NoPox Suddenly Exporting All Nitrates

[SelectedByNature]

TLDL: Added Seachem Pond Matrixx and nitrates disappeared.

 

I just wanted to share my experience dosing Red Sea's N03P04x over the last three months.

 

I've always struggled with higher nitrates over the year that my tank has been running. I probably over fed a lot in the beggining and once I got into hungry LPS corals that were satisfying to feed, I was in constant battle with high nutrients.

 

I started using NoPox over three months ago and the results were negligible. It seemed to have some slight effect but certainly nothing drastic. I kept using it regardless as I assumed perhaps it needed several weeks to populate the necessary bacteria cultures within my live rock (as I have very little sand).

 

Fast forward two months and still nothing was really coming out of the tank and I was doing massive water changes to export the nutrients (20% 2-3/week) which was causing imbalance in the reef and stunting growth and constantly setting me back and still only keeping nitrates at 15-20. At that point I added Seachem Pond Matrixx to the first chamber of my AIO (I added it gradually) and after about a month of still doing NoPox, my nitrate is nearly undetectable. 

 

My algae issues have been significantly reduced after an initial period of slight cloudy water (1-2 weeks about 1 month after the addition of Matrix). I had also reduced the NoPox treatment according to manufacture recommendations for my new nutrient levels. 

 

Over the last couple of weeks I started testing nitrate every day, feeding heavily, using an new test kit (never know  right?) and skipping NoPox for one or multiple days and my nitrates are always low. The highest I've seen in the last couple of weeks, it would be generous to say they were measured at 5 using a standard API kit.

 

As far as I can tell, my live rock was providing very little, if any, low oxygen/flow areas for anaerobic bacteria to populate (contrary to what we've been led to believe). The simple addition of very dense and porous Pond Matrixx in conjunction with NoPox seems to have finally been achieving what the product describes possible and others have resulted.

 

[TheBig053]

This is an interesting read. I also struggle with high nitrates and have been battling some hair algae and (possibly) dinos at the moment. My nitrates constantly hover around 10 ppm (red sea test). They will drop to 0-5 ppm for a day or two after my water change and then jump back up to 10. I do not overfeed as far as I can tell and have even stopped feeding frozen foods and phyto to my corals entirely. I vaccum my sand bed and thoroughly clean (scrub glass and siphon) the rear chamber with each WC. I have no detectable PO4 on a Salifert test but I know this isn't accurate because I have algae growing. I am currently running filter floss > purigen > carbon in chamber 1 and just set up a media reactor in chamber 2 with PhosGuard to try and starve out the Algae. After reading this I may give a bag of Pond Matrix to chamber 1 and NoPox a try. 

 

Question: will NoPox need to be dosed constantly or is it something that once the bacteria population is established can be stopped? 

[SelectedByNature]

30 minutes ago, TheBig053 said:

Question: will NoPox need to be dosed constantly or is it something that once the bacteria population is established can be stopped? 

Definitely go slow with the addition of the Matrixx media IME. 

 

To your question, I'm not sure. NoPox fuels the bacteria that consumes the nitrates, but i don't think they would die-off completely with no longer adding NoPox, but I'm not at that point yet in the testing. I'm trying to stabilize my parameters just under 5ppm nitrates and then I could check the results of stopping entirely.

[TheBig053]

Got it. 

 

Why add matrix slowly? Isn't matrix just porous material that creates more surface area for BB to grow? Does it come preloaded with BB? 

[SelectedByNature]

42 minutes ago, TheBig053 said:

Got it. 

 

Why add matrix slowly? Isn't matrix just porous material that creates more surface area for BB to grow? Does it come preloaded with BB? 

Correct. It's just porous 'rocks', but sudden bacterial blooms can have adverse effects.

[Clown79]

Do you have a skimmer on the tank?

[mcarroll]

On 1/1/2018 at 8:30 AM, TheBig053 said:

This is an interesting read. I also struggle with high nitrates and have been battling some hair algae and (possibly) dinos at the moment. My nitrates constantly hover around 10 ppm (red sea test). They will drop to 0-5 ppm for a day or two after my water change and then jump back up to 10. I do not overfeed as far as I can tell and have even stopped feeding frozen foods and phyto to my corals entirely. I vaccum my sand bed and thoroughly clean (scrub glass and siphon) the rear chamber with each WC. I have no detectable PO4 on a Salifert test but I know this isn't accurate because I have algae growing. I am currently running filter floss > purigen > carbon in chamber 1 and just set up a media reactor in chamber 2 with PhosGuard to try and starve out the Algae. After reading this I may give a bag of Pond Matrix to chamber 1 and NoPox a try. 

 

Question: will NoPox need to be dosed constantly or is it something that once the bacteria population is established can be stopped? 

Nothing can grow without nitrogen and phosphorus.....it's very possible that you have no PO4 in the tank....that'll make it impossible for anything but specialists to thrive in your tank......nothing fun either....think dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria.

 

Dosing organic carbon makes dinoflagellates the more likely outcome as the bacterial bloom you cause with the carbon will scavenge N or P down to very low levels that will starve everything in the tank.  Dino's don't go quietly though....instead, they switch from photosynthesis and begin eating.  Since they now have no competition and a huge food supply, welcome to your new dino tank!

 

Do you have a thread where you've been tracking your system @TheBig053?

[TheBig053]

Hey @mcarroll, thanks for the response and yes I do have a build thread linked in my signature. I never went down the carbon dosing road because I do not run a skimmer on my system. I have been using the minimum weekly dose (1 ml a week for my tank) of Vibrant the past several weeks and it eliminated the hair algae but then I had a cyano outbreak. My assumption was that this was caused by the excess nutrients from the dying hair algae. Most recently, past two-weeks, the cyano has begun to clear up, but there are still a few trouble spots on the sand bed. I also added chaeto to the second rear chamber and have been running a small LED grow light on a reverse photo period to help with nutrient export. The chaeto has been growing steadily since adding it and my No3 has held steady at around 2ppm for the past 2-3 weeks. Still not registering any Po4 on the Salifert test. I am stopping the use of Vibrant this week since things are clearing up. My corals have been growing (new acan heads, new zoa/paly polyps, SPS encrusting) and color seems to be okay (it could be better but nothing pale or browned out). I have begun feeding more heavily the past couple of weeks since my No3 has dropped and remained steady at 2ppm. 

 

Always good to encounter another reefer from Northern VA! 

[mcarroll]

2 hours ago, TheBig053 said:

I do have a build thread linked in my signature.

I think I had to turn off signatures when I started here because so many of them were SO GIGANTIC.   (Will give them another try.)