Your experience's with nopox

[pizzaguy]

If you use it or have used it please tell me how you liked it. Do's and dont's. Any advice. 

I need to get my nitrates down.

Yes I change a ton of water, I've used monster sulphur reactors which helped alot but has a serious side effect so I ditched those after using them for years. Yes I have a very heavy bio load.

So I'm thinking to give this a shot

[Lowefx]

I've used it with good success!

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[khalid]

I use it as well with good success. Just watch your levels because it will drop things fast.


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[JJKK]

Hi Eric,

 

In May, I was around .22 PO4 and 25 NO3.  I added a Tunze MAR 3151 algae reactor and got PO4 around .18 and did nothing for Nitrate.

 

Added NoPox in early June, dosing 5/ml day on a set timer and my #s today are .08 PO4 amd between 5-12(NYOS Test Kit) on Nitrate.  So, by the #s, it is working.  My corals do not look so hot right now.  I lost quite a bit of SPS, including the Jolt I got from you.  I am not sure if the #s came down too quickly or not because in Mid-May I decided to deep clean my sand bed for the first time since I started this new tank 16 months ago.  That probably caused alot of my STN issues.

 

So, just like most things here, go slow.  I am dosing 1/2 of what RedSea recommends.  Also, monitor the color/health of your corals while your #s are declining.

[pizzaguy]

7 minutes ago, JJKK said:

Hi Eric,

 

In May, I was around .22 PO4 and 25 NO3.  I added a Tunze MAR 3151 algae reactor and got PO4 around .18 and did nothing for Nitrate.

 

Added NoPox in early June, dosing 5/ml day on a set timer and my #s today are .08 PO4 amd between 5-12(NYOS Test Kit) on Nitrate.  So, by the #s, it is working.  My corals do not look so hot right now.  I lost quite a bit of SPS, including the Jolt I got from you.  I am not sure if the #s came down too quickly or not because in Mid-May I decided to deep clean my sand bed for the first time since I started this new tank 16 months ago.  That probably caused alot of my STN issues.

 

So, just like most things here, go slow.  I am dosing 1/2 of what RedSea recommends.  Also, monitor the color/health of your corals while your #s are declining.

Good information right here

[pizzaguy]

8 minutes ago, JJKK said:

Hi Eric,

 

In May, I was around .22 PO4 and 25 NO3.  I added a Tunze MAR 3151 algae reactor and got PO4 around .18 and did nothing for Nitrate.

 

Added NoPox in early June, dosing 5/ml day on a set timer and my #s today are .08 PO4 amd between 5-12(NYOS Test Kit) on Nitrate.  So, by the #s, it is working.  My corals do not look so hot right now.  I lost quite a bit of SPS, including the Jolt I got from you.  I am not sure if the #s came down too quickly or not because in Mid-May I decided to deep clean my sand bed for the first time since I started this new tank 16 months ago.  That probably caused alot of my STN issues.

 

So, just like most things here, go slow.  I am dosing 1/2 of what RedSea recommends.  Also, monitor the color/health of your corals while your #s are declining.

Good information right here

This is what makes me nervous 

It's like some people have great success with zero issues then others it's a horror story. I just dont know what to do. Far to much money in sps to lose it all

[epleeds]

I know you don’t want to hear this. But maybe remove a fish at a time until you get to that sweet spot in your levels. You have been dealing with this for years, and I know how you like your fish. But if the numbers are out of control, this may be the easiest way. 
 

cause you don’t want to lose any of that SPS. 
 

 

 

[khalid]

29 minutes ago, pizzaguy said:

Good information right here

This is what makes me nervous 

It's like some people have great success with zero issues then others it's a horror story. I just dont know what to do. Far to much money in sps to lose it all

 

I think if you start slow with a low dose (lower than what is directed on the bottle and slowly build up you should be fine. Just keep monitoring levels to see when you need to increase or decrease dosages like it was back in the day with vodka and vinegar dosing. 

[Lowefx]

 
I think if you start slow with a low dose (lower than what is directed on the bottle and slowly build up you should be fine. Just keep monitoring levels to see when you need to increase or decrease dosages like it was back in the day with vodka and vinegar dosing. 

