I have a 180g and a 34g. Both tanks I've been battling nitrates and phosphates for quite some time now. I was using phosguard in both but just recently switched to gfo in the 34g and waiting to do the plumbing on the 180 to switch it also to gfo. I've been running biopellets on both for about 5 months but still no signs of nitrates lowering. So was considering one of the vsv type dosing. Was wondering if i could get some feed back from experienced carbon users on if either is better, and your results. Oh and my 180 has been set up for 2 1/2 years and 34g has been set up for 1 1/2 years and in that whole time I've haven't had any type of algae growth in the tank and constantly having corals die. Tia.
Carbon dosing
- Thread starter cracker82
- Start date
I have some questions about your setup, do you use a refugium? Where is your source water coming from, and have you tested it for phosphates? What size skimmer are you running? There could be several reasons to continue to battle gha, something tells me that there is a lot of excess nutrients being added to the tank with out your knowledge. Your skimmer and biopellets should be don’t a lot to help bring the numbers down, unless you are some how dumping the waste back in...I use a 225 rated skimmer on a 140g total system, have a large refugium, and also dose vinegar. I have to ADD nitrate to keep color on my coral, my phosphates are around .10ppm. I had an r/o unit malfunction for a couple months before I figured it out, I was dumping tons of phosphate in my system and gha was everywhere. Also, what test kits are you using?
The water you put in can already have phosphates. GFO reactor, oversized skimmer, proper lighting, and less feeding is known to control phosphates. Do you have a bare bottom or sand? What type of liverock?
I ran into an issue where the live rock was leeching phosphate in the tank.
I ran into an issue where the live rock was leeching phosphate in the tank.
