I need alternatives to NOPOX dosing, please....

[Isaac Alves]

I have had some success with nopox but I'm starting to feel that I do not have the same control over nitrates that I may have with a bio-pellet reactor or even an algae scrubber or even a zeolite reactor.

Also, time is a limiting factor and I do worry about putting nopox on a doser ---- I manually dose which is problematic as well since it's not always done at the same time.

Regarding control, I can't direct bacterial (slime) blooms toward the skimmer or even use the excess as food for coral /filter feeder as I've read users of bio pellets do.

I would love some advice because I really want to take my skillset to the next level. And I feel that NOPOX is starting to become something that is taking its toll on my enjoyment of my tank and making it difficult to find balance.

 

[Rob77]

I have had some success with nopox but I'm starting to feel that I do not have the same control over nitrates that I may have with a bio-pellet reactor or even an algae scrubber or even a zeolite reactor.

Also, time is a limiting factor and I do worry about putting nopox on a doser ---- I manually dose which is problematic as well since it's not always done at the same time.

Regarding control, I can't direct bacterial (slime) blooms toward the skimmer or even use the excess as food for coral /filter feeder as I've read users of bio pellets do.

I would love some advice because I really want to take my skillset to the next level. And I feel that NOPOX is starting to become something that is taking its toll on my enjoyment of my tank and making it difficult to find balance.

I think try it on a doser just low dose it .................pellets are a pain IMO ......IM going to try nopox as I have friends it does work for

 

[Potatohead]

Nopox on a doser is hard to beat, much more controllable than biopellets. I dilute it 4:1 with RO.

 

[LouieP]

Tell us more about your tank: size, type of corals, no3 & po4 test results & other equipment do you have?

 

[cwalton00]

I've got a few friends that dose vodka. Cheaper then nopox too. You can dilute it with rodi water if needed and run it on a doser

 

[lion king]

Trust me biopellets is not the answer. I was able to swap out nopox for an algae reactor on one of my tanks. Actually runs better, the algae reactor also controls phosphates in the proper relationship to nitrates. With nopox I still had to work on the phosphates.

 

[TangingOut]

I've never had zero nitrates before(not that I'm trying to have zero) but on my current 165, which is 3 months old, it's what I'm currently testing at.

I believe the 6 liters of Siporax pond that I have in my sump is working too well. On my last system I dose a DIY nopox mix and maintained nitrates around 2-5.

The 165 was started with around 100 lbs of dry and 10 lbs of live rock. Shallow sand bed was a mix of 80 lbs dry and 20 lbs live. The Siporax was seeded in another tank for a few months. I was testing nitrates around 20 before moving the Siporax over.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Tell us more about your tank: size, type of corals, no3 & po4 test results & other equipment do you have?

My display is a 70 gallon with 30-gallon sump. It's running around 85 gallons total water volume with the rock, 3" sand bed, and blocks of marine pure. The system is a mixed reef, with both SPS, LPS and softies. Current measurements as of August 26th:
Nitrate: 8
Mag: 1275
Calc: 470
Alk: 8.9 dKh
Phosphate: 0.07

These numbers have been fairly consistent over the last few months. I did have a nitrate issue a while back but with consistent dosing of NOPOX it has come way down. I am a heavy feeder, but I only use LRS and Rods. I feed the fish what I know they can handle and I rather control the p04/no3 by not starving them. In any case, the system is about 15 months old. NOPOX does work when you're consistent with both dosing and testing. It's just the constant maintenance on the pink slime, the constant manual dosing. I was hoping there was an alternative that was possibly a bit more controllable in terms of pushing excess bacteria to the skimmer, lower maintenance (regarding slime siphoning), and more economical. I do have another EB8 and another BRS 1.1ml Doser I purchased for setting up NOPOX dosing ---I really only feel comfortable with the APEX outlet control and fallbacks to off with regards to dosing. But listening to Melev's Reef and others who use Biopellets for nitrate control it seems there is more consistency.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Trust me biopellets is not the answer. I was able to swap out nopox for an algae reactor on one of my tanks. Actually runs better, the algae reactor also controls phosphates in the proper relationship to nitrates. With nopox, I still had to work on the phosphates.

