my LFS seems extremly knowledgable on reefing and has been doing it for a long time, but some times he says things that contridict other things i have read. my main concern right now is that he says i should keep my nitrates higher than 20ppm and less than 60, where some people on here are saying as low as 5. i have 14 snails, 1 small fish and 1 coral in my 40 gallon tank. the tank is almost done with diatoms as it is almost consistantly clear the entire time the light is on. i have not done a single water change yet as my nitrates have not spiked. so i guess im just asking for a couple of opinions.
I stopped water changes because nitrates and phosphates were near 0, haven't been able to get them up that much, my nitrates still hover near 0, and phosphate with heavy coral feeding sits at .05.
I did have trace depletion issues so I have to dose trace A trace K from TM and chaetogrow.
Been going fine.
Hard to say on a target of 20-60, but in my experience with fresh water, I can let it hit absurd highs and not have issues. I mean if I dilute the sample by 50% I still read max on API.
For marine, I don't honestly know, but personally if I read 20 nitrates I would stop dosing ammonium.
Seems like high nutrient systems can be just fine, probably matters on the total approach more, when people post about the nutrients they run, it can be hard to know everything tbey are doing that make that approach work for them.
Bottom line I think is, you will find valid yet contradictory advice everywhere, and its more important to choose a system over individual methods until you understand the system enough to make changes to it and to understand the results it gives you.
If you like what your LFS produces, def feel free to follow their method, but until you get a real feel for it its best to follow their advice for the entirety of what they do instead of taking bits and pieces from a bunch of different methods.
You can of course pick and choose what you want to do, but replicating results and understanding your system can be easier choosing a mentor over doing so.
