I'm curious as to what is recommended to feed into the tank when carbon dosing, I've always been under the impression that you need to dose trace elements and amino acids as the carbon dosing depleted them. Recently, I was told it's just a gimmick and just feeding my fish will be plenty. !
There is probably a bit of truth in both statements.
In general, carbon dosing doesn't likely reduce trace elements more than certain other export methods, such as growing macroalgae or possibly even skimming. But likely more so than deep sand beds, denitrators, or GFO. I dose vinegar and I grow macroalgae, and the only things I feel the need to add are iron, silicate for sponges, limewater (kalkwasser) and regular water changes. When I've tried more trace elements, I saw no benefit. Some people think carbon dosing depletes potassium, but that may depend on what you feed and how much potassium Is in those foods. It was not depleted in my tank.
With respect to amino acids, this is more complicated. In some tanks, like mine, amino acids are clearly not necessary (since I've never dosed them and corals are fine) and possibly not useful. But I do not run a ULNS tank with a lot of SPS.
Some people use organic carbon to drive nutrients VERY low, and in those cases, SPS can suffer since the zoox are not thriving as well. In that scenario, dosing amino acids or significantly more foods may be useful nutrition for them.
thanks!
