Additives to water for coral growth

[I'm Batman]

I have the mixed reef LPS and SPS... 

 

As as most of you know I transferred from a 15g to a 20g tank.

 

Mintipora are doing awesome however my frogspawn, aren't flourishing like I'd expect.

 

Question:

 

With all Params spot on, what if any, additives would I benefit from?

 

I've been looking at brightwell aquatics and zeovit additives and there's sooooo many different aminos and elements I can add. Does it make sense to buy up everything in their catalog and start adding drop by drop to see if anything changes?

[Thrassian Atoll]

I wouldn't add anything you can't test for.  Just make sure all of your parameters are good.  Are you feeding the LPS?  

 

I had a hammer but there was no way to have enough flow for my sps and low enough for the hammer to do well in my tank so I took the hammer out.

[I'm Batman]

Not really. I throw in some reef frenzy pellets a few times a week. 

 

I used to spot feed feed mysis but the tentacles grab onto the shrimp and it seems they just float off after a bit... should I be feeding LPS? There's so much controversy on the matter. Have you ever seen a Euphyllia eat?

2 minutes ago, TILTON said:

I wouldn't add anything you can't test for.  Just make sure all of your parameters are good.  Are you feeding the LPS?  

Are there home tests for amino acids and lipids?

[Thrassian Atoll]

I would feed the LPS.  If your SPS are doing great, I can see the nutrients being too low for the LPS to thrive.  

[I'm Batman]

Just now, TILTON said:

I would feed the LPS.  If your SPS are doing great, I can see the nutrients being too low for the LPS to thrive.  

Which leads me to something nobody can answer. What the f*ck are Nutrients??

[Thrassian Atoll]

2 minutes ago, I'm Batman said:

Are there home tests for amino acids and lipids?

Not that I know of.  There may be.  The Triton thing tests all of those right?  

[Thrassian Atoll]

Just now, I'm Batman said:

Which leads me to something nobody can answer. What the f*ck are Nutrients??

Phosphates, Nitrates.  LPS and Soft corals like a little dirtier water, which just means there is probably more food in the water that also increases phosphates and nitrates.  From what I have seen, people get close to or at zero with their nitrates and phosphates by feeding less, rather than having a better removal method.  Corals got to eat.  

[Sk8n Reefer]

With that size tank- water changes (small more frequent) should be enough to keep that tank in balance- depending on your alkalinity draw from the sps but like Tilton said- flow is vital also

[Lugmos12]

I used Reef Chili in my tank. I feed my blasto and candy cane single pellets 2x/week.

 

 

[Minmay]

I use reef plus after a water change but I also feed my LPS mysis amd shrimp brine

[burtbollinger]

I have never had a euphillia eat and i've been keeping them for a long time...I dont bother feeding them at all.

 

In the past, frogspawn, torch and hammers all grow very slow IME....if I wanted a bigger one, I bought it bigger vs waiting for it to grow...the one exception to this is duncans.

 

I keep my chalices and acans happy so far and I am having good success with concentrated targeted reef chili 1x per week, using LRS Reef Frenzy to feed the fish and the occasionally larger mouthed LPS...and my experiences with Aquavitro Fuel have been wonderful...dosing a bit over half of the recommended weekly dose.  If your nutrients are already low and you wanna mess around, I think Aquavitro Fuel might be worth messing with...careful not to OD the tank, or even use the recommended dose.

[Thrassian Atoll]

2 minutes ago, burtbollinger said:

I have never had a euphillia eat and i've been keeping them for a long time...I dont bother feeding them at all.

 

I AM having good success with reef chili 1x per week, using LRS Reef Frenzy to feed the fish and the larger mouthed LPS...and my experiences with Aquavitro Fuel have been wonderful...dosing a bit over half of the recommended weekly dose.

 

I have heard good things about Fuel.  I heard it's easy to get cyano outbreaks too with it.  Are you seeing better growth and color with it?

[burtbollinger]

5 minutes ago, TILTON said:

 

I have heard good things about Fuel.  I heard it's easy to get cyano outbreaks too with it.  Are you seeing better growth and color with it?

I am seeing slightly better color, overall inflation, and expansion of most of my LPS and the few monties I have....I'd say 10-15% better.  On some corals, its quite dramatic....others, no real difference.

My wife noticed...I am dosing it once 5ML a week, then dosing 1ML per day afterwards....a total of @ 10ML a week...the bottle would recommend 14ML per week but I don't want to push it further....I had a very bad experience with Red Sea Reef Energy I dont want to repeat.

 

It could be that my tank likes it because I am skimming heavy, doing religious weekly changes, and running a small amount of GFO....my gut says I'm borderline too clean...so the tank probably appreciates the Fuel.

[Thrassian Atoll]

Just now, burtbollinger said:

I am seeing slightly better color, overall inflation, and expansion of most of my LPS and the few monties I have.  I'd say 10-15% better.  

My wife noticed...I am dosing it once 5ML a week, then dosing 1ML per day afterwards....a total of @ 10ML a week...the bottle would recommend 14ML per week but I don't want to push it further....I had a very bad experience with Red Sea Reef Energy I dont want to repeat.

I may give it a try later on down the road. I need to get the little bit of algae I have under control first.  Seems like most people use less than the recommended dose.  So you haven't had any algae outbreaks with it?

[burtbollinger]

2 minutes ago, TILTON said:

I may give it a try later on down the road. I need to get the little bit of algae I have under control first.  Seems like most people use less than the recommended dose.  So you haven't had any algae outbreaks with it?

No...my tank looks cleaner than its ever been right now...pristine white sand, no algae anywhere.

My addition of 12 or so Ceriths has really been amazing...plus the tank seems to be finally stabilizing around the 11 month mark.

 

As far as dosing, I think I'd start with half and see how it goes...but the results are real...so far anyway.

[Thrassian Atoll]

1 minute ago, burtbollinger said:

No...my tank looks cleaner than its ever been right now...pristine white sand, no algae anywhere.

My addition of 12 or so Ceriths has really been amazing...plus the tank seems to be finally stabilizing around the 11 month mark.

 

As far as dosing, I think I'd start with half and see how it goes...but the results are real...so far anyway.

Awesome.  I'll get everything stable and give it a shot probably.  Thanks for the info.

[Clown79]

I have a mixed reef.

The biggest challenge, is flow/lighting.

 

I keep my nitrates at 5 and Lps and sps have been fine and I've had growth.

 

The issue is sps like a lot of turbulent flow and high light where lps likes moderate/gentle sway/moderate light.

 

When the flow is to high Lps close up, particularly euphyllia.

 

It's hard keeping both happy in smaller tanks.

 

I've used vitamins and amino's but very lightly.