Carbon dosing with Tropic Marin NP Bacto Balance?

[aaron186]

My ~100 gal tank is a little over a year old. I had a battle with Dinos that I beat by increasing my nutrients in my tank initially by dosing Brightwell NeoPhos/Nitrate and now just from increased food from my reef jerky avast plank autofeeder dumping in about the equivalent of 3.5 cubes per day. The tank seems to be holding pretty steady with a N of 5-7 and a Phos of 0.08 on my Hanna checker.

My tank is probably over filtered with a Red Sea 500 filter roller and an Octo Elite 150sss skimmer and chaeto fuge.

I was looking into cutting back my feeding and possibly dosing N/P again but I came across Tropic Marin NP Bactobalance and have been reading/watching videos on carbon dosing and I’m a little intrigued by it. My understanding of this product is that it claims to keep your nitrogen and phosphate stable by dosing N/P along with the carbon. So rather than lowering nutrients like dosing vodka, it should in theory convert inorganic N/P into organic N/P in bacteria that can be easily consumed by the coral. At least that’s what the videos are claiming - namely one with BRS and the guy from Tropic Marin.

I’m already dosing phyto/zooplankton with Easy Reef Booster and EasyReef SPS evo.

Would adding Tropic Marin NP Balance be a good idea or should I avoid it? My SPS colors are still a touch on the pale side.

Thanks for your insights

 

[exnisstech]

I've been using bacto balance for 9 months or so. It took some time for things to level out. By that I mean I did have to dose N and P off and on to keep it from bottoming out but it's probably been a couple of months since I've had to. For me it seems to work well but still requires testing and tweaking of N and P which I'm sure varies by tank and nutrient export etc.
This will get you a bump at least so maybe others with more knowledge will chime in.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’ve not really been convinced of the utility of bactobalance relative to the myriad of other ways to impact availability of N and P.

 

[Formulator]

In my experience carbon dosing done right will deplete your nitrates very efficiently. It was useful when the current group thought in the hobby was basically all nitrates are evil and must be eliminated. People were essentially chasing zero and carbon dosing could give you that. Now it seems the mindset has shifted and acknowledged the benefits of having some level of nitrates, and I’m not really sure what benefit carbon dosing has unless you are looking for very precise control of your nutrient levels, which is probably unnecessary IMO.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

and I’m not really sure what benefit carbon dosing has unless you are looking for very precise control of your nutrient levels, which is probably unnecessary IMO.

Food for corals and other filter feeders in the form of bacteria. That’s a main reason I used vinegar dosing.

 

[aaron186]

Food for corals and other filter feeders in the form of bacteria. That’s a main reason I used vinegar dosing.

Do you still vinegar dose now?

 

[Formulator]

Food for corals and other filter feeders in the form of bacteria. That’s a main reason I used vinegar dosing.

Ahh, good point. When I used it, I was chasing the trendy ultra low nutrient system at the time. I didn’t consider the other benefits of the bacteria we were feeding.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you still vinegar dose now?

I likely would, but the tank is no longer up.