Coral foods and red-sea ratio

[rueric]

Hi everyone,

I have been struggling to keep nutrients up in my "coral QT" nano tank.
It is a fishless system with the intent of housing inverts and corals only (For ich and other coral pests).

I'm currently feeding benepets benereef 3x a week, with daily dosing of brightwells coralamino (5 drops)
I would occasionally mix in reefroids with the benereef and sometimes switch it up with AB+

I'd like to ask the folks on r2r if there are other foods I should look into that when broadcast or target fed in the system, would raise the nitrates and phosphates similar to the redfield ratio.

Thank you!

 

[blaxsun]

I add ReefEnergy AB+ daily, Reef Roids 2x/week, Nyos Coral Nectar and Instant Plankton 2x/week, Nyos Goldpods daily, Aquaforest Vitality and Energy every 2 days and target feed Nyos LPS Power 2x/week. I'm not sure if all of those would be enough to boost your nutrients, but these are the supplements I use.

I don't know what you run for filtration or how often you change it, but you could look at changing less frequently to see if that will boost your nutrients.

 

[homer1475]

I'm not sure why you wouldn't just dose what is needed? I hate the idea of feeding more(if your feeding enough to begin with), as the breakdown of foods adds more to your water then just nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There's no particular reason to use foods with a redfield ratio of N to P, there's not much data on the N to P ratio in most foods, and and there's no reason to think consumption matches the redfield ratio. There are many reef processes that do not follow that ratio. Some only consume N or only consume P.

In short, ignore the whole misleading discussion of redfield ratios (IMO). It's just not useful, IMO.

 

[rueric]

What is the recommended Nitrate dosing supplement?
My recent epiphany in this hobby, stabilize parameters by regular water changes (weekly, 20-30%).
I've seen both my tanks have rising alk despite no dosing, so in order to just let things stabilize, I want to try being consistent with water changes (In the past, it was once a month).

Since my nano tank is a fishless coral qt 10g system, I'm pretty sure this frequency of water changes will be good for any trace element replenishment, but will make the system too clean (No/low nitrate/phosphate).

I think as a rule of thumb, I want to dose nitrate into bucket just before the water change.
I'll of course need to test first to see consumption rate, but hopefully this logic makes sense?

 

[KStatefan]

DIY is sodium nitrate or calcium nitrate there might be others.

ESV has one that is calcium nitrate. Tropic Marin and Brightwell have one but I do not know anything about them.

I am also struggling with keeping levels up in a coral QT tank