Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
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I´ll turn the question upside down.
Why should not carbohydrates be useful for different microrganism and/or corals in an aquarium like mine that ´s constructed in a way to support biological processes? If you know that they are released and you know their biological importance in a living ecosystem - why can´t you claim that it can be useful ? Proteins that can be broken down to different aminoacids (by bacteria) - why should they not be useful as a nitrogen source for bacteria/corals. Instead of adding organic carbon (in this case carbohydrates) - the algae produce it - why can´t that been seen as useful?
From an ecological point of view - if you look at your aquarium from an ecological standpoint - its for me rather clear that this released compounds are usefully.
I do not know what Triton base their claim on - maybe @Ehsan@triton can clarify that but for me it make sense that my system use this released compounds in the same way as the system use the outside produced compounds of the same group (carbohydrates and protein/aminoacids) that I can buy at my LFS.
I do not run a complete Triton system, but I see my fuge as an integrated part of my system – responsible for many different tasks – there the release of carbohydrates and protein/amino acids is one important thing for at least the microbial life in my aquarium. My prove for this is that we know what macro algae release these compounds and we know how organic carbon and proteins/amino acid works in an aquarium.
Sincerely Lasse
I'm not asking about the theoretical of "IF" it might be useful "IF" it was something in particular and "IF" it was present in enough quantity.
I can a list of as lot of organics that WOULD be useful, but really, only if they were released in sufficient quantity to be useful.
I think dosing vinegar is useful in my system. I added many grams a day. Would you call it useful if 1 ng seeped out of algae in a day? I would not.
Metabolite toxins are only toxic at high enough concentration. You are arguing the concentrations are low. Could be. But why are we looking to concentration effects only on the bad things and not the good things. Do you know there is enough of anything good released to actually be "useful".
So again, I think it is an incredibly simple question: Is there evidence that these organics are being released in a way that is useful? If there is evidence, what is it?
If there is no simple data supporting it and it is just an assertion of what some person assumes is happening, I can accept that, but then it carries a lot less weight (IMO).