Copperband no feed experiment advice

[boogiesnap]

Hey y’all, I’m sailing a mixed reef. At 8 months up everything looking pretty darn good.
However…my nutrients are kinda high, which is fine. I’d like to experiment though to see why.
I have a copperband that is a voracious eater and super healthy from day one.
I feed the tank pretty heavy a variety of foods.
I run a skimmer, an algae reactor, a bit of rowa, and carbon dose, plus 10-20 percent water change weekly, home made RODI zero TDS, from the tap I get like 48…

I would like to track down where the nutrients are coming from, I’m guessing it’s the food. I’m concerned about scaling back and starving the cooperband; so rare to get one as vigorous, I really lucked out.

How long do you guys think would be pushing it to scale back feeding the tank to like a small bit once a day to test the nutrient change?

 

[Miami Reef]

Don’t risk it. It’s not worth it. Having a happy Copperband is a luxury.

Increase the tank’s export. If you are overfeeding, you can feed properly, but try not to restrict feedings.

What are your numbers?

 

[Tired]

Definitely don't do that. For one thing, yes, your fish eating less will produce lower nutrients, in the same way that feeding your dog less will result in less dog poo in your yard. You don't need to test whether your pets should go hungry.

What are your nutrients, and is anything showing any signs of distress at them?

 

[jda]

You almost never want to cut import. You never want to cut import to lower waste products, you want to increase export of those waste products.

Yes, all of the waste products like nitrate and phosphate are coming from the food, but so are the good things that the corals need like nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous, etc.

If you want help with more export, need more info like how high the no3 and po4 are, what you currently do, tank setup, etc.

 

[boogiesnap]

Definitely don't do that. For one thing, yes, your fish eating less will produce lower nutrients, in the same way that feeding your dog less will result in less dog poo in your yard. You don't need to test whether your pets should go hungry.

What are your nutrients, and is anything showing any signs of distress at them?

I agree 100. Not trying to jar them go hungry and understand in and out. What I’d like to know is like how much is it effecting nutrients levels and if maybe they are coming from somewhere else.
Phos is 0.27 trate is 25. Everything looks pretty good and healthy but I think I’ve got stunted Acro growth.

 

[boogiesnap]

You almost never want to cut import. You never want to cut import to lower waste products, you want to increase export of those waste products.

Yes, all of the waste products like nitrate and phosphate are coming from the food, but so are the good things that the corals need like nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous, etc.

If you want help with more export, need more info like how high the no3 and po4 are, what you currently do, tank setup, etc.

03 is 25, 04 is .27 today. Just did a 25 percent water change last night.
I run a skimmer, rowaphos, carbon does with reef actif every few days manually and bacto balance on a doser small amount daily, and have a pax bellum cheato reactor, run by Sicce whale canister(just did a full breakdown and deep clean last week)that has a little more rowaphos in it, filter sponges, and some simple media/rock for bacteria population.

I feed nyos algae and goji pellets with hikari nori pellets from an eheim, small amount twice a day, big meal is frozen mysis, sometimes frozen calanus, and San Francisco Bay butterfly and angel frozen cubes.
Every now and then a nori sheet, and mastik, and a meal of pellets soaked in selcon.

 

[boogiesnap]

Don’t risk it. It’s not worth it. Having a happy Copperband is a luxury.

Increase the tank’s export. If you are overfeeding, you can feed properly, but try not to restrict feedings.

What are your numbers?

Thank you. I think I agree 100

 

[Tired]

Those nutrients are well within high-but-workable. Unless you have corals showing significant distress, I'd just let it alone. Lean into it and pick corals that like the higher nutrients.

What fish do you have, what size is the tank, and how much live rock?