Raising Nutrients.. More Fish, or Feed More?

DracoKat · Apr 24, 2017

I need to raise my nutrients.. they're nearly at 0 and my corals need more. (I have no carbon or gfo or anything, just skimmer)

I am reading different info.. add more fish, or feed more.

What would you guys do? Given space/compatability if you can add another fish or two. Why would you choose one way over the other?

saltyfilmfolks · Apr 24, 2017

IME. My two smaller tanks eats N/P really fast. I was actually feeding extra just for the tank. The down side to some foods(frozen/juice), are they naturally encourage more pest growth(aiptasia, worms) but also good bugs.
So you could dose N/P. or feed more. I think those are the two bottom lines.
But Id really really look at the tank and coral rather than numbers. You may just have hit a magic balance.

david p. · Apr 24, 2017

what i tried on my system instead of putting more food in, i tried to reduce the nutrient export. My N and P were always undetectable since i started my tank almost 12 months ago, i am 100% SPS.
1. Reduced photo period over my refugium
2. Reduce the amount of cheato i was keeping
3. Removed GFO
4. Target feed coral instead of dumping food everywhere

ReeferMadness80G · Apr 24, 2017

I tried adding more fish, ended up with 5 fish in a 14 gallon cube! (More like 16 gallons total with Sump) Waited a while, Nothing! I tried feeding heavily and ended up with some serious cyano and algae related problems. My cure was running my skimmer at night only, and dosing KNO3 via Stump Remover, although I've since heard of different methods of dosing No3 like CaNo3 (Calcium Nitrate) that you may want to look into. Raised Nitrates within 4 hours after dosing, and it's pretty easy to maintain once you figure how fast your system eats it up. Bout a month in I noticed nutrients were the key to SPS growth and color. My sticks exploded with growth and color! Good luck!