Is there a need to reduce 'nutrients'

[121]

if NO3 and P04 is within range?

Can you over feed if NO3 and PO4 is within acceptable levels?

Can dissolved organic compounds be a problem to corals if NO3 and PO4 is within range?

Can you do away with water changes, live rock, sand (areas for bacteria to colonize) and skimming if your carbon dosing successfully reduces NO3 and PO4 to natural saltwater levels?

 

[disc1]

if NO3 and P04 is within range?

Can you over feed if NO3 and PO4 is within acceptable levels?

Have good NO3 and PO4 levels and dump in a whole box of flakes. You just overfed. I don't get the question.

Can dissolved organic compounds be a problem to corals if NO3 and PO4 is within range?

Depends on the type of organics, but certainly they could be high while nitrate and phosphate are low. Especially if there is algae in the tank consuming the nutrients but not the organics.

Can you do away with water changes, live rock, sand (areas for bacteria to colonize) and skimming if your carbon dosing successfully reduces NO3 and PO4 to natural saltwater levels?

Carbon dosing works by feeding bacteria causing them to multiply which consumes nutrients. Then those bacteria are removed by the skimmer and take those nutrients out with them. If you take the bacteria and the skimmer out of the equation then it isn't going to do anything helpful anymore. You'll basically stop the carbon dosing from working.

Not to mention the fact that all that rock and sand and bacteria aren't there to remove nitrate or phosphate. Those are places for the bacteria to colonize to run your nitrogen cycle. Without them, you probably wouldn't have hardly any nitrate since the ammonia in the tank wouldn't be converted to nitrate. It would just build up. You'd have high ammonia levels and dead animals instead.

 

[121]

Have good NO3 and PO4 levels and dump in a whole box of flakes. You just overfed. I don't get the question.

I'll start with this answer disc1.

Corals get an abundance of food in the wild at night and the NO3 and PO4 remains low.
What's the difference between 'dumping in a whole box of flakes' AND maintaining natural levels of NO3 and PO4 as apposed to feeding a few flakes?

Obviously you can overfeed as (stating the ridiculously extreme) the aquarium water will become like mud. Is it good for corals to push feeding to the max if your equipt to deal with the inevitable NO3 and PO4?

 

[disc1]

They do get lots of food, but there is also a whole lot more water volume in the ocean for those nutrients to dilute into compared to your tank. The two aren't even remotely comparable. When you have a few quadrillion gallon tank then you can start drawing comparisons between what happens there and in the larger ocean.

 

[gbru316]

I don't have any scientific proof, but I'm willing to bet that the concentration of available food in our tanks is often far higher than the total concentration of the ocean. However, it probably isn't higher than the local concentration of a reef. But the ocean currents sweep those food sources out to sea where they are diluted with the billions of gallons of "clean" water.

 

[reefgeezer]

Could comparing the food concentration on the reef to that in our tanks be an apples and oranges thing? Isn't the majority of the food on the reef made up of living organisms rather than frozen, dried, or otherwise processed material we call food? When not consumed, is it possible that those living organisms help limit available nutrients rather than contributing to them? And... unlike the reef, isn't the processed material we feed to the tank going to add available nutrients regardless of whether or not it is consumed?