Yes. I agree. I had this same challenge with p04. I do run phosguard in a reactor to control my phosphates. I have a really good NYOS 160 skimmer that works great and I have a ton of sponges and other filter feeders that are helping pull excess nutrients. The phosguard really help control things and I like it better than GFO. An Algae reactor is on my list as a possibility. Did you build one out of just lights and a reactor tube or did you purchase a purpose built one?

 

[Potatohead]

How can biopellets be more consistent? They are constantly reducing the size of the pellets in the reactor, which is changing the amount of carbon being dosed. Then you add a bunch of pellets (carbon) back in at once. This is also assuming you can keep the flow through the reactor constant which is difficult as they tend to clog up.

 

[LouieP]

@isaacalves, You might want to cut back on feeding thats the easy solution to your problem. If you still want to feed heavy look into Vinegar Dosing.

I dont know a thing about biopellets so I cant give insight on them but I have tried other ways to reduce NO3 & PO3 which include Nitrate Reactor (which did nothing for PO3), water changes (lots of work for little results), ATS, & carbon dosing. I prefer ATS but in my system its just not cutting it.

Im running a ATS but it wasnt keeping up so Im now also carbon dosing with vinegar. In the Chemistry Forum on R2R & Reef Central theres a bunch of threads that go in great detail about both vodka & vinegar dosing. After reading about NOPOX I believe it could be mixture of vodka & vinegar but more expensive. If I remember correctly vodka could be the source of your red slime problem. Im currenly dosing vinegar a 4x a day to reduce the pH drop. Ive increased the amount per the attached chart but stopped increasing at 17.6 ml per day or 4x a day for 4 mins. I have the BRS 1.1 doser controlled by my APEX in 4 outlet. So in the last month I have gone from 0.38ppm PO3 to <0.1ppm PO3. My PO3 has tested as high as 0.61ppm in the last year.

 

[Isaac Alves]

How can biopellets be more consistent? They are constantly reducing the size of the pellets in the reactor, which is changing the amount of carbon being dosed. Then you add a bunch of pellets (carbon) back in at once. This is also assuming you can keep the flow through the reactor constant which is difficult as they tend to clog up.

This is basically what I'm wondering about. It appeared to me from forums that, if you have a good reactor and are able to maintain good flow the bio-pellets should deplete in somewhat at a consistent rate. But, it was also noted to be hard to achieve the consistency. The reactor issues are a concern of course. The gunk build up would need to be cleaned out periodically.

And you like NOPOX on a doser? Do you have any pink slime issues in your sump? I never see it in the DT. I'm assuming it gets eaten.

 

[Isaac Alves]

@isaacalves, You might want to cut back on feeding thats the easy solution to your problem. If you still want to feed heavy look into Vinegar Dosing.

I dont know a thing about biopellets so I cant give insight on them but I have tried other ways to reduce NO3 & PO3 which include Nitrate Reactor (which did nothing for PO3), water changes (lots of work for little results), ATS, & carbon dosing. I prefer ATS but in my system its just not cutting it.

Im running a ATS but it wasnt keeping up so Im now also carbon dosing with vinegar. In the Chemistry Forum on R2R & Reef Central theres a bunch of threads that go in great detail about both vodka & vinegar dosing. After reading about NOPOX I believe it could be mixture of vodka & vinegar but more expensive. If I remember correctly vodka could be the source of your red slime problem. Im currenly dosing vinegar a 4x a day to reduce the pH drop. Ive increased the amount per the attached chart but stopped increasing at 17.6 ml per day or 4x a day for 4 mins. I have the BRS 1.1 doser controlled by my APEX in 4 outlet. So in the last month I have gone from 0.38ppm PO3 to <0.1ppm PO3. My PO3 has tested as high as 0.61ppm in the last year.

It definitely smells like vodka and vinegar mixed together.

I've spent some time in those forums. If I recall Randy likes vinegar, and keeps the vodka for himself.

 

[lion king]

Yes. I agree. I had this same challenge with p04. I do run phosguard in a reactor to control my phosphates. I have a really good NYOS 160 skimmer that works great and I have a ton of sponges and other filter feeders that are helping pull excess nutrients. The phosguard really help control things and I like it better than GFO. An Algae reactor is on my list as a possibility. Did you build one out of just lights and a reactor tube or did you purchase a purpose built one?

