Dosing Red Sea NO3-No4.-x

[Lesely]

HI, hoping some one can help me ?
Had a major sand bed algae and glass film algae problem for 7 months now, tried everything, vacuuming, more and larger water changes, changed rowphos more often etc while nitrate 0.02 phos 0.03
I was recommended to use Red Sea NOPOX. by someone on this site in fact.
I was reluctant as i don't like dosing anything into the tank and I am a complete newbie.
I started dosing it at the rate of 2ml/100 ltr 3 days ago
I have been doing readings all of the 3 days (don't have to but I am worried) I have also been feeding corals reef energy A & B daily at the rate of 10ml of each

Todays readings are
NItrate 0.02 (still) sailfert
Phos 0.00 Hanna checker
Readings aren't actually that different to 3 days prior except phos is now 0.00 and I haven't today had to clean the glass at all and the sand bed is almost all clear except a couple of small patches.Why has this made such a difference when readings weren't that high to start with ?
The brown hair algae I had growing in the overflow box (only not in display) are disappearing and is about 50% what is was just 3 days ag. water is crystal clear although it was pretty good any way.
Corals all seem happy enough and not experiencing any problems so far.

I now don't know what to do, I want to stabilize those readings and don't want 0 nitrates
Can anyone that has used this product please help, I am assuming I half dose and keep an eye on readings ??
Do i still wet skim. ??
What happens if I do get 0.00 nitrates, how do I get some back ??
I know I sound stupid but I really am very new to this and I have heard some horror stories if things go wrong.
Thanks
Lesley
I

 

[Sakura2282]

First, 0 nitrates is what almost everyone wants. You don't want nitrates because they are algae food. You are feeding your corals in a daily basis, which mean you are constantly adding nutrients to your water. You can feed them once a week.

 

[RockStacker]

I too have been using NO3:PO4-X for several months now.
I followed the recommended starting dose based on the tank size and then adjusted the dose based on the subsequent NO3/PO4 readings.
I also dose daily with Reef Energy A&B at 8ml each (100 gallon tank)

Based on a Red Sea Pro test kit:
NO3 is at 0. I interpret this to be somewhere between 0.00 and 0.25 but closer to 0. I do not believe my tank can really achieve absolute 0 NO3.
PO4 is at 0.04 which is higher than the desired 0.03, but my tank has no visible cyanobacteria so it is an acceptable value for me.

There are tiny clumps of GHA in a few spots, but not as bad as before I started NOPOX.
Cyanobacteria has not been a problem.

A few observations though:
1. Get ready to skim WET. You will want the skimmer to remove as much of the free-floating bacterial flocks from your water or you will start to see cloudy white clumps on the surface.
2. Your skimmate will stink... more than it ever has! There is no way around this.
3. My goniopora that was growing and thriving before I started NOPOX, started to sulk and polyps never extended as much ever since. All my other LPS and softies are doing great. I do not have SPS, so I cannot vouch for NOPOX in an SPS tank.
4. ALL my macroalgae in my refugium died within 3 weeks of using NOPOX. I think the tank got nitrate starved to the extent that even macroalgae could not get anything to eat.

I now have the NOPOX set up on a timed doser so I do not have to remember to dose manually daily.
I diluted the NOPOX in RODI water. 1900ml RODI + 100ml NOPOX. This results in a 5% NOPOX solution and the dosing pump doses 10ml of the solution daily (0.5ml NOPOX).
With this current setup, the solution is enough to dose for around 200 days.

You are right that you do not want absolute 0 NO3 and PO4. Zooxanthellae in corals require very small amounts of NO3 and PO4 for their metabolic processes which in turn feed the corals.
An absolute 0 environment would starve the zooxanthellae and thus starve the corals.

Reef Energy A&B is advertised as a combination of energy sources and amino acids that replicate what would have been found on natural foods - except they cut away the middle man so the corals can get the nutrition and energy more readily without the mess of dead animals as found in frozen foods.
So far I have been happy with the results but only time will tell if the NO3:P04-X + Reef Energy A&B is an ideal long term regimen.