Should I dose N03 and P04 to my 40 breeder mixed reef?

[Jcon82]

Hi All,

My 40 breeder mixed reef turned one year old last week! I manually dose All for Reef daily and Acropower twice a week. For the past 6 months my nutrients have been steady at 5ppm N03 and 0.03ppm P04 (salifert kits). I have manageable levels of red slime (Cyano?), bubble and hair algae that only becomes an issue when my CUC starts to thin out.

I bought bottles of neophos and neo nitro a while ago but never use them. Lately I've been considering starting a dosing routine. I dont have any dosing pumps but may consider them if I see a positive response. But for now it would be manual dosing at night once the lights are off.

I've considered feeding more but lately I'm not even home enough when the lights are on to feed more than I do (2 heavy feedings a day and reef roids twice a week). So I think dosing may help me get more color and growth. I am nervous about overdoing it as I wont be able to test daily while I dial the doses in.

Should I just let the tank do its thing or start dosing? My Acro, Monti and Zoas seem happy but goni, leather, acan, favia and Blasto look a little sad.

 

[Drewerd7]

In short, if your tank is steady at those levels, there is no need to dose.. the PO4 and NO3 are right on the money, imo.

Although, I would consider testing PO4 with a Hanna checker, as the light blue color scale in Salifert tests is extremely difficult to judge accuracy with such low levels.

I especially wouldn't start dosing if you aren't around to test and monitor regularly.. messing with levels when you're not around is just asking for instability and nuisance blooms.

It is possible that your "unhappy" corals are lacking in other parameters, such as lighting or flow.. I would consider tank placement before messing with the chemistry of a stable tank.

 

[bushdoc]

There will be many different opinions here.
I think your nutrients are on lower level, but still within acceptable limits.
unlikely you will get rid of cyano by dosing nutrients, on the contrary, you may feed them.
Some of your corals, like SPS, generally can thrive in a bit lower nutrients, others prefer more “dirty“ environment.
I would not dose yet, but if you decide to dose or your nutrients go further down, start slow and increase amount slowly too.

 

[X-37B]

Tank pics?

Your levels are fine just focus on keeping them stable.
I would monitor and feed the fish more. No need to feed the corals if your feeding the fish enough.

In my 80 I still dose 3ml of po4 daily to keep the readings above zero. I run <.1 for po4 but if I stop po4 adds it will bottom out quickly.
This system has a 30g remote tank with a 3+" sandbed plumbed into the 80's sump. Po4 averages about .05.
10 fish.

If you decide to dose po4 you will need to monitor it daily for awhile to see where your levels are going.

I have never seen a need to run no3 and po4 higher. It does not matter if its sps or lps from my experience.
No3<5
Po4<0.1

I get good growth and color with those ranges in my 3 systems.
80g and 30g today.