Does coral snow reduce DOC?

[fishnchips17]

So I know coral snow can get rid of the yellow tinge in reef water and help with the water's clarity but wondering if it also reduces the DOC in the water?

If it does help reduce the DOC, then how often do you have to dose coral snow to keep DOC level in check?

 

[Dan_P]

So I know coral snow can get rid of the yellow tinge in reef water and help with the water's clarity but wondering if it also reduces the DOC in the water?

If it does help reduce the DOC, then how often do you have to dose coral snow to keep DOC level in check?

How did you determine DOC is an issue?

I doubt coral snow is as effective as is reported on social media.

 

[Mattiejay6]

How did you determine DOC is an issue?

I doubt coral snow is as effective as is reported on social media.

While I’m not educated on DOC, the article Salem wrote was pretty well versed and seems that it would be a big issue. Also Christian from Oceamo and Triton both have methods for testing DOC. Initial feed back of just running certain Catalytic carbon has been reported increased coral health.

Seems it would be important

 

[Mattiejay6]

OP I do think it’s a good momentary clarifier with helping reduce particulates as a sort of Floc method. I don’t see it really reducing DOC overall tho. Ozone and Catalytic carbon seem more effective.

 

[Dan_P]

While I’m not educated on DOC, the article Salem wrote was pretty well versed and seems that it would be a big issue. Also Christian from Oceamo and Triton both have methods for testing DOC. Initial feed back of just running certain Catalytic carbon has been reported increased coral health.

Seems it would be important

Got it.

Bacteria pretty much keep aquaria carbon depleted. The carbon measured by vendors is likely just stuff nothing wants to eat, i.e., not any of the organic carbon mentioned in Salem’s article and of unknown importance to coral.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I expect adding calcium carbonate binds many things, including dissolved organics. Reduced yellowing, at least if it happens rapidly, is definitive proof of that.

I’m personally not going to use the method since it is not clear to me whether the particles can harm filter feeders with very fine pores such as sponges.

 

[fishnchips17]

I expect adding calcium carbonate binds many things, including dissolved organics. Reduced yellowing, at least if it happens rapidly, is definitive proof of that.

I’m personally not going to use the method since it is not clear to me whether the particles can harm filter feeders with very fine pores such as sponges.

Interesting... I'm dosing silicates to promote the growth of sponges cause that's the preferred way of reducing DOC according to Salem's article. Until my sponges grow in, I was hoping dosing coral snow would reduce DOC since I'm already dosing it for water clarity but didn't know it could harm filter feeders like sponges.

I think I'll keep on dosing coral snow but keep an eye on my sponges to see if coral snow is affecting their growth.

 

[pooootiqe]

Zeolite powder will bind to colored compounds (tested with methylene blue) much more aggressively compared to calcium carbonate. In fact I speculate it being the main ingredient of ZeoZym.

Corals do consume DOC though and stripping it all out may not be a good thing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Zeolite powder will bind to colored compounds (tested with methylene blue) much more aggressively compared to calcium carbonate. In fact I speculate it being the main ingredient of ZeoZym.

Corals do consume DOC though and stripping it all out may not be a good thing.

I would not use methylene blue (a positively charged compound) as a surrogate for how well organics will bind to different materials from seawater.

 

[pooootiqe]

I would not use methylene blue (a positively charged compound) as a surrogate for how well organics will bind to different materials from seawater.

Thanks for pointing it out Randy. Any dye you would recommend for testing? Would bromophenol blue work?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for pointing it out Randy. Any dye you would recommend for testing? Would bromophenol blue work?

None are perfect, but something like bromcresol green might be better, being an anion.

 

[fishnchips17]

Zeolite powder will bind to colored compounds (tested with methylene blue) much more aggressively compared to calcium carbonate. In fact I speculate it being the main ingredient of ZeoZym.

Corals do consume DOC though and stripping it all out may not be a good thing.

I think calcium carbonate is a better choice for me than zeolite powder cause calcium carbonate can be acquired cheaply and I'm already dosing it for water clarity. Also like you said, zeolite powder might be too aggressive with doc consumption.

 

[fishnchips17]

OP I do think it’s a good momentary clarifier with helping reduce particulates as a sort of Floc method. I don’t see it really reducing DOC overall tho. Ozone and Catalytic carbon seem more effective.

I don't want to use ozone cause that's adding more equipment and making my reefing more complicated than I'd like. I'm not sold on carbon... the only time I used it, I got bad reactions from my corals and killed my forest fire digitata. I might have used too much carbon that one time and I was using GAC vs CAC like you suggested, but I'm just not a fan of carbon.

Long term, I want to grow more sponges in my reef, so that should help with DOC levels.

 

[Mattiejay6]

I don't want to use ozone cause that's adding more equipment and making my reefing more complicated than I'd like. I'm not sold on carbon... the only time I used it, I got bad reactions from my corals and killed my forest fire digitata. I might have used too much carbon that one time and I was using GAC vs CAC like you suggested, but I'm just not a fan of carbon.

Long term, I want to grow more sponges in my reef, so that should help with DOC levels.

Do a cryptic fuge then for your sponges and get some good ocean rock

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

How did you determine DOC is an issue?

I doubt coral snow is as effective as is reported on social media.

We white bucket tested this many times and could never see a visual reduction of yellow compounds. Yet in the tank everyone would swear it was clearer .

I think you see what you are told to see and it isn’t really reducing yellow compounds to any meaningful degree. .

 

[Dan_P]

I think you see what you are told to see and it isn’t really reducing yellow compounds to any meaningful degree. .

HaHa, yes, we all behave like AI’s. A bad training set means bad a output, hallucinations.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

We white bucket tested this many times and could never see a visual reduction of yellow compounds. Yet in the tank everyone would swear it was clearer .

I think you see what you are told to see and it isn’t really reducing yellow compounds to any meaningful degree. .

Yellowing compounds are a very small subset of doc, so one should consider the goal when deciding in methods (reducing doc or reducing yellowing). Those two goals may have different methods to best achieve them.

Is there some reason you do not want to use GAC?

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

Yellowing compounds are a very small subset of doc, so one should consider the goal when deciding in methods (reducing doc or reducing yellowing). Those two goals may have different methods to best achieve them.

Is there some reason you do not want to use GAC?

This isn’t something that spoke to me as high value and we just tested it because I had a suspicion that removing the yellow pigments was more fiction than fact.

What we did was take a bucket of water out of various tanks . Then ran coral snow overnight and pulled another bucket. The water looked identical in every instance.

The white background of the bucket makes it really easy to see differences and I don’t think there was any. Like you suggested carbon performs starkly better.

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

HaHa, yes, we all behave like AI’s. A bad training set means bad an output, hallucinations.

LOL There is something about how the tank clouds up white and then clears than makes you feel like it cleared the water. Even after seeing the result one internal person kept using it simply because “they thought it worked on their tank” Hallucinations is the right word :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

LOL There is something about how the tank clouds up white and then clears than makes you feel like it cleared the water. Even after seeing the result one internal person kept using it simply because “they thought it worked on their tank” Hallucinations is the right word :)

Hey, welcome to the chem forum. :)

Sorry for the last post, I thought you were the op.