Dosing nutrients

[mixeras]

Anyone dosing nutrients? Thoughts? Is it a waste of money or is it beneficial

 

[mixeras]

I am using Apex and doing slow daily water changes. 8% a week divided by 7 days

 

[Eye H8 Empty V]

My nitrates were at 0 and the LPS’ in my new tank were dropping like flys. This is site to my 10” filter fleece and skimmer doing their jobs too well. So I started dosing Brightwell’s Nitrate product until I could add more fish. It’s not an exact substitute for fish waste but they’re finally improving and even showing signs of growth!

Billy

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What is the tank age, and what inhabitants are in the tank? What kind of nutrients do you want to doese (nitrate/phosphate, or things like iron, mangonese, etc...)? What do want to accomplish with dosing nutrients?

Cannot just answer "yes you should dose" or "no you should not dose". There should be a need, and the test results will demonstrate the need. Testing regularly will demonstrate the trend of which nutrients are being absorbed and how fast.

The test kit will answer your question if you should dose or not.

 

[DarthChaos]

Short answer.....100% waste of money.

I've never....seen a legit reason, to dose nutrients. Ever. Feed more - reduce filtration - increase bioload. Literally......zero reason and it's Honestly, the dumbest thing in reefing.

#my2cents

 

[Subsea]

With 51 years of Reefing experience, I dose liquid seaweed. It adds what is absorbed during regular photosynthesis. I don’t fret the testing with an organically balanced product that is sourced from the ocean.

The absolute best thing to dose is live phytopkankton with no testing required, yet your reef tank will smile for you.

 

[Eye H8 Empty V]

Short answer.....100% waste of money.

I've never....seen a legit reason, to dose nutrients. Ever. Feed more - reduce filtration - increase bioload. Literally......zero reason and it's Honestly, the dumbest thing in reefing.

#my2cents

I disagree 100% as I’ve seen results. Not everything is an all or nothing. I can’t turn off my skimmer because I’m using it for my CO2 scrubber in a recirculating setup. I’m quarantining fish so the frequency that I can increase my bioload is limited. Dosing nitrates is a temporary fix until I can get my bio load up. If you don’t have the bacteria population to breakdown ammonia then your nitrites will soar if you have an animal die. I had 2 massive astrea snails die and the ammonia was 0.01 but nitrites skyrocketed while nitrates stayed very low. The only solution was water changes, lots of microbacter7, and dosing nitrates. Saying something is the “dumbest thing in reefing” is the dumbest thing in reefing that I’ve seen on here.

 

[Subsea]

Anyone dosing nutrients? Thoughts? Is it a waste of money or is it beneficial

As I looked at other threads you posted, I gather you set up a new tank one month ago. Last week you posted a thread about your fake white rock turning red from iron that you are dosing.




@mixeras
On such a new tank, why are you dosing?

 

[mixeras]

It's probably 6 weeks old at this point. We stopped dosing. Just seeing what people's thoughts were with this other than trace colors and nutrients. If there anything I should be doing

 

[mixeras]

Should I turn off the protein skimmer

 

[mixeras]

As I looked at other threads you posted, I gather you set up a new tank one month ago. Last week you posted a thread about your fake white rock turning red from iron that you are dosing.




@mixeras
On such a new tank, why are you dosing?

I have 4 tanks. The one I posted was about my newer one. I am mainly talking in general

 

[Auto-pilot]

I would disagree with Darthchaos there is definitely a time and place to dose nutrients like phosphate and nitrate. What are your numbers at? Why are you considering adding nutrients to your tank??

 

[mixeras]

Just creating more of a conversation and getting peoples thoughts on what they think

 

[Subsea]

It's probably 6 weeks old at this point. We stopped dosing. Just seeing what people's thoughts were with this other than trace colors and nutrients. If there anything I should be doing

Without knowing or seeing the system in question, I don’t know enough to comment. Details matter, like your experience level.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Just creating more of a conversation and getting peoples thoughts on what they think

There are certainly times when dosing N or P or both are useful and inexpensive.

 

[mixeras]

Without knowing or seeing the system in question, I don’t know enough to comment. Details matter, like your experience level.

Sorry just trying to learn

 

[mixeras]

With 51 years of Reefing experience, I dose liquid seaweed. It adds what is absorbed during regular photosynthesis. I don’t fret the testing with an organically balanced product that is sourced from the ocean.

The absolute best thing to dose is live phytopkankton with no testing required, yet your reef tank will smile for you.

Do you dose phytoplankton to all your tanks? Which brand?

 

[homer1475]

When I lost all my fish due to velvet, I dosed nitrates and phosphates including feeding corals to keep nutrients up in my tank.

To say dosing is not needed in certain circumstances is misunderstanding how a reef works.

 

[Subsea]

Sorry just trying to learn

It’s complicated. While it is true that the coral holibiont is both interconnected & interdependent with crosstalk between bacteria to adjust environmental conditions using gene expression to optomuze the ecosystem as a whole; let’s start at the basics: bacteria & algae do the heavy work on recycling nutrients. I choose diversity of multiple nutrient pathways by inolulating tank with diver collected live rock to bring in micro fauna & fauna, that process nutrients to feed hungry moths.

Until your system is mature enough to need it, live phytoplankton is not desirable. By the same reasoning, trace minerals addittion is unnecessary as that should come in with standard water change procedures.

 

[Subsea]

Do you dose phytoplankton to all your tanks? Which brand?

I grow Tetraselmis phytoplankton on a continuous basis.