I love all the information but I am confused on a couple things. I have been out of the hobby a few years but came back 7 months ago and have a sps dominated reef. What worked back then still works today. You have the benefit of knowing what has worked for you before, and it should work the same now, for the most part. Some of the equipment has changed but what were solid methods in 2004 are still solid methods in 2013.
The whole carbon dosing thing and vodka dosing and pellets and all that was not happening a few years back when I left. So that is new to me, but it seems these things cause more problems than good. I have been carbon dosing since 2005, it isn't new but it's use has grown a lot.
The other thing is there are many many tanks out there that have zero N03 and P04 that run amazing sps systems. In fact zero P04 and N03 were the best ways to run these systems through the berlin method or through a refugium. I mean look back through past years TOTM threads and see. One important difference is back then we did not have testing methods commonly available with a high enough resolution. Most of us used Salifert or other titration tests, if it read zero we knew it really wasn't zero but it was close enough. In reality our actual numbers could have been 0 to .09, we really didn't know as accurately as we do today.
Now were saying to run some nitrates and phosphates...? I dont get it. I have pretty good color on my reef, could it be better, yes definetly. But I still have color. I believe it has to do with lighting and how corals are acclimated to it and what type of lighting you use and at what spectrum. As lighting increases, so should food.I always ran halides and got good color with zero N03 and P04. I now run t-5's, and the color seems a bit more pastel looking, Definetly not as rich and deep as with Halides. I have read studies that feeding you corals will result in better growth and color, but you have to keep nutrients low and in balance. A good skimmer will help with this. Feed your fish! Remember, on a natural reef there is zero N03 and P04, but plenty of food. Its about a good balance of these things IMO. I agree completely. This is a fair representation of how a Zeo system works, low nutrients and plenty of food for the corals. One of the biggest issues people face is how to get enough food for the corals and still keep the no3 and po4 in check. Carbon dosing can do this but it can also remove too many nutrients which will lead to pale corals. It's the same problem with pellets, the mfg's recommend far more than are actually needed, I had the same problem in early 2010, too many pellets and everything began to suffer. Once I removed the majority of them from the reactor things improved and I was able to figure out how much to run and still keep the corals from starving. Finding the level of no3 and po4 that your tank likes is the key. It isn't the same number for all of us and our tanks process nutrients differently. For my tank no3 of about 5 and po4 of .04 to .07 works best. It may be different for someone else's tank.
