Coral nutrition help

[Evan West]

Nothing but kalk and that won't help no3 and po4.... I don't have anything to dose other than feeding a lot of reef chili to hold over to I can get some no3 and po4 or some specific products from red sea or KZ

 

[DSC reef]

Do you not want fish?

 

[siggy]

Ahh there in is the problem, no fish, no waste from the fish, no nitrates or phosphates.

He beat me to it . More POOP ! My corals like oyster feast and photo feast, twice a week and you'll be cleaning the glass.

 

[jsker]

He beat me to it . More POOP ! My corals like oyster feast and photo feast, twice a week and you'll be cleaning the glass.

Yes the same reef nutrition products I also use, good stuff, and like your direction.

The reason for my question is, I use mineral salts in my dosing with the balling method and my coral colors and overall health took off. I also use vitamin C to help the corals recover from getting blasted with the light and tissue growth.

 

[Evan West]

Do you not want fish?

Fish got ich and had to go to another tank for treatment, letting it die off in the display, still have 2 months to go so ive gotta do something to help the coral. Been wanting to help boost color and growth anyways so

 

[Hans-Werner]

Just throw in some small frozen food (plankton or mysis) or use one of the powder foods especially designed for corals and/or filter feeders.

 

[Evan West]

Just throw in some small frozen food (plankton or mysis) or use one of the powder foods especially designed for corals and/or filter feeders.

Been feeding reef chili at about 1.5x the recommended amount but haven't seen a lot of differance the last week.

 

[WesleyC]

The reef chili, is dried phyto and some dried zooplankton, and it's is only for the coral to "eat". The zooxanthellae inside the coral is like plant. They need nutrient and light to grow, and that's what make the coral colorful. I'm sure you already know that. That's why you made this thread.

Dosing give you exact control of nutrient immediately. "Feeding more" needs for it to get rotten and eventually breaking down to get "nutrient", after an unknown amount of time. I know what I would do.

 

[Mark Derail]

I have some nitrates/phosphates (fish in QT for 10 days now) in the reef tank.
Clean-up crew of some 8 hermit crabs and snails, two anemones.
Also two shrimps.

I feed daily Reef Frenzy frozen, and also Reef Roid. So keeping the tank dirty!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Drop a cube of frozen in there.

 

[Evan West]

Sounds like I'll pick up some stuff to dose and maybe some reef food type stuff

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

One raw shrimp is cheap.

 

[Evan West]

One raw shrimp is cheap.

The only reason im worried about this approach is because the tank is in my small apartment room with me and I cant have it smelling.

 

[Evan West]

After reading through quite a few sps nutrition threads I think im going to try the following:

Lugols (Iodine apparently but not sure if there is a specific one everyone uses)
Pohl's Xtra Special (Contains NO3 and aids in coral color)
Raising Alk to 8.5dKh and maintaining

Also apparently Lugols is a bit like playing with fire according to brightwell but A LOT of people are using it

 

[Whipples]

If you do go the kno3 dosing route, check out Green Leaf Aquariums dry fertilizers. They make a kno3 (potassium nitrate) and kh2po4 (monopotassium phosphate) for $3-4 a pound, then you can use an online calculator to mix the solution to your desired dose target. Much cheaper than Seachem, equally as effective, and more flexible/control on the dose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Also apparently Lugols is a bit like playing with fire according to brightwell but A LOT of people are using it

It's not at all like playing with fire, although it is dosing an unnatural and reactive form of iodine. I'd dose iodide (in fact, did so for many years, then stopped and say no difference).

Still, I doubt it has any substantial benefits or detriments whatever form you use..

 

[Evan West]

It's not at all like playing with fire, although it is dosing an unnatural and reactive form of iodine. I'd dose iodide (in fact, did so for many years, then stopped and say no difference).

Still, I doubt it has any substantial benefits or detriments whatever form you use..

Huh interesting, I have kept tally and iodine was the one thing most often dosed across everything I read. I might stick to not doing to much at once and just start the Xtra and get the alk stable at 8.5.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Huh interesting, I have kept tally and iodine was the one thing most often dosed across everything I read. I might stick to not doing to much at once and just start the Xtra and get the alk stable at 8.5.

Many people dose it, and many people did so and then saw no difference when they stoped.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Just feed the tank a little more.
Really.

It s not rocket science.

 

[WesleyC]

If you can calculate exactly when the food you feed become Nitrate and Phosphate, and also how much of those become so, it would be a rocket science.