Red Sea NO3:PO4-X experiences

[Djplus1]

Not sure how many on here use the stuff, but I'm curious if my results are par for the course as it seems pretty quick and/or effective if so.

 

A little background. I used the stuff first after cycling my RSM 130 frag tank. It was a jungle of filamentous algae that wouldn't go away. I only had 2 fish and 2 or 3 test frags in the tank at the time. I dosed this stuff for <2 weeks and the algae completely disappeared. 

 

Flash forward to this week. I have been battling cyano in my 72g bow front for a while now (months). I use chaeto, Rowaphos, don't feed a lot, do weekly water changes, have lights out for 2-3 days at a time, clean out the sump regularly, stirred up the sand bed, made a typhoon ala PaulB, increased flow, adjusted return jets to aim directly at trouble spots, etc. and NOTHING worked. 

 

On a whim, I just decided to add 10ml a day (per instructions with my last tested Nitrate readings) since I ran out of Rowaphos, for the last 5 days or so, and I think that the cyano is literally 95% gone. A couple stubborn areas still have some, but it looks like it's breaking up into threads and should be gone within a day or so.

 

I was reading a thread here within the week where someone said they were on this stuff for like the last 2 months or something, so I'm wondering if my results are more standard and this stuff totally rocks, or am I totally getting lucky on this product?

 

I have yet to see any negatives in the coral or fish behavior, but I plan on stopping the moment my sand is completely white again and I don't have those weird gas bubbles all over my rock work anymore (which should be no more than 1 week out).

 

 

[Squishie89]

Haha whomp whomp, that may be me who has been using the stuff for almost 2 or 3 months now. What is weird is the stuff made my bubble algae much worse. Nitrates are down to reasonable levels, but getting phosphates down is beginning to be a chore!

[Djplus1]

It made your bubble algae worse? That sucks. I was thinking of trying it in my third tank (the kids room) which I have literally tried EVERYTHING to get rid of the bubble algae. The list for that process is worse than the stuff I tried to do to get rid of the cyano. But I guess, what's the worst that can happen in the 14g Biocube? If the whole thing just turns into a bubble algae cluster, I'll just have to start over (which I've considered for a while now) though it has shown better signs over the last few months after I introduced a baby fox face (which only stayed for a month till being passed on to Alan) and blue tuxedo urchin to the mix.

[Squishie89]

Yeah, very strange. I really had no algae problems till I started using it. I think I am just THAT lucky! One of the really weird but awesome side affects was the stuff intially had a big impact on my hydroids. I had/have a few different types, including one kind that looks similar to aiptasia. The NOPOX started killing them off! These white almost colonial kind started sloughing off like a dogs undercoat. But after a while they came back =/ I am up to 14ml for a 100g system a day. I may need to a different direction =/

[Djplus1]

Yeah, you have the worst luck ever or I have the best luck ever then. It doesn't seem likely that either of us are having normal repeatable results. I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to chime in.

[Big Country]

I used a bottle of it awhile back and it did nothing.  After I added GFO to my system I decided to give it another try, after a couple of weeks all of the hair algae and bryopsis in my tank turned clear and died off.  I used the remainder of the bottle and all was fine.  Within a month of running out the bryopsis and hair algae was back and out of control again. 

[Djplus1]

I used a bottle of it awhile back and it did nothing.  After I added GFO to my system I decided to give it another try, after a couple of weeks all of the hair algae and bryopsis in my tank turned clear and died off.  I used the remainder of the bottle and all was fine.  Within a month of running out the bryopsis and hair algae was back and out of control again.

 

You're actually not supposed to use gfo or any phosphate reducing media the same time you use this stuff, according to the box.

[AlanM]

Is a fuge growing algae OK with this stuff?

[Big Country]

My fuge never even slowed down growing chaeto using this stuff.

 

You're actually not supposed to use gfo or any phosphate reducing media the same time you use this stuff, according to the box.

I didn't read that

[Kevnjeep]

Just dose vodka. It will get everything in check. Than run a pio pellet reactor to keep them down. IMO

[Fishie]

Just dose vodka. It will get everything in check. Than run a pio pellet reactor to keep them down. IMO

 

vodka and biopellets...i thought they were alternative forms of carbon dosing with only one being needed

[Djplus1]

My fuge never even slowed down growing chaeto using this stuff.

 

I didn't read that

Yeah, that's why I waited for the Rowaphos to run out and decided to try it. I also pulled most of my chaeto out last week cause I think it was blocking my eheim from feeding my skimmer properly, so who knows what that will look like after this week, if it's even still there.

[Kevnjeep]

Fishie

Yes that's why I said dose vodka than after the levels are down use biopellets to maintain the levels. That's the best way that has worked on 2 diff tanks of mine. But that's just my experience