Trouble reducing nutrients with carbon dosing

[sbtechnicalltd]

Hello ,

Wondering if anyone can help me , I am using reef zelements products and would like some guidance. I cant seem to get my nutrients under control despite heavy skimming and carbon dosing.


Here is a background of my reef tank , it is a 125G red sea reefer. I have a semi minimalistic rock scape (caribsea) not totally sure the weight but its not an insignificant amount, the tank is also a bare bottom.It has been running for around 2 years. I would say its on the heavier stocked side in relation to fish and I would say understocked in relation to coral as I have always had issues with nutrient levels and parameter stability (until I started using reef zelements products that is). In my sump I have a brightwell xport biobrick for increased surface area for bacteria. A clarisea filter roller , and a reactor I run Z reef carbon 150g changing every 2-4 weeks. I have an old deltec skimmer that is rated up to 500L , (I thought this was underspecced for my size of tank and bioload ) so I have now added another larger deltec skimmer rated up to 1000L , I currently have both of them running so underskimming should definitely not be an issue (both producing nice skimmate)

Currely livestock is:

Large regal tang

Large sailfin tang

Medium vampire tang

Two small damsels

Two anthias

One clownfish

Large blue chin trigger

Small lionfish

Small hawkfish

Small six line wrass

P04 and NO3 has always been elevated with NO3 being the main issue. I can periodically get P04 down to around 0.06 but will continue to creep up until I use chemical filtration to get this down (Phosban in a bag in a reactor) but NO3 has always been an issue for me getting it down below 20ppm , it usually sits between 25-40 ppm (40 being the high end and not often up at that level)

I do a 100-125L water change every 2 weeks.

My parameters are now stable after using PH plus for around 2 months and dialing in my consumption.

ALK- 8

Calcium – 440

Magnesium- 1400

Salinity 1.025-1.026

I have been dosing carboplus for about 7 weeks , I initially got a bacteria bloom around week 2 and dialed it right back until it cleared. I then started dosing again. I started with 5ml per day for 2 weeks then 7ml for 2 weeks and now 9ml and not seeing any reflection in my nitrate or phosphate tests.

Last 4 weeks my no3 has gradually climbed from 24.5 – 38.8

My feeding consisted of a blend of frozen mysis , copepods , brineshrimp all defrosted , mixed together and then refrozen into ice cube trays (one regular sized ice cube per day) this food is consumed by the fish within 5 mins of being added to the tank.


I have done an ICP test a few weeks ago with no obvious issues (other than high nutrients)

Any input would be greatly appreciated I would really like to get my nutrients down to the desired level so I can increase my coral stock.

Stefan Brown

 

[Dan_P]

Hello ,

Wondering if anyone can help me , I am using reef zelements products and would like some guidance. I cant seem to get my nutrients under control despite heavy skimming and carbon dosing.


Here is a background of my reef tank , it is a 125G red sea reefer. I have a semi minimalistic rock scape (caribsea) not totally sure the weight but its not an insignificant amount, the tank is also a bare bottom.It has been running for around 2 years. I would say its on the heavier stocked side in relation to fish and I would say understocked in relation to coral as I have always had issues with nutrient levels and parameter stability (until I started using reef zelements products that is). In my sump I have a brightwell xport biobrick for increased surface area for bacteria. A clarisea filter roller , and a reactor I run Z reef carbon 150g changing every 2-4 weeks. I have an old deltec skimmer that is rated up to 500L , (I thought this was underspecced for my size of tank and bioload ) so I have now added another larger deltec skimmer rated up to 1000L , I currently have both of them running so underskimming should definitely not be an issue (both producing nice skimmate)

Currely livestock is:

Large regal tang

Large sailfin tang

Medium vampire tang

Two small damsels

Two anthias

One clownfish

Large blue chin trigger

Small lionfish

Small hawkfish

Small six line wrass

P04 and NO3 has always been elevated with NO3 being the main issue. I can periodically get P04 down to around 0.06 but will continue to creep up until I use chemical filtration to get this down (Phosban in a bag in a reactor) but NO3 has always been an issue for me getting it down below 20ppm , it usually sits between 25-40 ppm (40 being the high end and not often up at that level)

I do a 100-125L water change every 2 weeks.

My parameters are now stable after using PH plus for around 2 months and dialing in my consumption.

ALK- 8

Calcium – 440

Magnesium- 1400

Salinity 1.025-1.026

I have been dosing carboplus for about 7 weeks , I initially got a bacteria bloom around week 2 and dialed it right back until it cleared. I then started dosing again. I started with 5ml per day for 2 weeks then 7ml for 2 weeks and now 9ml and not seeing any reflection in my nitrate or phosphate tests.

Last 4 weeks my no3 has gradually climbed from 24.5 – 38.8

My feeding consisted of a blend of frozen mysis , copepods , brineshrimp all defrosted , mixed together and then refrozen into ice cube trays (one regular sized ice cube per day) this food is consumed by the fish within 5 mins of being added to the tank.


