phosphate"
Feeding more will increase the phosphates, so you should feed less.
Carbon dosing is generally reducing Nitrates and to much lesser extend phosphates as bacteria do not utilize so much phosphates.
If your system is relatively low volume,I would do sequential water changes, decrease feeding add skimming and mechanical filters and then consider other methods of phosphate removal if still needed.

 

[nicowboy]

Unfamiliar with the product but going from very high to none at all seems suspect to me. Are you using good tests? Gotten a second opinion? Chemipure elite worked to bring my phosphate down.

Took me about 1 months to read 0, maybe due to left over of algae it could false my results

 

[nicowboy]

I would use a product designed to lower phosphates if that’s the goal.

Carbon dosing is more effective for nitrate reduction because of denitrification. For every 50ppm nitrate dosed, you will add 2.3dKH of Alkalinity. There can be a lot of bound phosphates in the rocks, so carbon dosing doesn’t seem very effective for lowering phosphates.

Tropic Marin Elimi Phos is lanthanum chloride. That can work, and so can granular ferric oxide (GFO.)

If you decide to use Lanthanum chloride, just be aware that some people anecdotally claim it caused death in their tangs/certain fish. I personally never had any issue with my tangs, but the risk is worth noting.

Also, be aware that bottoming out either nitrates or phosphates is not recommended. You can cause much more problems like coral starvation or decreasing competition of pesky dinos. It‘s better to be too high than too low.

Thank you so much for your response, what are your currents parameters?
I will probably use it to at least drop it down a little bit to a favorable number

 

[nicowboy]

I would take a deep breath first.
"and feed more to reduce the Phosphate"
Feeding more will increase the phosphates, so you should feed less.
Carbon dosing is generally reducing Nitrates and to much lesser extend phosphates as bacteria do not utilize so much phosphates.
If your system is relatively low volume,I would do sequential water changes, decrease feeding add skimming and mechanical filters and then consider other methods of phosphate removal if still needed.

Thanks, it’s my first tank and has been running for 5 months, so I’m still learning a lot but will definitely do that

 

[Miami Reef]

Thank you so much for your response, what are your currents parameters?
I will probably use it to at least drop it down a little bit to a favorable number

Right now, phosphates are 0.10ppm, and nitrates are around 12ppm.

They aren’t there on purpose, but it’s fine.

 

[nicowboy]

Right now, phosphates are 0.10ppm, and nitrates are around 12ppm.

They aren’t there on purpose, but it’s fine.

As long as your tank is happy right?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Took me about 1 months to read 0, maybe due to left over of algae it could false my results

I wouldn’t look at that as a positive result, just the start of many issues.
taking in consideration that we aim to keep phototrophic organisms and you just removed a essential group of macro nutrient for heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms that include coral and beneficial bacteria.
Zero nitrates and phosphates in our hobby is never the goal, that would of been just to simple

 

[Klyle]

TMs Lou Elkos (probably didn’t spell his last name correctly) has a very extensive video about carbon dosing with their products. You should watch that, very informative. Imo you should switch to Bactobalance at this point while getting those nitrates up a bit

 

[14 foot reef]

Watch any of the Videos from Lou Ekus

He has a product for every range of PO4 and NO3. At 5months old, I'm not sure your tank was ready for carbon dosing, but you are in it now, watch this a few times, its very informative.

Its time to move to Bacto Balance

 

[nicowboy]

I wouldn’t look at that as a positive result, just the start of many issues.
taking in consideration that we aim to keep phototrophic organisms and you just removed a essential group of macro nutrient for heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms that include coral and beneficial bacteria.
Zero nitrates and phosphates in our hobby is never the goal, that would of been just to simple

So I actually stopped dosing it 2 days ago and I start to a lot of diatoms coming back, have yo ever experienced that?
no I know I wanted to lower it but didn’t see it coming to 0

 

[nicowboy]

TMs Lou Elkos (probably didn’t spell his last name correctly) has a very extensive video about carbon dosing with their products. You should watch that, very informative. Imo you should switch to Bactobalance at this point while getting those nitrates up a bit

That’s correct, I was aiming to lower my phosphate and nitrate to be able to use bactobalance, I will definitely watch that video

 

[nicowboy]

Watch any of the Videos from Lou Ekus

He has a product for every range of PO4 and NO3. At 5months old, I'm not sure your tank was ready for carbon dosing, but you are in it now, watch this a few times, its very informative.

Its time to move to Bacto Balance

Thank you so much for sharing ! Yeah I should’ve waited couple more months before carbon dosing

 

[sixty_reefer]

So I actually stopped dosing it 2 days ago and I start to a lot of diatoms coming back, have yo ever experienced that?
no I know I wanted to lower it but didn’t see it coming to 0

It may not be diatoms, it could be the start of dinoflagellates

 

[nicowboy]

It may not be diatoms, it could be the start of dinoflagellates

That’s sounds bad

 

[sixty_reefer]

That’s sounds bad

Not always, most times you can rectify the nutrients and eradicate them fairly easily. Have you got pictures?

 

[nicowboy]

Not always, most times you can rectify the nutrients and eradicate them fairly easily. Have you got pictures?

Once I get home I will send you some pictures, thanks for your help

 

[nicowboy]

Not always, most times you can rectify the nutrients and eradicate them fairly easily. Have you got pictures?