Well, Billy I have good husbandry practices and I use it lightly.
The traditional approaches just don't cover phosphate and nitrate well enough in my system. There are over 40 well fed fish and many sps and lps in the 550g. I 'd have to use pounds of gfo to cover phosphate and run a sulfur dentirator full time or maybe lay out a room full of lighted macroalgae refugia. Alternatively, I could have less interesting tanks with few to no fish or very skinny ones. I use heavy skimming, gac ,dsbs ,gfo and occasional use of the denitrator as well as low/ moderate amounts of vodka/vinegar.(24mlvodka and 2 ml vinegar dalily for the 550g).
There is some risk to carbon dosing. I chose it last and then only for nutrient control with close monitoring and testing . While the bacteria production can be beneficial since bacteria serve as food to some corals and can also metabolize some excess trace metals, it could be harmful in excess in terms of pathogens or blooms and of course too much organic carbon staying behind could be a bad thing.
It does work, in my experience. Holding nitrates to around 2ppm when previously they had been upwards of 50ppm. It also holds inorganic phosphate to around 0.5 ppm when previously it hovered around .15ppm with no change in gfo use.
