Can i Overdose Reef-Roids

[biggles]

Since i have no fish and nothing but a few SPS i thought i would try dosing the tank with reef roids and nothing else at increasing doses until i see evidence of nitrates and or phosphates then back the doses back to maintain zero levels - just wish to see the effects on the corals if any over a month or two. I'm wondering if dosing quite a bit more of this than is the norm could be toxic in any way other than the response to over feeding etc. I haven't found any other coral foods directly aimed at SPS as yet available in Aus but will keep looking. I asked the LFS guy who seems pretty switched on in regards to corals (no lies) what he thought of marine snow that he sells and he said 'tried it, it's crap but some of our customers request we stock it' - giving that a miss.
So in a nutshell regardless if you think the idea is a waste of time, does anyone see a problem with unknown ingredients in reef roids that could be toxic at high levels. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Overgrown]

Can you over feed Reefroids? Depends on your system and your bio and mech filtration. Someone with a nano with no fuge is obviously going to run into more issues with too many nutrients as opposed to a large system with a well functioning sump. As far as unknown potentially toxic ingredients: I use the product with nothing but positive effects

 

[biggles]

Thanks overgrown, i'll up the dose to a teaspoon a night and keep increasing it until i see a negative impact on my water quality.

 

[Clownin Aroun]

Thanks overgrown, i'll up the dose to a teaspoon a night and keep increasing it until i see a negative impact on my water quality.

I WOULD NOT DO THAT!!!!!!!!!!

do not go looking for trouble, thats what you will be doing! You do not want to do something until it has a negative impact on your tank, you want to stop it well before that!

i would only increase your dose a tiny bit, reef roids is not a necessity however good water is!


Do you have a skimmer that can take out whats left over from what is not consumed?

 

[biggles]

Sorry i didn't mean i was going to jump from 1/4 teaspoon a night to a whole spoon in a single jump. I intend upping it over time - i have a good skimmer which is more than capable of handling a much higher bio load than my 65gal can hold. Negative impacts such as excess algae growth doesn't concern me at all as i can deal with such things very easily in a tank without fish. I don't intend recklessly dumping roids in, i simply want to dose the maximum amount of roids my tank can handle as that's the only thing the corals are going to get for the foreseeable future.

 

[Allmost]

can you overfeed it ? yes you can.

but think of it another way, you should increase dosage, until your corals can not consume it anymore/ you reach the saturation ... cause when you go over that limit then the corals will not consume the extra, and it would just be removed by skimmer[they stay suspended in water well] , which your wallet wont appreciate

Id try to feed multiple times a day, instead of just at night. perhaps increase the number of times you dose it rather than the amount for one feeding. I feed my azoox reef with these stuff 4 times a day with Eheim auto feeder

THIS article talks about how feeding corals during the day [light hours] can potentially be beter.

 

[biggles]

I know i can overfeed anything but was initially concerned that the product may contain ingredients that may be harmful in high levels - not simply food if you follow what i mean. I mix it up in a cup of tank water and add over 3-4 hours after lights out when i see maximum PE on everything, i had not thought of feeding during lights on but will now, thanks very much for that link Allmost. As per your advice, i simply wish to keep as much food in the water column over the longest 24 hour period i can rather than small single feedings every 3-4 days which is nothing like corals experience in the wild.
My skimmer shuts down for 20-30 mins after i add roids which is a good thing so i don't bother switching it off. I would like to drip it but it settles quickly so that won't work, i hadn't considered using an auto feeder but will look into purchasing one for sure now. Thanks again for the advice everyone.

 

[Allmost]

anytime, but be careful ! skimmer knocking off means less export, which in turn can increase nutritions basically another variable added which you need to find balance to

let us know how it works.

I use a fridge, with a magnetic stirrer from Hanna, and dose from there.

 

[biggles]

Thanks mate, i've increased the white LED's intensity in the frag section of the sump so that algae will show up there first rather than in the DT - i expect it to take a number of weeks for the system to adjust to the increased feeding and bacteria levels to increase to handle the higher bioload. It's easy to take the frag section off line for a few hours and clean it out if algae becomes a short term problem.

 

[biggles]

Just a quick update - the last 10 days i've been adding half a teaspoon of reef roids every 24 hours, it is added in 10-12 pinches spread out over the day and night manually as regularly as possible, nothing else goes in except 2 part and RO.
The results i have observed visually and the 5ml rise in dosing prompted me to order cyclopeeze using express postage yesterday lol, i would describe the reaction to keeping appropriate SPS oriented food suspended in the water column as long as possible as explosive in regards to PE and growth. Hanna for phos reads zero as does Salifert nitrate. I have seen a need to clean the glass every 2 days rather than 3-4 so i suspect the gha is stripping any phos from the water nicely. Skimmate production has dropped rather than increase and when the skimmer returns to normal foaming there is no extra foaming so i don't think the skimmer is stripping the food out at any large rate.
My skunk shrimp is allowed to gorge from my fingers when i dose - he goes nuts for it. Yesterday he tried to quickly swim 40" across the tank to get to the pinch of roids i had but discovered the 6095 halfway and was splatted onto the front glass lol. I dose the roids at his rock perch now to save him the grief. I intend keeping the roid dosage the same and building up the cyclopeeze dose to the match over the next few weeks.
I actually did this as i suspect that the trend to keep nitrates and phos at detectable levels resulting in positive reactions is a result of more food in the water over a longer period and the phos and nitrates are merely a negative result of the increased feeding - personally i don't believe the SPS are using the phos and nitrates as my fresh NSW measures zero for both so thats what's in the ocean normally to my way of thinking. I wonder if those with fish such as anthias requiring you to keep food in the water regularly also have nice SPS displays.......
Anyway who really knows for sure but i thought i'd share my experience running with no phos or nitrates measurable in the water and no fish poo or wee. I'll let you know what happens when i add cyclopeeze to the mix for a few weeks as well.

 

[TheThirstyWhale]

What ended up happening?

 

[biggles]

What ended up happening?

It's been about a month and i still feed the roids and cyclops daily although i finally bought a clown fish a week ago and he eats some of the cyclops that floats. I did feed him a single frozen mysis cube over about 5 days but since he realised he's living in a tank crawling with live mysis he no longer eats dead mysis. Dropping my alk from 8.0 to 7.5 has resulted in colors really beginning to pop. Still running with zero phos and nitrates measurable in the water - you can see from my last journal pics that i have no probs in relation to colors and/or growth.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2267502&page=4