Reef Energy AB+ Plus Coral Nutrition and STN

LittleMaui · Nov 27, 2020

I've been dosing AB+ for a couple of months. About 3 weeks ago several SPS corals started STN at the base of the corals. Admitedly, I don't dose very much, maybe 15ml x2 a week as a treat. While trying to figure out why some corals were STN'ing, I noticed the following message in the directions that come with the AB+ bottle, - "Signs of underdosing in a low nutrient system are bleaching of the corals from the base upwards", which is exactly what mine were doing. And, my tank runs about 3 Nitrate and near-zero phosphates. Can anyone explain why AB+ has this affect? According the the directions I should be dosing 50ml/day for my size tank, which means I would be going through 3 500ml bottles/month, which is cost prohibative.

Dilan Patel · Nov 27, 2020

basically the Red sea food is a blend of amino acids which can be absorbed by coral. When a coral is in a low nutrient environment like yours their is not enough of this "food" around affecting the health of a coral. In order to combat this the dose of an amino acid adds those elements needed for corals to thrive. But aminos don't have to just be used in low nutrient tanks as aminos "already made" require less energy to process than making their own.

CoralClasher · Nov 28, 2020

Has this issue been reported with higher nutrient tanks as well? My No3 is 15ppm phosphate 0.36 and my LFS said some really good things about this product so I tried it. Just like OP didn’t want to dose daily recommend amount just a treat twice a week. Lost a nice colony Montie and a few hammer coral heads. I read the same note about under using this product but I thought with high nutrients I would be fine. I’m not saying for sure this product is to blame because around the same time I was trying to reduce nutrients with vinegar dosing and GFO. And I did find copper in my DT. Cubrisorb, stopping vinegar dosing and stopping this product has stopped the death.

LittleMaui · Nov 28, 2020

I wasn't having any problems before starting to dose the AB+. I have since removed from and increased fish feeding.

Juniorh2r · Feb 13, 2021

Any update on this??

LittleMaui · Feb 14, 2021

Not sure what caused what. I had added a new refugium light around the same time I started dosing AB+. My refugium Cheato is going nuts and nitrate at 1 and phosphate zero. I've started increasing AB+ to 14ml a day. Overall, tank looks good. Corals are growing great, but colors are a bit pale. I started turning skimmer off for 2 hours when I dose and removed filter floss in overflow cup.