I agree. Start with 25% of recommended dosage for a month, and go from there.....

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[JJKK]

2 hours ago, epleeds said:

I know you don’t want to hear this. But maybe remove a fish at a time until you get to that sweet spot in your levels. You have been dealing with this for years, and I know how you like your fish. But if the numbers are out of control, this may be the easiest way. 
 

cause you don’t want to lose any of that SPS. 
 

 

 

Epleeds is just trying to get your fish.  He already suckered me into trading my Blue Throat Trigger.

 

But seriously figure out why you want to do this.  What are your NO3 and PO4 now and where you want to be?  I traded some text with a guy tonight on R2R that has an amazing reef tank.  Great colors and growth all the time.  He does not know his NO3 and PO4 levels because he never measures them.

 

I went down the path to lower PO4 because I wasn't seeing growth for a long time.  I know higher PO4 can inhibit SPS growth.  If you are happy with the ways your corals are looking and growing, I wouldn't go chasing #s.

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

I have been using vodka and vinegar, which is all nopox is I hear, for over 5 years at least.  I love what it does for my tank. Clears the water, large bacterial population for corals (if you believe the benefit from that), explosive growth in filter feeders like sponges and feather dusters, and all of this helps you to feed a large fish population in a tank with out destroying it with excess nutrients. Sponges in my tank are covering everything under my rocks and even non photosynthetic ones are growing up into the light. I would defiantly try a carbon source if I were you just measure your nutrients. People that had issues with it were people that didn’t have nutrient issues or messed up their dosing from what I researched. Don’t let them scare you from trying it. It’s a great natural way to run a tank. 
The main thing is to start slow if you don’t have time to watch the tanks response and are scared of a bacterial bloom. The only long term thing that you gotta maintain is snotty bacteria that grows in pipes and low flow areas. I used to use a rock tank with low flow I could let the snot mats form in and grow. It’s just excess bacteria but it can cause small pipes to clogg as the tanks getting used to a high dose. The Matt’s don’t form in my tank now and I am still at a high dose so it must have balanced out over time. I would tell you to use vodka and vinegar though because you have more control over your dosing, some tanks respond better to more vodka and some do better with more vinegar. I would start out with a lower vodka dose and bump it up once the tanks nutrients are processed through the bacteria. 
When you start it may take a month to get to a dose that lowers nutrients. You will see skim darken and get very smelly just before your nutrients start dropping. I never even had to cut my dose in half. I lowered it maybe 10 percent when it got near zero and that was my dose. 

[pizzaguy]

I'm definitely considering it. I've never had a low nutrient system and ultimately I just want to try having low nitrates but I've never been able to achieve that. Even with 2 monster sulphur reactors I could never get below 15. 

Also for the record I have auto water change set at 10 gallons a day.

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

My acros have always looked best and grown faster when nutrients were close to nsw.  I have never been able to keep them low without a carbon source. I tried when I switched tanks and things just went sideways. I started using a carbon source again shortly after and things rebounded once nutrients went back to normal. I added even more fish knowing it would mess things up and am finally getting numbers back to normal again. I really like how easy it is to control nutrient levels with a carbon source. If po4 roses i just add some stump remover and bump the carbon dose up if needed and it drops slowly and shaft let back to low numbers. 
Also if your tanks mature then you should be able to go faster than the standard table online shows for a dose, it’s very conservative. 

[Jon Lazar]

6 hours ago, GraffitiSpotCorals said:

If po4 roses i just add some stump remover and bump the carbon dose up if needed and it drops slowly and shaft let back to low numbers. 

 

You can add nitrate to lower your phosphate?  Is that because your nitrates are already at zero and in your case, the natural phosphate reduction is nitrate-limited?

