Bacto Balance and Plus NP

[xWascallyWabbit]

Good evening all,

Tank is a MarineX 90.3
Filter floss, skimmer, refugium in the sump, etc.

I found over time that with a newborn I slowly stopped testing my Nitrates and Phosphates.

Well, over time with the addition of a refugium my nitrates and phosphates bottomed out. It was months before I really noticed.

Corals became paler and didn't look too hot. I knew something was up when my dosing of A4R began to actually raise my alk too much and I had to lessen my dosage. Red flag #1

All corals seemed okay.. but some were starting to receed/loose flesh. Most notably my raja rampage mycedium coral. See pictures.

As I dose A4R already I decided to lessen my refugium lights (did not raise Nitrate or Phosphate) so I decided to dose. I chose to use the Bacto Balance and Plus NP so that I could raise both parameters and get the benefits of carbon dosing. A win/win/win.

I will come back and post on this thread as time goes on to document the changes. So far my A4R dosage has climbed from 18ml to 27.5ml to keep alk stable at 8.4.

Corals are looking more vibrant than they used to (according to my wife) who did not know I had made the change of adding these products. Raja rampage looks to actually be recovering and growing it's green flesh back.

So far it has been just over 2 weeks. I'll come back in a few more with progress pics and info.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[I never finish anythi]

Tagging along

 

[danlechem]

Would you not be better off dosing plus Np on its own until you hit your desirable n and p levels before you start dosing bacto balance which will reduce them, particularly N? Genuine question as I'm currently employing similar methods.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As a general rule, I’m not a fan of dosing secret concoctions, but specifically here, it is not always the panacea it sounds like from manufacturer claims.

 

[xWascallyWabbit]

Good questions. So currently I am dosing the plus NP.
It is 3 whole pumps of solution to max the dosage.
Bacto Balance is 3 ml to max out.

Right now I am using 1 pump of plus NP and 2ml of bacto. That way I am slowly raising the N&P

Currently sitting at 5.2 Nitrates and .05 phos

 

[xWascallyWabbit]

As a general rule, I’m not a fan of dosing secret concoctions, but specifically here, it is not always the panacea it sounds like from manufacturer claims.

You may be right in time but I have had nothing but succes with A4R and in my situation, it seemed I needed to up my nutrients as I was starving the tank. So this combination seemed like an easy choice. Hopefully I'll find just as much success and be able to document along the way for others.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You may be right in time but I have had nothing but succes with A4R and in my situation, it seemed I needed to up my nutrients as I was starving the tank. So this combination seemed like an easy choice. Hopefully I'll find just as much success and be able to document along the way for others.

All for reef is not a secret concoction. It is known exactly what it is and is not what I am referring to. It’s a fine additive.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are lots of easy options for low nutrient situations, including feeding more, dosing ammonium, dosing nitrate, and dosing phosphate. A few people also carbon dose at the same time to convert those nutrients into bacteria for filter feeders.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Good questions. So currently I am dosing the plus NP.
It is 3 whole pumps of solution to max the dosage.
Bacto Balance is 3 ml to max out.

Right now I am using 1 pump of plus NP and 2ml of bacto. That way I am slowly raising the N&P

For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out


-Steven Wright

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out


-Steven Wright

lol