Baby steppes dosing AB+...

[MrFus]

I have a new tank (Waterbox20) with a few zoanthid frags and a couple of snails, I make a rookie mistake and instead of dosing just a little of AB+ and increase the amount slowly while monitoring NO3 and PO4 to find the sweet spot for the bio load on the tank I ended overdosing the tank (brown film crap and green algae everywhere!)

I finally lower my nitrates and phosphates to a low nutrient levels (NO3 +-1 PO4 0.04), I'm about to try again AB+ with the intention to provide some nutrients to the zoas and avoid bottoming nitrates and phosphates.

I'm going to start with just 0.5 ml every 3rd day, but I have a couple of questions that some of you with more experience probably can help me to clear out:

I'm currently testing every Wednesday and doing water change on Thursday, how often should I test for NO3 and PO4 after starting the dosing schedule in order to chart the dosing quantity vs NO3 & PO4 levels vs zoanthid happiness and find my golden number?

How fast will I start seen numbers going up on the testing? and how fast is too fast? (not more brown crap on the rocks pleaaasssseeeee!!)

Thank you for any advice on this!!

 

[Spare time]

It doesn't really dirty up the water that much. I have dramatically overdosed it with no issue. Then again it is probably heavily used in my tank.

Testing once a week is fine.

 

[SillyReef]

I dose 3/4 ml for my 20. The color is very cool.

 

[Operator Wrasse]

Are you going to have any bioload in the way of fish or just a coral only tank? For a new tank, I wouldn't recommend fishing AB+, especially for just zoanthids. I did the same thing and basically crashed my 20G tank from algae blooms because I couldn't keep up with the maintenance.

 

[MrFus]

Are you going to have any bioload in the way of fish or just a coral only tank? For a new tank, I wouldn't recommend fishing AB+, especially for just zoanthids. I did the same thing and basically crashed my 20G tank from algae blooms because I couldn't keep up with the maintenance.

Just zoas... The algae blooms are why I'm going super small on dosing, I tried a little of reef roids and BOOM! green algae bloom, I tried AB+ and ended with brown biofilm as RedSea call it (brown crap on my dictionary) all over the rocks...

 

[MrFus]

It doesn't really dirty up the water that much. I have dramatically overdosed it with no issue. Then again it is probably heavily used in my tank.

Testing once a week is fine.

I think that the fact that I only have a few small zoa frags to consume the supplement on my tank was the reason for my original failure...

 

[Spare time]

I think that the fact that I only have a few small zoa frags to consume the supplement on my tank was the reason for my original failure...

Yeah thats sorta what I was thinking. Maybe 1/4 of their daily recommended amount would work. You could also target feed with it.

 

[Drummerguydw]

Interesting, I dose 10 ml a day in my 15 gallon aio quarantine tank, and I have almost undetectable no3 and po4, granted there’s only corals and no fish or inverts

 

[MrFus]

Interesting, I dose 10 ml a day in my 15 gallon aio quarantine tank, and I have almost undetectable no3 and po4, granted there’s only corals and no fish or inverts

My tank only have 5 small frags and 3 snails on it, so probably they are more than happy with just a little spike of nutrients and good PAR (126 to 80 depending of depth on my tank).

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

By these numbers you guys are throwing around, I must have read something wrong. How do you even dose 3/4 of a ml?
In my 40 gallon (probably 35 display) I dose 10ml every other day to daily. However, I have a skimmer running 24/7 as well. I turn that off for about 30 minutes and spot feed with the 10ml AB+ mixed with about a cup or two of tank water using a coral feeder (pipette).

Broadcast feeding the corals the AB+, they don't react much. Do my method above and they will go crazy. After you slowing Squirter it over them, go around the tank to every coral doing that and then do it again. By that time, they know it's coming and will be open and waiting.

Then give them 30 minutes with all pumps off to feed. Of course turn all pumps and any returns off before spot feeding or it's useless.

 

[MrFus]

By these numbers you guys are throwing around, I must have read something wrong. How do you even dose 3/4 of a ml?
In my 40 gallon (probably 35 display) I dose 10ml every other day to daily. However, I have a skimmer running 24/7 as well. I turn that off for about 30 minutes and spot feed with the 10ml AB+ mixed with about a cup or two of tank water using a coral feeder (pipette).

Broadcast feeding the corals the AB+, they don't react much. Do my method above and they will go crazy. After you slowing Squirter it over them, go around the tank to every coral doing that and then do it again. By that time, they know it's coming and will be open and waiting.

Then give them 30 minutes with all pumps off to feed. Of course turn all pumps and any returns off before spot feeding or it's useless.

I'm just starting dosing (1st week) on a really new system (+-6 months) with minimal bioload (5 small zoa frags, no fishes)... I tried Reef Roids and my NO3-PO4 levels got too high too fast and suffered algae bloom, now I'm back to low levels (algae is mostly under control!) So I'm slowly building my balanced recipe (frequency and quantity of water change, salinity, temperature, NO3-PO4 proportion, PAR readings and schedule) to learn how to keep the tank on track and been able to reproduce the same at some point when I move to bigger tank.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

randy holmes farley road salt, epsom salt, and baking soda 10$ a year dosing FTW!

