Does dirty glass always = high nutrients?

[blasterman]

Is has been shown insufficient phosphorus supply will harm corals after a short period of time, insufficient nitrogen supply will harm corrals only after a much longer period.

Bunk.

Nitrogen and Phosphate levels in wild, healthy reefs are beyond decimal points of detectability. They cause problems in captive tanks because captive tanks acclimate corals to nutrient levels a million times higher than the open ocean and then the coral has problems when you cut off the fertilizer. Just look at the number of fish in the average 125gallon tank -vs- the ocean. Even a low nutrient tank has piles more fertilizer and P04 than a healthy wild reef. Grown plenty of SPS in fishless tanks.

Also, if Po4 were required for SPS growth it would be present in coral skeletons which it isn't.

 

[Crustaceon]

Don’t worry about what’s growing on your glass. Worry about what’s growing on your rocks.

 

[blasterman]

Also, diatom blooms, which are the brown, powdery stuff that grows on your glass can grow out of control with even a trace amount of silicates.

Ever notice the blooms are worse right after a water change? That's because of all the contaminants in commercial salt mixes.

 

[Mikeltee]

Get some snails. I would cut back on whatever you are doing as I have more nitrates and phos than you and I only need to clean once every other week.

 

[Kfactor]

I was getting really bad algae for a bit then I started dosing no3 and po4 and now don’t really have much I think I was bottomed out on my no3 and po4

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Bunk.

Nitrogen and Phosphate levels in wild, healthy reefs are beyond decimal points of detectability. They cause problems in captive tanks because captive tanks acclimate corals to nutrient levels a million times higher than the open ocean and then the coral has problems when you cut off the fertilizer. Just look at the number of fish in the average 125gallon tank -vs- the ocean. Even a low nutrient tank has piles more fertilizer and P04 than a healthy wild reef. Grown plenty of SPS in fishless tanks.

Also, if Po4 were required for SPS growth it would be present in coral skeletons which it isn't.

I think you miss a lot of what happens in the ocean looking at it this way. Sure the ocean has very very low levels of nitrate and phosphate, but that is simply because of the nutrients being cycled through quickly, the total available nutrients don’t measure accurately what is active it being uptaken and used, whereas the nutrients actually available for these organisms locally could be much higher at an instant point in time. In the ocean, nitrate and phosphate are almost always available in very healthy large levels to corals plankton and algae but are constantly being released and uptaken by the ecosystem.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Bunk.

Nitrogen and Phosphate levels in wild, healthy reefs are beyond decimal points of detectability. They cause problems in captive tanks because captive tanks acclimate corals to nutrient levels a million times higher than the open ocean and then the coral has problems when you cut off the fertilizer. Just look at the number of fish in the average 125gallon tank -vs- the ocean. Even a low nutrient tank has piles more fertilizer and P04 than a healthy wild reef. Grown plenty of SPS in fishless tanks.

Also, if Po4 were required for SPS growth it would be present in coral skeletons which it isn't.

Isn't it ?
Natural seawater contains an average of +- 0.07ppm phosphorus which equals +- 0.15ppm phosphate.
Corals skeletons are made of mainly aragonite and calcite but also maintain minerals and trace elements including phosphorus. Depending on the region aragonite may contain 0.1% - 0.2% phosphate.
It is not only about what is present in the water column, it is about what can be delivered when needed on the spot where the action is. For example, to supply symbiodinium with what is needed boundaries must be taken and membranes penetrated, the symbiodinium is not in direct contact with the surrounding water.
A coral holobiont is a self-supporting system, it retrieves energy and carbon via the symbiodinium, nitrogen via nitrogen-fixation, DOC and Phosphorus supply for managing growth rates via mucus. A coral stores nutrients to support its holobiont. In nature corals mainly make use of organic nutrients. Coral mucus may contain 200 x more phosphorus as present in the surrounding waters. The presence of inorganic nutrients in de surrounding waters may be very low but it is used and stored constantly. A coral is prepared for a low nutrient environment. A coral raised in captivity may use its holobiont differently. About the differences, I have not much info at present.
I follow you saying problems may occur when they are cut off of the fertilizers, high DOC availability and high C:N ratio's in the surrounding waters will make it very difficult or impossible for the coral to manage its own coral holobiont. ref: http://www.baharini.eu/baharini/doku.php?id=nl:makazi:theorie:koraal_holoboint

 

[Keen4]

Agree with the Phytoplankton causing the glass to get covered quicker. When I dose phyto heavy, my glass quickly gets a powder coating on it, but is easily brushed off.

BTW, my NO3 is under 5 ppm.

OMG so thats it- my Reefroids!

 

[Keen4]

I’ve been told that striping water of phosphate will starve your corals

Anemones need a little bit of it to photosynthesize.

 

[Aquatope]

This is a simple way to look at it. Algae needs 3 things to grow, light, substrate and nutrients. Making sure your lights are fresh and have not drifted in spectrum is all you can do with that aspect besides making sure you are not exceeding 14 hours per day. Substrate is everywhere, the water, the rocks, the glass anywhere in the tank. Now nutrients are key at controlling algae. Yes if you have algae growth on your glass you have high nutrients, and how quickly it grows will tell you how bad your nutrients are. I know you will say well I test and all my level are low, that is because the nutrients you are testing for have already been absorbed by the algae. This is the same reason we use turf scrubbers and refugium. These techniques use algae to remove nutrients by growing algae in a preferred location.