Well, I'd done this before, only the stupid way. Add a teaspoon or two of vodka, and then decided throwing in a teaspoon of old Biozyme I had lying around would turbo-charge things.
It did.
Watched it all day, and late in the evening for signs of bloom. Nothing.
Got up in the morning to find my tank full of milk, and a couple of dead fish.
Second time I tried it, I started at 2mls because I'd read some people had started at 5-10mls with a similar size tank.
Knew it would take a while, so didn't bother testing except once after a week with no change. Just added before work and forgot about it every day. Ever 2-3 days I would go up .25 mls.
I finally decided to check after about 3-4 weeks, almost forgot why I was doing it, just did it.
I was up around 5-5.5mls, and had 0 nitrates.
Took a closer look at the tank and really noticed a lot more pods, and all sorts of other fauna in the tank.
Only had softies, and they were all looking pretty great for being under PC's.
For a while I kept it at that dose, and then decided to go for broke.
Not sure how high I actually went, would have to check my posts from a couple of years ago. I think I might have gone to 11-12, not sure.
Never had a bloom, and finally decided to do the reverse and see how low I had to go to still maintain 0 nitrates.
Eventually got down to 1.75 or 2.5 as the maintanence dose.
In all, did that for about 6 months before I got the 72g.
Getting my LR, corals and fish from a buddy who's been holding them for me the past 4-5 months while some renovations have been done. Going BB, and he has been using tap water successfully for years. He;s got 2 x 250w MH, and everything is alive, but no coraline algae or real growth. But then he doesn't add anything, and I don't think he does water changes, just adds topoff.
He's also got a 72g,and is giving me his canopy and lights. Gonna take a before and after pic, as my new RO membrane and filters are coming in. He's got some funky black sponges that I'm wondering if will survive.
If nitrates become an issue again, I'm making a coil denitrator to test, and will fall back to vodka or maybe sugar if need be. Have a smaller 30g sump that needs to hold Octopus skimmer and pump, and don't want a tank full of live rock, skimmer won't hold much either to be effective sump. I am not going to starve my tank.
Quote:
Originally posted by miatawnt2b
Wow... so you were at 5ml per day in 29 gal? How long did you maintain this dose?
THanks,
-J
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