Red Sea AB+ Overdosing?

Sebreef93

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I have 8 months old tank, and I have been dosing RS AB+ for almost 2 months. I have noticed since past few weeks that my soft corals (mushrooms) aren't looking great. Recently, I have realised looking at Red Sea MyRecipe Wizard that the amount of the RS AB+ I was using was too much (around 1ml more daily than recommended dose for my tank = the water volume is around 46l). Is it possible that overdosing caused increased dissolved organic compounds in the water and cause distress to my soft corals? Since last 2-3 weeks I have more algae grow in the tank, and I wasn't able to my normal water change as I was traveling for work for 2 weeks. My parameters are Alka is 9.1, Calcium 400, Salinity 1.25, Phosphate 0.1, nitrates around 5. I have stopped dosing RS AB+ and performed 10% WC yesterday. I was thinking about doing another 10-15% WC in the next 3 days. Is there anything else you would recommend in this situation?
 

Pistondog

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Maybe stop the ab+.
Both times i started dosing, some euphyllia exhibited bjd.
Ab+ helps all organisms, not just corals but bacteria also.
 

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I don't think it's causing any problems. It shouldn't significantly increase phosphate and your nitrates are low ish so it should be fine to use. I've dose massive amounts into my tanks.
 
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Sebreef93

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I don't think it's causing any problems. It shouldn't significantly increase phosphate and your nitrates are low ish so it should be fine to use. I've dose massive amounts into my tanks.
The tank is only 13.5g and I'm not running any skimmer. I have heard that it can increase dissolved organic compounds in the water that may affect water quality (without making changes to nitrates or phosphates). Seems to be the only logical explanation as the issues started after I was dosing RS AB+
 

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The tank is only 13.5g and I'm not running any skimmer. I have heard that it can increase dissolved organic compounds in the water that may affect water quality (without making changes to nitrates or phosphates). Seems to be the only logical explanation as the issues started after I was dosing RS AB+

Do you run activated carbon? If so, I wouldn't worry about DOCs. I also don't run skimmers in my tanks
 
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Sebreef93

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Do you run activated carbon? If so, I wouldn't worry about DOCs. I also don't run skimmers in my tanks
I do run it, however I have missed my reminder to replace it when I was on AL therefore it has been not replaced for an extended period which probably didn't help. I have changed it last Sunday
 

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