Dosing a nano

[91mini]

I just purchased Seachem's Fuel coral booster from my LFS. This is my first time dosing and was wondering if there are things I should look out for. I have read online that a lot of people are going 1/3 the recommended amount with great result. I got this because for about 3-4 months my Xenia has not grown. It actually is looking slightly shriveled but not losing any color and my mushrooms are reaching for the lights instead of resting on the rocks flat (I think this is more of it's tank position than anything else though).

Every piece of advice I've read about dosing says to not dose for anything you don't have a test kit for. I asked the LFS worker if I needed to be testing for anything with this product and he said, "no, if you follow the directions for this product you will be more than OK. It's very hard to overdose this. The only thing you will get is algae from over dosing."

I plan to put in about 1/3 the recommended amount every 2 weeks in between water changes. ie. change water one week dose the next. I change 2 gallons of water every other week.

Running a 14G biocube BTW

 

[rawrpk]

What kind of light are you using?

 

[91mini]

Stock biocube compacts

 

[yongpanda]

I just purchased Seachem's Fuel coral booster from my LFS. This is my first time dosing and was wondering if there are things I should look out for. I have read online that a lot of people are going 1/3 the recommended amount with great result. I got this because for about 3-4 months my Xenia has not grown. It actually is looking slightly shriveled but not losing any color and my mushrooms are reaching for the lights instead of resting on the rocks flat (I think this is more of it's tank position than anything else though).

Every piece of advice I've read about dosing says to not dose for anything you don't have a test kit for. I asked the LFS worker if I needed to be testing for anything with this product and he said, "no, if you follow the directions for this product you will be more than OK. It's very hard to overdose this. The only thing you will get is algae from over dosing."

I plan to put in about 1/3 the recommended amount every 2 weeks in between water changes. ie. change water one week dose the next. I change 2 gallons of water every other week.

Running a 14G biocube BTW

First of all, your mushrooms are doing that not because of positioning, but rather lighting.

As for dosing, I don't know why you would need to do so if you only have a xenia and mushroom. If you had sps corals, I'd understand the need for dosing for calcium/alk.

In addition, you will ALWAYS need test kits for whatever you are dosing. One is because you wouldn't know exactly whether or not you have a lack of a trace element without testing for it. Then if you are indeed low on a certain thing like calcium, you would need to test for it to see how much of it you need to dose.

In my opinion, your reason for slow growth and whatnot is due to lighting and lack of water changes. You could probably get by with weekly water changes to replenish trace elements.

 

[Veganbrian]

First of all, your mushrooms are doing that not because of positioning, but rather lighting.

As for dosing, I don't know why you would need to do so if you only have a xenia and mushroom. If you had sps corals, I'd understand the need for dosing for calcium/alk.

In addition, you will ALWAYS need test kits for whatever you are dosing. One is because you wouldn't know exactly whether or not you have a lack of a trace element without testing for it. Then if you are indeed low on a certain thing like calcium, you would need to test for it to see how much of it you need to dose.

In my opinion, your reason for slow growth and whatnot is due to lighting and lack of water changes. You could probably get by with weekly water changes to replenish trace elements.

+1 on lighting. Makes a huge difference. You can get the retrofit LED kit for your tank.

 

[TundraGuy]

I got to agree with these guys. In your tank one of the big things people do is upgrade the lights. Now with that said can I ask how long have you been using the stock lights? I have found the stock PCs last about 6 months before they start to shift. They will glow for years but this is not to say they can support corals for years. They shift color and light quality over time. Both of these things are very difficult for our eyes to pick up on. So we must look for signs in the tank telling us that it’s time for new lights. For instance corals stretching towards the light is a good indication of needing more light.

I also agree with the statement of in your tank you could get by with W/C to replenish the elements. Your running with forgiving corals that don’t require much by way of love from you. Get on the W/C and check out them lights.

 

[91mini]

I changed out my lights 3 months ago. I can bump the water changes from every other week to weekly.

My full list of coral's are: Green star polyps, Zoas, Xenia, Green Tongue Coral, and Mushrooms. The tongue coral did start to brown a little but I changed from fish store water to mixing my own and it perked up big time. Xenia still don't want to grow though. If I could get better/faster growth from my Zoas that would also be a huge plus. All of these coral have been in my tank for 2 months or longer. I havent added anything in a long time. I was thinking of getting a neon green senilaris (sp?) as my next and probably last coral. I have a very high flow area of the tank I have in mind for it.

 

[Veganbrian]

Lighting is the most important part of the tank and it will change everything about your tank by switching to a better lighting system. LED is what's up. I'm running the ai nano sol on my biocude 14g and everything is so happy in there and my Xenia and gsp grow insanely fast and I can have anything without a problem clams,sps,lps... Look into it. You will not regret it.

 

[91mini]

Lighting is the most important part of the tank and it will change everything about your tank by switching to a better lighting system. LED is what's up. I'm running the ai nano sol on my biocude 14g and everything is so happy in there and my Xenia and gsp grow insanely fast and I can have anything without a problem clams,sps,lps... Look into it. You will not regret it.

How simple was the installation? Was it made for the BioCube?

 

[yongpanda]

^ I personally have no experience with the Biocubes but I do know a possible alternative you can use in terms of lighting. Instead of having the hood on, you can always take it off and hang a Par38 bulb over the tank. There are plenty of used cheap ones on the forums whether here on RC or NR ranging from $50-$90. One bulb should do you fine.

 

[Veganbrian]

Yongpanda has a good suggestion the par 38 bulbs are cheap and work awesome. My ai nano sol light is a whole separate unit. I took the took off my tank completely.

 

[yongpanda]

AI is also great if you have the money. I just order a AI Sol Blue to replace my Par38 rapidled bulb. I will be posting it in the FS forum soon so if you're interested, just PM me ahead of time.

 

[ange062]

Agree with above, lighting is the most important part of your tank. And test for anything that you dose. Sounds like a standard response, I know, but give it enough time and you will realize why people say this.

 

[TundraGuy]

flow is the most important thing in the tank then lighting. Now after reading that you just changed the lights 3 months ago my next question is whats in your filter? Sometimes we get build ups of yellowing or greening agents in the water (often this goes unnoticed by the aquarist) these agents block light lowering the Par that reaches the coral. So are you using any carbon, per filters, protein skimming? If so it may be time to change or maintenance these items. WC helps a lot, but it’s up to these other items to maintain the water between water changes.

 

[91mini]

I put I