Several months ago I caught on to fact that I was starving my corals. SPS in particular paled out and some died, but that's not the point of this thread. I've consistently measured 0.0 for both PO4 and NO3, and I've since been feeding more and I'm beginning to see some good recovery for certain coral and overall system health.
I'm convinced that we can starve our corals, especially using media like GFO. I realize there's a plethora of folks who run ULNS with success, but I'd say if you took the median tanks that are growing health coral (especially SPS), I think we'd find many at least have detectable levels of PO4 and NO3. The fix that I've heard and experienced is pretty simple: feed more (within reason)! Some folks even dose PO4 or NO3. Of course, that means keeping algae in check and such.
Here's the kicker though, there's the ocean. I've never tested it but the only thing I hear is the amount of PO4 and NO3 is hardly detectable. If this is true, is it that coral only require a very small amount of these nutrients or is it something else? Amino acids and vitamins? My observation is that bottoming out NO3 or PO4 is more of an indicator to an overall lack of nutrients in the system than actually starving the coral of those specific compounds. What do you think?
I'm convinced that we can starve our corals, especially using media like GFO. I realize there's a plethora of folks who run ULNS with success, but I'd say if you took the median tanks that are growing health coral (especially SPS), I think we'd find many at least have detectable levels of PO4 and NO3. The fix that I've heard and experienced is pretty simple: feed more (within reason)! Some folks even dose PO4 or NO3. Of course, that means keeping algae in check and such.
Here's the kicker though, there's the ocean. I've never tested it but the only thing I hear is the amount of PO4 and NO3 is hardly detectable. If this is true, is it that coral only require a very small amount of these nutrients or is it something else? Amino acids and vitamins? My observation is that bottoming out NO3 or PO4 is more of an indicator to an overall lack of nutrients in the system than actually starving the coral of those specific compounds. What do you think?