Just Curious

Of course those who know me I have a 225 gallon mixed reef tank that maybe slightly over stocked give or take a couple fish. I have a 75 gallon combo sump with internal 35 gallon refugium with cheato. I am running NP/Brightwell aquatics Biopellets in a Next Reef SMR1 XL Media Reactor. My nitrates are usually around 0-5 depending on the week and I do a 10% water change every Sunday morning. I am also running BRS High Grade GFO and Carbon in two other media reactors. How many people who run bio-pellets still vodka dose? I also want to note my phosphates have been between .11-.29 consistently since early February. I am curious because my goal is to have zero Nitrates and I had achieved that goal when I was vodka dosing and my phosphates were .01 using hanna. The LFS says my nitrates are good and I wanna work on getting my phosphates lower. Should I add more pellets? It reads that the pellets are suppose to assist in lowering phosphates also. Or am I over reacting?

 

Bumpity Bump Bump Bumpity Bump Bump

 

I am by no means an expert on this, but I do remember reading through all of Steve Wright's posts on the topic. Specifically, he mentioned that the nitrate to phosphate usage by the bacteria colonies was not an even 1:1 ratio, something more like 1.4:1, meaning the nitrates will zero out, but the phosphates will linger slightly. This is why many carbon dosers still run GFO (as do I). Not sure if increasing the bacteria colony by means of pellets or vodka will zero out your phosphates. IF you decide to try it, please let us know the findings!

 

Well, not over-reacting, but perhaps being a bit supercilious. I am not one who believes an aquarium can ever have zero nitrate or phosphate. The tests may read zero but the tests are rather general and should be used as an indicator, not an exact. A healthy aquarium will, in one way or another, produce both nitrate and phosphate.

 

Thanks Sacul. I will do a test and see where it goes from there.

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You do make a valid point.

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How long have you been running the pellets?