 

My phosphate and nitrate are both already non-zero.  If I added nitrate (stump remover) I would expect nitrates to go up and phosphate to stay the same.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Jon Lazar

[pizzaguy]

8 hours ago, GraffitiSpotCorals said:

My acros have always looked best and grown faster when nutrients were close to nsw.  I have never been able to keep them low without a carbon source. I tried when I switched tanks and things just went sideways. I started using a carbon source again shortly after and things rebounded once nutrients went back to normal. I added even more fish knowing it would mess things up and am finally getting numbers back to normal again. I really like how easy it is to control nutrient levels with a carbon source. If po4 roses i just add some stump remover and bump the carbon dose up if needed and it drops slowly and shaft let back to low numbers. 
Also if your tanks mature then you should be able to go faster than the standard table online shows for a dose, it’s very conservative. 

Do you have a good online link you recommend for dosing instruction using vodka

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

This chart is good to follow for people with newer tanks or lower nutrients or that haven’t carbon dosed before. If you have an older tank and lots of nutrients then you can probably start quicker than the chart says since it takes a long time to get to a dose that works well with lots of fish. As long as your watching your corals and testing going a little faster shouldn’t hurt with the above in mind. I started going faster once the tank adjusted to the carbon. Which you will notice when the skim stinks and becomes foamy. If you have lots of fish I would suggest doing a half vodka half vinegar solution. Vinegar is 8 times weaker than vodka. 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Is anyone else in the area using a carbon source  to keep nutrients in check?  If so I would love to hear what your using. 

[lowsingle]

Yes, I have used lots of different types over the years and I have had the best luck with Zeovit.  I don’t run an ulns, but I use zeovit 4 part system to keep nutrients (both PO4 and NO3) down.  With zeovit I don’t have to worry about using gfo or any other PO4 chemical absorber whereas with NOPOX I had to use GFO.  Also, I have never had a bacteria bloom with zeovit, whereas I had several with NOPOX.Both work, zeovit just seams to be more stable for me.....

 

Darren

 

[Lowefx]

I also use to use zeovit. I used it for about 3 years. The good thing about it was you were in tune with your tank. Bad news is, that "in tune" took a lot of time every day. Then if you needed a special blue bottle, you had to order it and wait. Between testing, dosing and shaking, it wore me out. You do run a fine line on the edge of no nutrients for your tank. And if you go one vacation.....you better have a tank sitter that knows what to do. Personally I will never go back to zeovit just based on my time availability.

Something else to consider is this https://andremueller.e-junkie.com/
Reef Moonshiners, now I dont have personal experience, but everything I read is getting good reviews.

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[lowsingle]

19 hours ago, Lowefx said:

I also use to use zeovit. I used it for about 3 years. The good thing about it was you were in tune with your tank. Bad news is, that "in tune" took a lot of time every day. Then if you needed a special blue bottle, you had to order it and wait. Between testing, dosing and shaking, it wore me out. You do run a fine line on the edge of no nutrients for your tank. And if you go one vacation.....you better have a tank sitter that knows what to do. Personally I will never go back to zeovit just based on my time availability.

Something else to consider is this https://andremueller.e-junkie.com/
Reef Moonshiners, now I dont have personal experience, but everything I read is getting good reviews.

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I must run zeovit very different as all I do is dose zeostart everyday and then add a few drops of zeobac and zeo food every 2-3 days.  It takes less than 5 minutes a day (even when I remember to shake the zeo rocks).  I keep PO4 at ~.03 and nitrates around 10-20ppm.  I test and do water changes as I would using any system, so I am not sure where all of the additional work comes from.  To me zeostart is just a carbon source like NOPOX (though it clearly is in a different form).  Adding bacteria just prevents one strain of bacteria taking over....that said, running a tank near zero is playing with fire as you have such a slim margin of error, maybe that was the source of all the additional work?

 

Cheers,

Darren

 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

I have always wanted to try the zeo method but seems expensive and unnecessary unless you want that pastel look. Which I do love but I can achieve that using vodka and vinegar and some additives. Also I never found a need to add extra bacteria, I don’t really believe there is a need to introduce bacteria besides maybe some new live rock every few years which itself isn’t necessary in itself just something I have found helps. I do like their sponge power and have been waiting to get nutrients low to try to use pohls extra on a daily basis and see how things react.  I have found the best way to get nice colors on acros is to use zinc and manganese, past that I haven’t found anything that really changes corals color much besides copper sulphate which I hear is the only way to get the true pastel look with zeo.