A few months ago, I decided to modify my reef keeping methods. The colors were always pretty good at the tips but a little dull at the bases. Polyp extension has been great but growth has not quite been what it used to be over the past year or so. Corals were also very sensitive to even minor parameter swings.
Thinking back to the changes I made in that time, I realized that the biggest thing was nutrient reduction. I had been maintaing zero phosphate/nitrate for a long time through heavy carbon dosing and GFO usage. I started off making changes by greatly increasing the amount of food that I was giving my fish. After that, I started reducing the amount of GFO that I was using and watched for results. Results were positive so I started reducing the amount of vinegar that I was using. I went from 90ml per day down to 30ml per day over the course of a month. Again… results were nothing but positive. I wound up removing GFO all together and dropping another 5ml of vinegar from my dosing regiment. It has been around a month since I made those changes and my bases are now as colorful as the tips, flesh looks more full and growth has exploded.
In the last two weeks, I added a very efficient chaeto grower to the system to help deal with the excess inorganic nutrients being made. I noticed that after adding the chaeto, my glass needed to be cleaned less frequently, but most importantly, polyp extension has become insane!….. Throughout this whole process, I have only done one 20 gallon water change in my 150 gallon system. I normally only do one per month.
I guess the moral of the story is to not trust everything you hear. Zero nutrients did not work for me so I am done chasing numbers.
Happy reefing!
Thinking back to the changes I made in that time, I realized that the biggest thing was nutrient reduction. I had been maintaing zero phosphate/nitrate for a long time through heavy carbon dosing and GFO usage. I started off making changes by greatly increasing the amount of food that I was giving my fish. After that, I started reducing the amount of GFO that I was using and watched for results. Results were positive so I started reducing the amount of vinegar that I was using. I went from 90ml per day down to 30ml per day over the course of a month. Again… results were nothing but positive. I wound up removing GFO all together and dropping another 5ml of vinegar from my dosing regiment. It has been around a month since I made those changes and my bases are now as colorful as the tips, flesh looks more full and growth has exploded.
In the last two weeks, I added a very efficient chaeto grower to the system to help deal with the excess inorganic nutrients being made. I noticed that after adding the chaeto, my glass needed to be cleaned less frequently, but most importantly, polyp extension has become insane!….. Throughout this whole process, I have only done one 20 gallon water change in my 150 gallon system. I normally only do one per month.
I guess the moral of the story is to not trust everything you hear. Zero nutrients did not work for me so I am done chasing numbers.
Happy reefing!
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