Semi solid carbon dosing.

With semi sold carbon dosing, I was sceptical when yaking to one of the guys in south Africa way back that worked on it, nitra guard that is, then he started promoting and stupid me would ague with him, sort of, we had discussions on the product that the company he worked for, being orca was putting out there.
Personally I didn’t like the idea, I was stuck in the past,I had herd too many bad instances and tried liquid carbon dosing and it was quite unstable and not for the fiant hearted, that one was more so only based on high GI spuds.
But as usually it was a lack of common sense with many reefers that was the issue, not the idea!
Anyway doing it in the water column is to hard, it can be far to oxygen reducing, PH destabilising and more.
After looking at these bio degradable polymers that some call bio plastics, I chased up a better type with far less toxins built in and combined it with other substances of both HIGH and low GI carbs, and on my tubs, this way works surprisingly well!
On my display, not as good!
What a simple thing to DIY!

I like Nitra guard and its make up is one hundred percent biopolymers, they just use several varieties!!
When I speak of these, its semi solid carbon dosing that are polymers or bio plastics and liquid being grog, lol, or the old one being vodka.
I used Nitra guard for a while till making something up, it’s a cool product for the boutique tanks in particular that are abundant these days and this one and the rest are based on bio degradable polymers/plastics based around starch, some add in GFO, some do not, I don’t!
It sounds good, that as with some biodegradable they break down with the GFO and as it becomes exposed it takes out phos, but as it is possible, GFO if left in to long can possible drop its pay load..
Anyway for DIY, well for me anyway, I feel the more gentle varieties based on organic products are best, I don’t like the idea of using petrochemical based types and possibly worse.
Mulm/detritus is no real issue, if you have all bases covered.
Plus if you use algae in abundance anyway and even fish waste will help, you are sort of carrying out some of what is called carbon dosing with out dosing with carbon products.
To make your own, there are a few common bio polymers/plastics to choose from, one is broken down by bacteria to smaller particles there were held together via variations in size, not good, they are still there just as pulp non bio sludge, the next is a bit nasty in that it is synthetic, it is made via chemical methods called polymerisation , this one is also quite common and very bad, the next is more so a nitrocellulose, but is quite often labelled a polymer, don’t us that one, eerrrrr, it will provide a nice semi slow death for reef life  that are contained.
Onto my fav, the true natural bio polymers that are bound with natural molecules only, that’s the ducks guts for me!