30 day experiment tank: Experiment over, moved to Phyto dosing

[Mastiffsrule]

Good to see everyone, hope all is well.

What I am trying to prove or not is that thru feeding coral I can get PE from SPS that has never had PE before, visible signs of growth, and improved color. It is my 180 tank under 6 T5 lamps. I will do 30 days. I will not change anything. Dosers are set, lamp timers are set. water change just done. Only changes will be filter sock and drain skimmer.

I am going to use PolypLab booster and Reef roids daily at 5 Pm. I will take pics just before feeding over the next 30 days and we shall see what happens. I am not a photographer so I am using my iPhone 11 with no setting other than using zoom.

Here is Day 1. After this will just be pics unless anything changes or happens. Tomorrow I will try to get some type of order and reference for each coral.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Day 2. Will try to keep the same order of the same 8 corals (please remember I am far from a photo guy)

 

[kyleinpdx]

Interested to see what you experience!

 

[SDK]

Following this for sure....

 

[SMSREEF]

Fantastic thread. I am looking forward to watching how things progress.

 

[Nepenthes88]

This is a great idea! Following for sure.

It would also be great if you tested nitrate and phosphate now towards the beginning and then see what effect the food additives had on those levels after the 30 days.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Day 3. I was 30 min late on pics tonight and my feeding. I could almost think some of them had their mouths already open. (Or it could be me, most likely me ;Woot )

Anyway——-I ADDED 1 more coral into the mix toward the end of the group

 

[Redfoxtang]

Gonna tang along as I do use the same stuff but just mix it in with my frozen foods along with reef roids. Where is it being dosed in the sump? Also how are you using the reef roids broadcasting or spot feeding?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Gonna tang along as I do use the same stuff but just mix it in with my frozen foods along with reef roids. Where is it being dosed in the sump? Also how are you using the reef roids broadcasting or spot feeding?

Good question. I am bad a details. I tend to go on and on and bore folks. I should have given my baseline so everyone know what I was doing before. Everything I have done before has been done for years and has not been changes since starting this thread..

Tank 180.
Salt TM pro, mixed 1.023
PH 8.15
All 3 dosing products Esv thru independent x1 pumps
I try to balance Alk at 8.2 to 8.4 with Calc 420-460 range. I give ranges since I don’t test a lot .
Mag in the mid 1300’s
6 T5 80 watt bulbs
Feeding currently mostly frozen due to recent events. (Used to do freshly frozen clams and black worms) The only real coral food I have been feeding in past is Cyclops and coral gumbo off and on. I still use it occasionally mixed in for my inverts and othe coral not in the 30 day trial.

That should be it.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Day 4.

Feel free to make notes if you see anything. I just realized I was ignoring all that algae on the first few frags. Just now noticing it.

Other than that nothing stands out so far.

 

[Redfoxtang]

I have noticed if you dose the Booster first you get quite the feeding response from soft corals. The hit them with the roids and it’s all down hill from there!!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I have noticed if you dose the Booster first you get quite the feeding response from soft corals. The hit them with the roids and it’s all down hill from there!!

The bottle of booster says feed 15-30 min b4 if I remember right (too lazy to get up) The web site say just a few minutes. I split the difference, about 10-15 minutes after I broadcast boosters I spot the roid.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Day 5

Gonna have to get after that algae before that 1st one disappears

 

[JeepinReefer]

Following along. Thank for documenting!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Day 6

 

[SDK]

Possibly starting to see a bit of color difference....

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Late update, did testing today.

Po4 ALERT.. at 1. I am usually at No3 5-10 ppm and Po4 less than .03.

Not sure if it is the booster, roids or both. Added GFO. Wondering if I am over feeding them. Need to double check recommendations.

For now I did added 1.5 c High capacity GFO to help counter this huge spike I have encountered this week.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Day 7

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Week 1 side by sides. Some little growth. Not really much PE or color to write home about so far.

 

[Cwentz758]

With feeding daily you’re adding a lot of nutrients to the tank I’m not surprised your stuff went up. I’m sure more knowledgeable people will be able to chime in with better thoughts, but I’d say more nutrients in the water more chance for better growth, you just also have more chance of algae eating those nutrients as well.
You may also want to think of doing small water changes after every feeding to help curb it? I know that’s a pain and pricy with salt.