I am currently on day 13 of this 21 day reef cycling method for my Red Sea Reefer 300 XL G2. I have been following the instructions to the letter and up until a couple of days ago not much was happening.
I have not added any CUC which should have happened on day 10 due to lack of algae and my parameters being off from where they should be. It is probably worth mentioning that I started with Marco dry rock and Carabsea live sand, and am running a RSK300 skimmer and ReefMat fleece roller.
4 days ago - day 9 of the program, I noticed the begins of something growing of the rocks. This turned out to be a white slime bacterial bloom, but it has mostly dissipated now. 2 day ago I noticed a couple of brownish spots on the sand bed which I assume are Diatoms. As of today these have not grown much in size.
So to look at the tank, things are kind of going ok. No big bacterial bloom, no algae, and a couple of small patches of Diatoms.
But I received my Hanna PO4 ULR tester yesterday and decided to test PO4 along with the other paramaters for the fun of it.
So on day 10 my numbers were-
Temp: 78.2F
SG: 1.026
PH: 8.14
NH3/NH4: 0.8
NO2: 0.7
NO3: 36.7
And yesterday on day 12 there were:
Temp: 78.2
SG: 1.026
PH: 8.19
NH3/NH4: 1.8
NO2: 0.9
NO3: 41.1
PO4: 0.01 (10ppb)
I understand that low PO4 inhibits the ability of the NOPOX to reduce NO3. So I am looking for advice on what I should do.
As I see it I have three options, but am open to any other suggestions:
1. Carry on as instructed and continue to dose NOPOX, trusting that there is a source of PO4 in the rock and sand.
2. Add a supplement for PO4 like NeoPhos and dose the NOPOX
3. Cut out the NOPOX entirely and reduce NO3 with water changes.
I have not added any CUC which should have happened on day 10 due to lack of algae and my parameters being off from where they should be. It is probably worth mentioning that I started with Marco dry rock and Carabsea live sand, and am running a RSK300 skimmer and ReefMat fleece roller.
4 days ago - day 9 of the program, I noticed the begins of something growing of the rocks. This turned out to be a white slime bacterial bloom, but it has mostly dissipated now. 2 day ago I noticed a couple of brownish spots on the sand bed which I assume are Diatoms. As of today these have not grown much in size.
So to look at the tank, things are kind of going ok. No big bacterial bloom, no algae, and a couple of small patches of Diatoms.
But I received my Hanna PO4 ULR tester yesterday and decided to test PO4 along with the other paramaters for the fun of it.
So on day 10 my numbers were-
Temp: 78.2F
SG: 1.026
PH: 8.14
NH3/NH4: 0.8
NO2: 0.7
NO3: 36.7
And yesterday on day 12 there were:
Temp: 78.2
SG: 1.026
PH: 8.19
NH3/NH4: 1.8
NO2: 0.9
NO3: 41.1
PO4: 0.01 (10ppb)
I understand that low PO4 inhibits the ability of the NOPOX to reduce NO3. So I am looking for advice on what I should do.
As I see it I have three options, but am open to any other suggestions:
1. Carry on as instructed and continue to dose NOPOX, trusting that there is a source of PO4 in the rock and sand.
2. Add a supplement for PO4 like NeoPhos and dose the NOPOX
3. Cut out the NOPOX entirely and reduce NO3 with water changes.
