I'm currently using Bio S, NP Pro, Pro Bio S AND Nitraphos Minus products and have been doing so since 1 November but I'm not seeing ANY reduction in Nitrates, which seems really weird. I know that using NP Pro as well as Nitraphos minus is meant to be quite potent, so I have tried to go slow and measure often.
I am currently dosing 15 mL of Nitraphos minus (3ml/100L) in conjunction with 5 drops of the Pro bio S, NP pro, Bio S, but there doesn't appear to be any effect. I would have expected at least a plateauing off of levels by now ?? Am I just being impatient, its been almost 2 months now (> 10 days at the 15ml dosage).
Below is a graph showing test results (using Hanna HR nitrate tester and Hanna ULR Phosphorous tester). You can see when I have carried out 120 Litre water changes (+/-24%).
Why am I not seeing ANY reduction in nitrates if the NP Pro AND Nitraphos minus is being used? Do I need to just give it more time or keep increasing the dosage of the Nitraphos minus even more? After saying there hasn't been any decrease in the nitrates, there does seem to be a decrease in the rate of nitrate increase. Appears to have slowed from 10PPm in 10 days to 10PPM in 20days. It is possible that this is due to the chaeto and the klir roller I have added though. Do I just do a large 50 % water change and stay the course?
Thoughts and Advice please,
Other Info
Visually, I have seen algae on my sand bed disappear (so something is working). I have not had much of any algae on the rocks prior to dosing. I am aiming to reduce numbers to below 20 because my corals have not been happy (lost an elegance and some frogspawns recently). I have a frag tank full of various corals (Softies, LPS, SPS) I want to add to my main tank, but really want to get on top of these levels before adding them. I am not as concerned about phosphate reduction, as that can be reduced by using Phosphate remover separately if needed.
Obviously I am overfeeding. I know that, but I am ultimately looking to increase my nutrient export rather than starve my fish (fix the toilet instead of starving the family)
and am looking to combine the carbon dosing with other nutrient export methods, hopefully without having to carry out 50% water changes every 2 weeks (which just isn't sustainable). Ideally I would want to stop with the NP Pro and Pro Bio S and just does nitraphos Minus with a doser to help maintain levels.
Feeding Regime
8 or so fish (Blue tang, Fox face lo, coral beauty, Kole tang, 2 x clown fish, leopard wrasse, melanaurus wrass)
1 sheet nori every morning
Auto feeder set to feed 3 x daily, but only a small amount of flake and pellets
1 cube frozen /week.
Occasional extra pellets of food on the weekends. Fish Love the AF anthia stuff. It's like crack to them.
Tank Details
Red Sea Reefer 525XL so about 500 Litres (132 Gallons) of water in the system. It has been running for over a year (since I did a re-boot)
I use Red Sea Blue bucket salt (I do not want to switch to AF Pro bio salt for a number of reasons)
Dosing Component 1+2+3+ and Alk is stable at 8dKh
Sump has a Deltec skimmer that seems to be working well. (Photo below is skim since 24 Dec)
Sump has 1200g Life Bio Fill, 2 L Seachem filter media, 1 x Brightwell Xport No3 Block, +/-1kg extra rock
I have recently replaced socks with a Klir filter and also just added chaeto to my sump. Skimmate in photo is amount generated since I emptied it 2 days ago. Chaeto is a recent addition, so not expecting that to have any influence yet.
Terrible Photo, with lots of reflections, but gives an idea of the amount of rock in display, fish size etc.
I am currently dosing 15 mL of Nitraphos minus (3ml/100L) in conjunction with 5 drops of the Pro bio S, NP pro, Bio S, but there doesn't appear to be any effect. I would have expected at least a plateauing off of levels by now ?? Am I just being impatient, its been almost 2 months now (> 10 days at the 15ml dosage).
Below is a graph showing test results (using Hanna HR nitrate tester and Hanna ULR Phosphorous tester). You can see when I have carried out 120 Litre water changes (+/-24%).
Why am I not seeing ANY reduction in nitrates if the NP Pro AND Nitraphos minus is being used? Do I need to just give it more time or keep increasing the dosage of the Nitraphos minus even more? After saying there hasn't been any decrease in the nitrates, there does seem to be a decrease in the rate of nitrate increase. Appears to have slowed from 10PPm in 10 days to 10PPM in 20days. It is possible that this is due to the chaeto and the klir roller I have added though. Do I just do a large 50 % water change and stay the course?
Thoughts and Advice please,
Other Info
Visually, I have seen algae on my sand bed disappear (so something is working). I have not had much of any algae on the rocks prior to dosing. I am aiming to reduce numbers to below 20 because my corals have not been happy (lost an elegance and some frogspawns recently). I have a frag tank full of various corals (Softies, LPS, SPS) I want to add to my main tank, but really want to get on top of these levels before adding them. I am not as concerned about phosphate reduction, as that can be reduced by using Phosphate remover separately if needed.
Obviously I am overfeeding. I know that, but I am ultimately looking to increase my nutrient export rather than starve my fish (fix the toilet instead of starving the family)
and am looking to combine the carbon dosing with other nutrient export methods, hopefully without having to carry out 50% water changes every 2 weeks (which just isn't sustainable). Ideally I would want to stop with the NP Pro and Pro Bio S and just does nitraphos Minus with a doser to help maintain levels.Feeding Regime
8 or so fish (Blue tang, Fox face lo, coral beauty, Kole tang, 2 x clown fish, leopard wrasse, melanaurus wrass)
1 sheet nori every morning
Auto feeder set to feed 3 x daily, but only a small amount of flake and pellets
1 cube frozen /week.
Occasional extra pellets of food on the weekends. Fish Love the AF anthia stuff. It's like crack to them.
Tank Details
Red Sea Reefer 525XL so about 500 Litres (132 Gallons) of water in the system. It has been running for over a year (since I did a re-boot)
I use Red Sea Blue bucket salt (I do not want to switch to AF Pro bio salt for a number of reasons)
Dosing Component 1+2+3+ and Alk is stable at 8dKh
Sump has a Deltec skimmer that seems to be working well. (Photo below is skim since 24 Dec)
Sump has 1200g Life Bio Fill, 2 L Seachem filter media, 1 x Brightwell Xport No3 Block, +/-1kg extra rock
I have recently replaced socks with a Klir filter and also just added chaeto to my sump. Skimmate in photo is amount generated since I emptied it 2 days ago. Chaeto is a recent addition, so not expecting that to have any influence yet.
Terrible Photo, with lots of reflections, but gives an idea of the amount of rock in display, fish size etc.