I built 3 using stuff I had laying around. 2 were aquamaxx biopellet reactors(yeah tried that, not for me), the builds are just like the ones highlighted on marinedepot.com. Used some different leds on one. Even built one out of a brs reactor(build thread on DIY forum). It's a pretty simple concept, either buying one retail or diy.

 

[Potatohead]

This is basically what I'm wondering about. It appeared to me from forums that, if you have a good reactor and are able to maintain good flow the bio-pellets should deplete in somewhat at a consistent rate. But, it was also noted to be hard to achieve the consistency. The reactor issues are a concern of course. The gunk build up would need to be cleaned out periodically.

And you like NOPOX on a doser? Do you have any pink slime issues in your sump? I never see it in the DT. I'm assuming it gets eaten.

When I started dosing I got some white slime and clogged filter socks but when nutrients got where I wanted I reduced the dose and now everything is great. I only dose 1.8ml for 70 gallons.

From everything I have researched and through my own experience nopox is very good at reducing nitrate, but takes longer to reduce phosphate. This can cause a bit of cyano but will even out in time. When you start using it you may notice your skimmate is quite green and over time it will turn darker and eventually get to the normal dark brown. When it gets dark it is now working as it should. There is a good Reefbuilders video with Sharam of Red Sea who is their chief chemist and he talks about all the effort they put into the product trying to make it safe and not allow certain cultures to take over over time.

 

[Rob77]

I built 3 using stuff I had laying around. 2 were aquamaxx biopellet reactors(yeah tried that, not for me), the builds are just like the ones highlighted on marinedepot.com. Used some different leds on one. Even built one out of a brs reactor(build thread on DIY forum). It's a pretty simple concept, either buying one retail or diy.

Did your aquamaxx biopellet reactor not tumble well ? I had a friend that used that reactor with minimal flow and wow it tumbled GREAT so great I bought one also but he could never get nitrates up with it stripped the water clean! and then POW cyano so he turned it into a cheato reactor .......but it does tumble pellets great

 

[lou dog420]

I have been using aquaforest pro bio and the growth polymer for about 7 months now. 4 drops a day of each on my 100 gallon system. Its fairly cheap and it works.

 

[lion king]

Did your aquamaxx biopellet reactor not tumble well ? I had a friend that used that reactor with minimal flow and wow it tumbled GREAT so great I bought one also but he could never get nitrates up with it stripped the water clean! and then POW cyano so he turned it into a cheato reactor .......but it does tumble pellets great

It had nothing to do with tumble, I got tired of chasing cyano. The whole procedure of pellets rub me the wrong way. the more I understood the more I didn't care for the concept all together. Nopox is so much easier and controlled, it does work well, I have it on dosers on the tanks I run it on. the slime is bothersome though, it clogs everything. the cyano that comes from using any of these methods has to do with the imbalance between nitrates and phosphates. All of these methods with the exception of the algae reactor/scrubber will reduce nitrates more effectively than phosphates. Unless you are using the Hanna ULR phosphate colorimeter you could still have as much as .1 phosphate while the other test still sometimes indicates 0. I found on my tanks when I kept the nitrates around 10, if the phosphates climbed to .08 I would get cyano. Didn't find out until I started using the Hanna, my Red Sea test kit would still show 0 phosphates.

 

[Rob77]

It had nothing to do with tumble, I got tired of chasing cyano. The whole procedure of pellets rub me the wrong way. the more I understood the more I didn't care for the concept all together. Nopox is so much easier and controlled, it does work well, I have it on dosers on the tanks I run it on. the slime is bothersome though, it clogs everything. the cyano that comes from using any of these methods has to do with the imbalance between nitrates and phosphates. All of these methods with the exception of the algae reactor/scrubber will reduce nitrates more effectively than phosphates. Unless you are using the Hanna ULR phosphate colorimeter you could still have as much as .1 phosphate while the other test still sometimes indicates 0. I found on my tanks when I kept the nitrates around 10, if the phosphates climbed to .08 I would get cyano. Didn't find out until I started using the Hanna, my Red Sea test kit would still show 0 phosphates.

I agree with you ....... I see biopellets work on tanks but I still think its a pain chasing numbers ! I will be trying nopox if I have to this time

 

[jhameeh]

I am using siporax upstream of my skimmer and marinepure blocks downstream. Dosing with Aquaforest Pro Bio S and NP Pro. Nitrate is always 2 and PO4 zero. Heavy feeding 3x a day.