From what ive been told and what i understand overfeeding increases trates which plants need and use to grow. Levels yes will get high unless there are enough macroalgaes to balance the system. You cant just overfeed right off the bat. There needs to be enough plant life to uptake the extra nutrients. Instead of overfeeding people also dose KNO3, among other things to get the levels high enough but overfeeding does the same thing. Same thing for freshwater planted tanks which i run now.
I agree once a year doesnt seem like enough and I plan on doing more. The people that dont do WC often have very mature and stable tanks that take care of themselves. Ive even read about some reef tanks (10gal) that havent done WC in 2 years and their tanks are beautiful but they only have softies and a few fish as well as a skimmer. The tank I speak of now also did not use a sump. I as well as many others were very surprised.
The general concensus is that planted marine tanks are very different than reef tanks.
If the skimmer is on 24/7 it removes too many organics which the plants use, thus starving the plants. I think a skimmer is a good thing but not in a planted tank. I plan on running it for 12 hours at a time. If i see the plants showing signs of starving then I will shut off the skimmer and only run once a week or so.
the cooler temps come from people who keep macroalgae tanks with softies and seahorses or pipefish which need the cooler temps. All of them say these tanks need high nutrient levels and so they overfeed to achieve an environment healthy enough to maintain their horses and pipes as well as have a thriving macroalgae garden.
Everyone keeping these type of tanks agrees that there must be high nutrient levels or the tank will not be successful.
Macroalgae sucks up the nutrients and ends up balancing the system. Many of these people i spoke too also have reef tanks (no macroalgae) and they all agree a macro tank is much easier to care for and their water quality is much better because of the macro.
Even years ago when I started looking into macro tanks overfeeding or overstocking (which im not a fan of) to increase nutrient levels was a given. If you didnt do that then you needed to do some serious dosing.
Either way I want a macro algae tank and Im taking advise from people who have kept these tanks successfully for years (3+) not a couple of months or just over a year.
I am also reading up on tom barr's studies for saltwater planted tanks. He is very well respected for freshwater planted tanks. So far his studies are very similar between the two environments.
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