I have done an ICP test a few weeks ago with no obvious issues (other than high nutrients)

Any input would be greatly appreciated I would really like to get my nutrients down to the desired level so I can increase my coral stock.

Stefan Brown

@Miami Reef have a few pointers here?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello ,

Wondering if anyone can help me , I am using reef zelements products and would like some guidance. I cant seem to get my nutrients under control despite heavy skimming and carbon dosing.


Here is a background of my reef tank , it is a 125G red sea reefer. I have a semi minimalistic rock scape (caribsea) not totally sure the weight but its not an insignificant amount, the tank is also a bare bottom.It has been running for around 2 years. I would say its on the heavier stocked side in relation to fish and I would say understocked in relation to coral as I have always had issues with nutrient levels and parameter stability (until I started using reef zelements products that is). In my sump I have a brightwell xport biobrick for increased surface area for bacteria. A clarisea filter roller , and a reactor I run Z reef carbon 150g changing every 2-4 weeks. I have an old deltec skimmer that is rated up to 500L , (I thought this was underspecced for my size of tank and bioload ) so I have now added another larger deltec skimmer rated up to 1000L , I currently have both of them running so underskimming should definitely not be an issue (both producing nice skimmate)

Currely livestock is:

Large regal tang

Large sailfin tang

Medium vampire tang

Two small damsels

Two anthias

One clownfish

Large blue chin trigger

Small lionfish

Small hawkfish

Small six line wrass

P04 and NO3 has always been elevated with NO3 being the main issue. I can periodically get P04 down to around 0.06 but will continue to creep up until I use chemical filtration to get this down (Phosban in a bag in a reactor) but NO3 has always been an issue for me getting it down below 20ppm , it usually sits between 25-40 ppm (40 being the high end and not often up at that level)

I do a 100-125L water change every 2 weeks.

My parameters are now stable after using PH plus for around 2 months and dialing in my consumption.

ALK- 8

Calcium – 440

Magnesium- 1400

Salinity 1.025-1.026

I have been dosing carboplus for about 7 weeks , I initially got a bacteria bloom around week 2 and dialed it right back until it cleared. I then started dosing again. I started with 5ml per day for 2 weeks then 7ml for 2 weeks and now 9ml and not seeing any reflection in my nitrate or phosphate tests.

Last 4 weeks my no3 has gradually climbed from 24.5 – 38.8

My feeding consisted of a blend of frozen mysis , copepods , brineshrimp all defrosted , mixed together and then refrozen into ice cube trays (one regular sized ice cube per day) this food is consumed by the fish within 5 mins of being added to the tank.


I have done an ICP test a few weeks ago with no obvious issues (other than high nutrients)

Any input would be greatly appreciated I would really like to get my nutrients down to the desired level so I can increase my coral stock.

Stefan Brown

You say that Nitrate is stable between 20-40ppm?

I honestly would not worry about it if that's the case.

You will find that eventually after another year with additional coral it may drop too low, that's what happened to me. I have to ADD Nitrate these days.

 

[Miami Reef]

@Miami Reef have a few pointers here?

Sure.

You have a few options:

1) Accept the higher nutrient levels. Many corals can thrive and still look good with higher NO3 levels.

This tank by Thales had 1.77ppm PO4 and NO3 41ppm and it looked like this:

Link to thread (tank is still running with higher nutrients today): https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/rich-ross-home-tank-guess-the-phosphate.296635/

2) Gradually increase the carbon dose as high as you can before experiencing the negative side effects (bacterial bloom, cloudy water, cyano, stringy mats of bacteria etc). You can even try playing around with different types of carbon sources (vodka or vinegar) to see if there’s one your system can tolerate better.

3) If you still can’t bring down the NO3 with the carbon dose as high as you can possibly get it without the negative effects, then I’d say the carbon dosing is capped out for your bioload and tank size. You can read through this article to find additional Nitrate export methods: http://www.reefedition.com/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium/


Hope this helped. If you have additional questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have been dosing carboplus for about 7 weeks , I initially got a bacteria bloom around week 2 and dialed it right back until it cleared. I then started dosing again. I started with 5ml per day for 2 weeks then 7ml for 2 weeks and now 9ml and not seeing any reflection in my nitrate or phosphate tests.

I just want to weigh in on some claims made by Carboplus by reefZelements so that folks do not get misled.

CarboPlus | Zlements

www.reef-zlements.com

"With the increased efficiency of filtration systems, low and ultra-low nutrients aquariums are becoming more and more common. These systems are often Carbon depleted. If a system is carbon depleted will mean that “biological filtration” won’t happen as efficiently as it should and nutrients like NO3 and PO4 are likely to rise and become pollutants, unless other forms of filtration are employed."

That paragraph implies that there is something undesirable, unnatural, or suboptimal to being organic carbon limited. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ocean is organic carbon limited for bacterial growth, as EVERY REEF TANK should be.

Even when dosing organic carbon, unless you have completely bottomed out N or P or certain trace elements (which is undesirable), the tank will still be organic carbon limited. That is as it should be. It just means that adding more will cause more bacterial growth.