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I'm just starting dosing (1st week) on a really new system (+-6 months) with minimal bioload (5 small zoa frags, no fishes)... I tried Reef Roids and my NO3-PO4 levels got too high too fast and suffered algae bloom, now I'm back to low levels (algae is mostly under control!) So I'm slowly building my balanced recipe (frequency and quantity of water change, salinity, temperature, NO3-PO4 proportion, PAR readings and schedule) to learn how to keep the tank on track and been able to reproduce the same at some point when I move to bigger tank.

Congrats on the new tank. With 5 zoa frags, I wouldn't dose much, if anything. They would pull enough out of the water column if you dosed 2ml once a week or once every 2 weeks.

Not sure the size if your tank, but you probably know the smaller it is, the harder to keep it exact. Inusually work about 8 hours a day on my 40 cube lol. Feels like a full time job. I don't have to, I just like tinkering with it and my water sure is clean lol.

 

[Nick Steele]

Honestly you can probably not does anything and be perfectly fine. I have a decent amount of corals sps, lps and a few softies I dosed 5ml a day in my 20g Nuvo didn’t notice any real difference in anything either tbh.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

I wouldn't dose anything. I stopped doing water changes on my Evo and do a water change when NO3 levels start going above 20-25ppm I'm not one to complicate things and doing fewer water changes suits me fine. I do run some Chemipure Blue now and again if my PO4 creeps up, I hover about .07 and .13. I find this works great for my tank and my LPS and softies look much better than when I was trying to hit .05ppm PO4 and 5-10ppm NO3.

 

[Mjenks100]

I have a new tank (Waterbox20) with a few zoanthid frags and a couple of snails, I make a rookie mistake and instead of dosing just a little of AB+ and increase the amount slowly while monitoring NO3 and PO4 to find the sweet spot for the bio load on the tank I ended overdosing the tank (brown film crap and green algae everywhere!)

I finally lower my nitrates and phosphates to a low nutrient levels (NO3 +-1 PO4 0.04), I'm about to try again AB+ with the intention to provide some nutrients to the zoas and avoid bottoming nitrates and phosphates.

I'm going to start with just 0.5 ml every 3rd day, but I have a couple of questions that some of you with more experience probably can help me to clear out:

I'm currently testing every Wednesday and doing water change on Thursday, how often should I test for NO3 and PO4 after starting the dosing schedule in order to chart the dosing quantity vs NO3 & PO4 levels vs zoanthid happiness and find my golden number?

How fast will I start seen numbers going up on the testing? and how fast is too fast? (not more brown crap on the rocks pleaaasssseeeee!!)

Thank you for any advice on this!!

I have a new tank (Waterbox20) with a few zoanthid frags and a couple of snails, I make a rookie mistake and instead of dosing just a little of AB+ and increase the amount slowly while monitoring NO3 and PO4 to find the sweet spot for the bio load on the tank I ended overdosing the tank (brown film crap and green algae everywhere!)

I finally lower my nitrates and phosphates to a low nutrient levels (NO3 +-1 PO4 0.04), I'm about to try again AB+ with the intention to provide some nutrients to the zoas and avoid bottoming nitrates and phosphates.

I'm going to start with just 0.5 ml every 3rd day, but I have a couple of questions that some of you with more experience probably can help me to clear out:

I'm currently testing every Wednesday and doing water change on Thursday, how often should I test for NO3 and PO4 after starting the dosing schedule in order to chart the dosing quantity vs NO3 & PO4 levels vs zoanthid happiness and find my golden number?

How fast will I start seen numbers going up on the testing? and how fast is too fast? (not more brown crap on the rocks pleaaasssseeeee!!)

Thank you for any advice on this!!

I have a new tank (Waterbox20) with a few zoanthid frags and a couple of snails, I make a rookie mistake and instead of dosing just a little of AB+ and increase the amount slowly while monitoring NO3 and PO4 to find the sweet spot for the bio load on the tank I ended overdosing the tank (brown film crap and green algae everywhere!)

I finally lower my nitrates and phosphates to a low nutrient levels (NO3 +-1 PO4 0.04), I'm about to try again AB+ with the intention to provide some nutrients to the zoas and avoid bottoming nitrates and phosphates.

I'm going to start with just 0.5 ml every 3rd day, but I have a couple of questions that some of you with more experience probably can help me to clear out:

I'm currently testing every Wednesday and doing water change on Thursday, how often should I test for NO3 and PO4 after starting the dosing schedule in order to chart the dosing quantity vs NO3 & PO4 levels vs zoanthid happiness and find my golden number?

How fast will I start seen numbers going up on the testing? and how fast is too fast? (not more brown crap on the rocks pleaaasssseeeee!!)

Thank you for any advice on this!!

I would watch the red sea youtube video. Shows you the ratio to target feed with it. I would target feed just the zoas for now. I think its 2 to 1. Sw to ab+.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Hello! Please take my information with a grain of salt. This is my personal experience with it please remember that. I have an ULNS, my tank is 180g, I have an asm g-4 skimmer, I run a filter sock, and I grow chaeto in my sump. I have a bunch of frags/mini colonies in my tank of all sorts of corals. I was using AB+ every day for one month, I would feed my fish and add 30ML of it daily during feeding time, turn my returns on after a bit and my skimmer would turn on again maybe 30 minutes after feeding the aminos. It didn't raise my nutrients at all, phosphate was at 0.01 and nitrate was 0.