Dosing Advice

[ArowanaLover1902]

I'm really more of a hands off, no testing, few water change type of aquarist, this approach certainly works for me, I have great results in my aquarium and grow SPS, LPS, zoas, and other softies in a 35 gallon aquarium. My only additives at the time are fuel (I just started this week) and I had been dosing prime (I moved my tank and didn't want any surprises) but stopped two weeks ago. I almost never feed my fish, they eat a diet comprising of 95% pods and are all happy and well fed. I feed my coral about 2x a week, once as a broadcast feed, the other as a target feed (usually) (the wrasse loves to eat the coral food). My coral food is a mix of bottled phyto, zoo plankton, reef roids polyp booster, and reef roids. I'm thinking of starting to really dose my aquarium for the following reasons:
- better colors in my acropora (he seems to wax and wane on this, I see some purple and green, but never a ton of color)
- faster growth in my corals
- better nutrients in my system (I've been having almost zero nutrients but i think I've been overdoing it in my correction method [overfeeding the tank] and am seeing a bit of bubble algae and diatoms)
- healthier corals

I am thinking of dosing:
- Reef energy a and b (saw @PDR 's tanks and was really impressed with his corals)
- Fuel (as stated above, I am already using this, I'll likely continue)
- Vitamin C (I've heard this can have great results for zoanthid health)

What are the cons of these? Is there an alternative that makes more sense that I'm overlooking? Etc. Thanks for the advice.

 

[mcarroll]

Feed your fish not your corals and forget the bottled stuff. Easy!

You sound like you're starving the tank and about to go even further down that road.

Keep phosphates >0.03 ppm (or greater) at least until the tank is mature.

Don't overfeed...that just pollutes the tank and grows algae. Feed your fish the right amount.

 

[mcarroll]

How old is the tank?

Get a set of water tests done ASAP since you never test. Post when you can.

You tweak way too much to not test. ;) You need to switch – never tweak or use strange bottles but test a lot!

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

The tank is about a year old but came from another tank so about 3. I test occasionally and I’ve only tested high in nitrates/phosphates a few times and that was all before chaeto/new filter setup (lots of biomedia). I don’t use a skimmer either. I don’t think I’m starving the tank, if anything the tank is starving itself, I don’t often feed the fish because there’s no point, not out of laziness, they eat the pods (which are abundant enough to feed a mandarin for 6 months). The chaeto grows like crazy (so my nutrient import must be good, it’s just soaking up a bit too much).

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I am thinking of dosing:
- Reef energy a and b (saw @PDR 's tanks and was really impressed with his corals)
- Fuel (as stated above, I am already using this, I'll likely continue)
- Vitamin C (I've heard this can have great results for zoanthid health)

What are the cons of these? Is there an alternative that makes more sense that I'm overlooking? Etc. Thanks for the advice.

There are two major cons to dosing supplements like these. First, you can't really measure to see how much you dosed or if you need to dose more. Second, there is no consensus on whether these supplements are effective in a significant way. @PDR might use these and his/her tanks might look great, but for every example like that, there are examples of people who dose nothing and have spectacular corals. Adam @Battlecorals doses nothing except nitrate and iodine when necessary (aside from supplementing calcium and alkalinity). So while it might appear that these supplements cause good coloration or growth, there are lots of people that have equally great results without using these supplements.

 

[PDR]

@ArowanaLover1902 I don't know if I mentioned this when you were here but I don't dose anything in my DT. I feed Reef Frenzy soaked in selcon daily and that's it. I am going to start dosing phyto and I have started feeding my coral weekly, but I just started that last week.

I don't plan to dose Reef Energy in my DT. I dose and feed the frag tank pretty heavily, but that's due to having no detectable nutrients. I can't say that the Reef Energy actually does anything (or the reef roids/reef chili for that matter). I will probably stop dosing if my nutrients increase or once I run out and see if I observe any difference. I also wouldn't dose any of this if I didn't know what my nutrients are.

Also, I think fuel is very similar to reef energy, so I wouldn't dose both personally.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it. I’ll skip the addition of reef energy a and b. I do plan on at least testing vitamin C as I have had two frags of zoas melt for seemingly no reason and was told that vitamin C addition can prevent this. I’ll try to find a good fish food for them soon, likely reef frenzy (I’ve heard this from multiple sources). hopefully feeding them will put a bit more nutrients into the tank.