Best amino to color coral back up?

[I’ma tempermental coral]

So a little question here. I have a perpetually low nutrient load in my mixed reef and our efflo although growing well with good daytime and nighttime pe(the giant clear ones it throws at night to feed are amazing!) it seems to have lost some of its deep green in its core. Nitrates top out at about .2 on salifert and 0 phosphate on the Hanna with no variance while running myself out of reagent hahaha. I feed reefroids half dose every other night. So my question is I guess should I up my feeding level or invest in a quality amino supplement? Maybe both?

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

I use Quantum Bio-Enhance

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Try raising phosphates a little. To much is bad, but corals can’t survive on 0 phosphate.

 

[Auquanut]

Not sure amino's will significantly affect your NO3 and PO4. I dose Aquavitro Fuel a couple of times a week for aminos. Couldn't really tell you if it helps or not, but my corals seem to grow well with good color. To increase your NO3 an PO4, you could increase feeding slightly or reduce the amount of water you change out slightly. I wouldn't make any big changes right away. Do you use GFO or run a fuge?

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

There has to be some in there. My macro seems to be healthy. But it does go without saying this is a Hanna phosphate. Not a ulr phosphorus checker. So variance with a 0.00 reading could be as high as 0.04. Admittedly 4 tests in a row all show 0s prompted me to call Hanna and double check it wasn’t user error or potentially a checker error. I do have 50 reagents that arrived today so I will be trying again later today.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

No gfo and yes a giant fuge against a VERY low bio load. At one point I did turn the fuge light time down too far and saw a little bit of die off in my cheato bumped it up half an hour from there and health returned. That said the purpose of turning the light down was absolute zero nutrients both N03 and P04 were completely zeroed out before.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

So, so far general consensus is aminos may not really help. And a bump in feeding amount to balance out the nutrient depletion from the large refugium? Should I stay on the every other night schedule and feed more or start feeding every day for a few days to bolster?

 

[KrisReef]

Get the ULR phosphorus for peace of mind

 

[Auquanut]

How about pulling out some of your macro algae? Just throwing out ideas.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

What do you have livestock wise that only needs to be fed every other day? I would start feeding every day to bring it up.

 

[Silver14SS]

I tried aminos a couple years ago, got a ton of cyano and no positive results. I'd try other methods of getting phosphate up first. Lots of posts about phosphate dosing if you want to try that.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Fish are all in qt. Medium size cleaner shrimp, one large white and one large black (among babies) I believe they are called elephant snails. So like I said next to no bio load. As far as standard feeding. I don’t. The cleaner chases copapods and amphipods all day(rather entertaining to watch!) he does steal brine from the lps when I spot feed them before I reef roid the tank.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

As far as pulling out cheato wouldn’t that just promote even faster growth? Forgive my ignorance, but it would seem that would be the same as pruning say a fruit tree?

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Start feeding the shrimp daily. Then you will have a larger copepod population and increased nutrients.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

I have thought about phosphate dosing. Maybe it’s time to start doing my due diligence and reading up on how.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

As far as pulling out cheato wouldn’t that just promote even faster growth? Forgive my ignorance, but it would seem that would be the same as pruning say a fruit tree?

No, it would not. You can think of it more as a nutrient sponge. The bigger the algae, the more nutrients it can absorb. So, with a smaller algae, it uses less nutrients.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

I can start feeding him daily. But believe me when I say the pod population is absolutely INSANE in this tank lol

 

[Silver14SS]

I have thought about phosphate dosing. Maybe it’s time to start doing my due diligence and reading up on how.

Here's plenty of reading material to see if it's for you:

phosphate dosing site:reef2reef.com - Google Search

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I can start feeding him daily. But believe me when I say the pod population is absolutely INSANE in this tank lol

There is often a pod bloom at the beginning. It will usually decrease in time. With the introduction of fish, it will surely decrease.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

But we are still getting somewhere! Here’s what I’ve got so far! Daily feed the little guy, but maintain my reef roid schedule, get a phosphorus tester, read about and learn phosphate dosing, and try and stay away from aminos for this type of problem. Have I got that right so far?