Why do Red Sea recommend low nutrients with high alk?

[DE FISH]

It confuses me as to why Red Sea recommend low nutrients with high alk? When every post I see on here regarding high alk says to avoid low nutrients.

 

[HBtank]

Where is this from? It looks outdated, and consistent with recommendations from 10+ years ago when people assumed 0 nitrate/phosphate was good.

It’s not consistent with their blue bucket salt (particularly alk) which I believe is their recommended SPS mix and a newer product, although their marketing is a little contradictory at this point.

 

[DE FISH]

That is from the manual on Red Sea website for the coral pro salt it also states this on the side of my salt bucket

 

[gbru316]

Because ideally, our tanks would run at 0,0 but we'd be adding enough food for everything and we'd be removing the excess before it breaks down and causes No3 and Po4 readings.

For most of us, that isn't practical. So it's better to run with some detectable level of nitrate and phosphate.

 

[HBtank]

That is from the manual on Red Sea website for the coral pro salt it also states this on the side of my salt bucket

Looks like their blue bucket also has similar recommendations on nutrients, although it is the lower akl/CA/mg version.

Seems like they ate a little behind in this area.

 

[DE FISH]

Looks like their blue bucket also has similar recommendations on nutrients, although it the lower akl/CA/mg version.

Seems like they ate a little behind n this area.

Yes it’s very strange

 

[DE FISH]

Because ideally, our tanks would run at 0,0 but we'd be adding enough food for everything and we'd be removing the excess before it breaks down and causes No3 and Po4 readings.

For most of us, that isn't practical. So it's better to run with some detectable level of nitrate and phosphate.

Still seems not very up to date if we ran 0,0 across the board at that high alk it would cause issues I’m currently experiencing said issues with nitrate at 1 and po4 at 0.05

 

[gbru316]

Still seems not very up to date if we ran 0,0 across the board at that high alk it would cause issues I’m currently experiencing said issues with nitrate at 1 and po4 at 0.05

It’s not out of date. The issue isn’t the levels themselves.

It’s that high alk increases the rate of calcification but doesn’t support increased tissue growth. The easiest way to support tissue growth is to run slightly elevated nutrient levels.

the other way to do it is to feed heavily. Like, multiple times a day. Every hour, even. But you need to remove every bit of food that isn’t eaten as soon as possible. This is a more natural way of feeding, but it’s very much “living on the edge” because we don’t have billions of gallons of water to carry away uneaten food and dilute any nitrate or phosphate that develops. Which means things can accumulate in a hurry. Anything happening quickly in our tanks is cause for concern.

Still, it’s entirely possible to keep a tank in this manner. It’s just not for the average hobbyist.