How did my thread fall to page two?? Sheesh, gotta keep up on this. All going well (lies) and getting bored (riiight).

So, day off, wife is doing 16hr shift, got a 5yo helper, figure I'll play with the tank.
List for the day

Change out bulbs to brand new brighter bulbs.
50% water change
Clean skimmer
Add 15# of new sand
Attempt #7 of removing dead fish
Add new carbon
Add some fozdown
Add some expired zeo potions

What could possibly go wrong here?? lol

ETA: Gotta get a refill on CO2.

New week, will post a pic today when lights come on. Tested water today, all good.

Alk - 10.5 dKh
Ca - 410ppm
NO3 - < 1.0ppm
PO4 - 0.43ppm

Alright, PO4 maybe not so good, but the result of 3 dead anthias that couldn't get removed. 50% water change today should help that.

Glad things are on the mend buddy , now how about those pics :)

In an hour, time change and all that :)

Yeah I just got out of bed so I'm hoping to use this as an excuse but I haven't done the math yet lol still per coffee

You running any po4 remover now? Or still carbon dosing?

I've got fozdown, which I hadn't needed pre-anthias, but I'll start it up again to get the numbers down.

Oh, while you're here, what's your thoughts on the required ratio of N:P for carbon dosing? I think that with my limited NO3, it's not going to do what it's meant to all that well

If you Push the carbon dosing there may come a time where it will be a limiting factor , this usually only plays a role for peoplle trying to get to zeros for both nitorgen and phosphourous and started quite high , the numbers dont ratio well for a person who has high numbers of each , often no3 is zero befor po4. there doesn't need to be a constant supply of nitrogen and bacteria will use nitrogen when it's available be it always available or as it becomes available and they will even store it for later use , hence the reason we carbon dose even after getting zeros so bacteria never stop doing their jobs they just may stop doing it as fast on paper as we would like.

If you feel though like your at a stall then adding a bigger nitrogen source will get you over that hurdle , so be it adding fish , over feeding or adding nitrates directly (potassium nitrate) to name a few . the same can be said for phosphates both of these can be manipulated by you to act in your favor.

So if no3 is nil , then you have to ask your self do you want to go the slow route for bacteria to consume in ratio c : n : p or if you want to step in and do two things one is add a larger nitrogen source and the other is to lower the po4 for quicker end result (zeros)

Fwiw you may always have to run po4 removers from time to time , most do as we all overstock , change our imports and exports , get lazy etc. and po4 is in everything organic we add :)

So yes once you hit zero you should continue on dosing as the bacteria use the nitrogen when and as it's available , if your still trying to lower numbers than you may have to change the ratio of what's available to suit your needs or give it some help chemically :)