Seems like spacious reasoning to me. How is that much different than just adding more dead rock?
Aside from the fact it doesn't get light.
I'm not arguing that it's different from adding more dead rock. But it may be. :)
I'm saying you want to do other things with those nutrients than (de)nitrify them away.
Growing algae is a big part of it.
Green algae likes the same kind of conditions as phytoplankton and coral (-C, +N, +P), so you know you're on the right track if you're growing green algae! It's not The Goal but it's a great sign that "microbially speaking" things are progressing in the system's favor.
Blocks like we're talking about are a -N.
GFO is a -P.
Carbon dosing is a +C
and -N.
All not good for a developing system. You may succeed in spite of the use of these things, but you may not.
When folks use them to excess (easy in a new, mostly-sterile system since there's literally almost zero need for them) their tanks seem to have a tendency to wind up on
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether? or other equally "unsavory" threads. :P
Avoid nutrient limitation while doing those things (not easy) and you can probably get away with them.
But then why use them if your strategy can be to
use up the nutrients rather than "export them". (Bogus concept, BTW.....ecosystems don't work that way. (The title's a mouthful, but trust me....click and read anyway:
Response of heterotrophic bacteria, autotrophic picoplankton and heterotrophic nanoflagellates to re-oligotrophication)
If you have an algae bloom, using "export" does very little. Nutrient conservation is what your reef is trying to be all about – careful in trying to defeat that capability. :)
Controlling nutrients has to happen on the front end. Once nutrients are in the tank all you can do is encourage them to be used up in a productive manner – primarily
growing corals and green algae. Green algae goes into the snail population, and back out into the microbial food web.
