No fish, no nitrogen? no phosphorus? Only residuals? Residual what? Typically folks feed fish, which in turn provide the corals the Nitroget/phosphorus they need. In that case maintaining low residual N03/P04 waste products is reasonable. The corals do in fact need N/P
Sure. It looks like us experienced reefers are questioning the OPs pathway to their success. If we didn't sense a flaw in the logic we would never have even brought it up. IME, a normal to high nutrient mixed reef is much easier to grow out than one where the inhabitants are just getting by. And I also agree that one can maintain a reef without a skimmer, those reefs are certainly not zero nutrient tanks though. A skimmer provides so many benefits I just can't find any reason to not want to use one. The oxygenation alone is worth it, that drives up the orp and increases the pH by promoting gas exchange which in turn increases general water quality. Collecting disolved waste in the water is almost a secondary benefit.
exactly... Im not made of money and dont want to just start buying a ton of equipment... i have run several tanks in the past with healthy reefs, SPS, Tridacna Clams and never owned a Skimmer... If i find for some reason i need one in the future i would consider it. Im not a fan of Fish in general and dont expect having a massive bioload. By residuals i of course mean small amounts of Nitrates and Phos which a skimmer would likely only make my tank "too clean". Oxygen would certainly be a nice benefit to a skimmer but i can increase oxygen a number of ways through the sump.Sure. It looks like us experienced reefers are questioning the OPs pathway to their success. If we didn't sense a flaw in the logic we would never have even brought it up. IME, a normal to high nutrient mixed reef is much easier to grow out than one where the inhabitants are just getting by. And I also agree that one can maintain a reef without a skimmer, those reefs are certainly not zero nutrient tanks though. A skimmer provides so many benefits I just can't find any reason to not want to use one. The oxygenation alone is worth it, that drives up the orp and increases the pH by promoting gas exchange which in turn increases general water quality. Collecting disolved waste in the water is almost a secondary benefit.
On several occasions I've tried to lower the nutrients in my tank and had corals turn white and die, zoanthids lose color and stop opening up, goniopora stop extending their arms and eventually rtn away etc. It just doesn't work well, at least I haven't found it to work well. My current tank only took off after I stopped trying to maintain N and P at very low levels because thats what "everyone" was recommending at the moment. It seems that as of late, letting those levels elevate does have some positive benefits, I have witnessed it myself in my own tank.
We're just trying to help steer someone in the right direction
Fair enough! Most of the time a bacterial bloom will go away on it's own after the bacteria have consumed all of their fuel supply. It may take a few days or it may take a few weeks depending on what the source is but it will typically go away on it's own eventually. As I have mentioned you can mix up some calcium carbonate slurry and add that to the tank, it will turn the water milky for a few hours and then start to coagulate all of the particles in the water so they can be filtered out. Bacteria are very small so it may not clear it up 100% but it will begin to help. You'd need a way to filter it out though. Letting it settle to the bottom and siphoning it out would be my method. Calcium carbonate is easily obtained from Amazon for less than $10 for a pound of it, it's used as an antacid and is 100% safe for a marine tank. It's also called "coral snow" if you search for it here. Fwiw, I use it semi regularly to clarify the water, the water is so clear the morning after I've dosed it makes it appear there's no water in the tank.
Thank you! Maybe I will try this. I haven't heard of it anywhere else. I have a mechanical filter hanging in tank right now for more oxygen. And a decent size bag of poly fill.
Fair enough! Most of the time a bacterial bloom will go away on it's own after the bacteria have consumed all of their fuel supply. It may take a few days or it may take a few weeks depending on what the source is but it will typically go away on it's own eventually. As I have mentioned you can mix up some calcium carbonate slurry and add that to the tank, it will turn the water milky for a few hours and then start to coagulate all of the particles in the water so they can be filtered out. Bacteria are very small so it may not clear it up 100% but it will begin to help. You'd need a way to filter it out though. Letting it settle to the bottom and siphoning it out would be my method. Calcium carbonate is easily obtained from Amazon for less than $10 for a pound of it, it's used as an antacid and is 100% safe for a marine tank. It's also called "coral snow" if you search for it here. Fwiw, I use it semi regularly to clarify the water, the water is so clear the morning after I've dosed it makes it appear there's no water in the tank.what is the actual ingredient in Calcium Carbonate? Is it the same as Calcium Nitrate? I also grow cannabis for a number of years now and do have pure Calcium Nitrate on hand...
Are you running lights on this tank? If yes, maybe a black out might help? I’m stuck by the green cloud in one of the images, looks photosynthetic more than bacterial.
yes i am. Ive cut them way down over last week. I know what you mean but the little bit of rock i can see through the water is still clean as can be from any algae, the glass and everything else too. I also tried Calcium Carbonate yesterday and so far i just have a milky white bacterial bloom now. The only reason i havent gone completely blackout is becuase i did have a couple frags of zoas and gsp in there already. Although i havent seen how they are actually doing for 2 weeks now.
even if it is something photosynthetic like plankton or algae, would a UV sterilizer help with that as well?
It could if the uv and flow through it are properly sized to achieve a good exposure/kill rate.
Maybe it's dynos? I don't have a lot of experience with dynos.
These things are not always the same, as the source, age, and other factors affecting the rock clearly impact the outcome(s) of setting up a “new” system.
We used to use the die off on "wild" live rock to cycle aquariums but most of us also had a longer ugly phase vs a lot of modern tanks. I've had new aquariums look like yours and instead of changing a bunch of stuff I waited and it cleared up completely in 2 weeks.
