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- Nov 22, 2013
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Hey All! After much consideration and a tremendous amount of reading and asking questions I have decided to dose my 210. Especially after seeing Josh's success I figured I would give it a go. I offered to post my experience on facebook and after hearing from a few of you have decided to do so. I am following the recommendations of the same article that Josh based his dosing on. Although I do feel like I have about as good of a grasp on the subject as I possibly can I would certainly not consider myself an expert on the subject. I will simply share my experience for good or bad!
My tank is a 210 gallon reef tank. For livestock it is home to 5 Tangs, 4 lyretail anthias, 3 purple fire fish, 2 blue chromis, 3 fish with bright blue eyes which may be another type of chormis, not sure!, a mandarin, mcCoskers wrasse, a large male swallow tale and a bright orange linckia starfish! For corals I have a fare amount of smaller sps frags and colonies as well as some euphillia and various LPS, bubble tips, etc etc. I run LED lights and hydor pumps which run on a wavemaker. I have a sump that is about 30-40 gallons. It has no refugium. I have a reef octopus 3000 skimmer and run GFO but no carbon. I also run a UV sterelizer and an apex controller. I have an auto top off hooked up to an RO/DI filter in the next room. I Feed the same amount every day and perform a 10% water change once a month. Other than changing my GFO about every other month I change 2 filter socks every Friday.
Currently, Everyone and evrything in my tank appears healthy and happy! Here is a list of my parameters Today as I begin dosing. All measurements were taken with an API kit.
Temp - 78.3
PH - 8.06
ORP - 439
Ammonia - undetectable
Nitrite - Undetectable
Nitrate - If its not 80 its pretty dang close!
KH - 7.5
Calcium - (420-440)
PO4 - (0 - trace)
Why I am wanting to dose? - My nitrates are consistent but consistently high! And, although I am a believer in refugiums I have no room for one.
What are my concerns? - My biggest concern is my fish! In the carbon dosing process one of the potential side effects is that the heterotrophic bacteria which are thought to be the bacteria you are growing can reproduce incredibly fast and like to consume the oxygen in the water. If too much of this happens it can create a hypoxic situation where your fish will struggle to breath. This has been documented to occur more often in established tanks of more than 2 years. There are also reports of fish death due to the production of hydrogen sulfide gas which again has been documented in older tanks especially with deep sand beds.
What is my dosage regiment? -
Day 1-3 = 0.5 ml
Day 4-7 = 1.0 ml
Week 2 = 1.5 ml
Week 3 = 2.0 ml
Week 4 = 2.5 ml
Week 5 = 3.0 ml
I will continue on this regiment until I notice by nitrates starting to drop. When they do I will stop increasing my does and maintain that dose. When nitrates become close to undetectable I will cut my does in half and maintain that dose indefinitely.
Hopefully, the above information will answer many of the questions you may have.
Here we go!
My tank is a 210 gallon reef tank. For livestock it is home to 5 Tangs, 4 lyretail anthias, 3 purple fire fish, 2 blue chromis, 3 fish with bright blue eyes which may be another type of chormis, not sure!, a mandarin, mcCoskers wrasse, a large male swallow tale and a bright orange linckia starfish! For corals I have a fare amount of smaller sps frags and colonies as well as some euphillia and various LPS, bubble tips, etc etc. I run LED lights and hydor pumps which run on a wavemaker. I have a sump that is about 30-40 gallons. It has no refugium. I have a reef octopus 3000 skimmer and run GFO but no carbon. I also run a UV sterelizer and an apex controller. I have an auto top off hooked up to an RO/DI filter in the next room. I Feed the same amount every day and perform a 10% water change once a month. Other than changing my GFO about every other month I change 2 filter socks every Friday.
Currently, Everyone and evrything in my tank appears healthy and happy! Here is a list of my parameters Today as I begin dosing. All measurements were taken with an API kit.
Temp - 78.3
PH - 8.06
ORP - 439
Ammonia - undetectable
Nitrite - Undetectable
Nitrate - If its not 80 its pretty dang close!
KH - 7.5
Calcium - (420-440)
PO4 - (0 - trace)
Why I am wanting to dose? - My nitrates are consistent but consistently high! And, although I am a believer in refugiums I have no room for one.
What are my concerns? - My biggest concern is my fish! In the carbon dosing process one of the potential side effects is that the heterotrophic bacteria which are thought to be the bacteria you are growing can reproduce incredibly fast and like to consume the oxygen in the water. If too much of this happens it can create a hypoxic situation where your fish will struggle to breath. This has been documented to occur more often in established tanks of more than 2 years. There are also reports of fish death due to the production of hydrogen sulfide gas which again has been documented in older tanks especially with deep sand beds.
What is my dosage regiment? -
Day 1-3 = 0.5 ml
Day 4-7 = 1.0 ml
Week 2 = 1.5 ml
Week 3 = 2.0 ml
Week 4 = 2.5 ml
Week 5 = 3.0 ml
I will continue on this regiment until I notice by nitrates starting to drop. When they do I will stop increasing my does and maintain that dose. When nitrates become close to undetectable I will cut my does in half and maintain that dose indefinitely.
Hopefully, the above information will answer many of the questions you may have.
Here we go!