Elegance in “Mother Natures” Natural Reefing Skills

[Subsea]

Nutrient Management by “Old School” Reefer

@PaulB Those pictures make you the Sponge King. Myself, I prefer sponge cake. Did you collect those or did they grow out in time from your rock? This is great. The most life in my tank by far is sponges and they cover all available real estate. A little to agressive but they are great...

www.reef2reef.com

while research papers can get difficult to navigate, after 50 years of Reefing, I know quite a bit about Homeostasis.

In 1971 at Texas Maritime Academy, I took Chemical Oceanoraphy as a technical elective. At that time, Dynamic Equilibrium, explained one part of Homeostasis in our reef tanks: gas exchange between athmospheric gases, mainly nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen, and ocean waters provide carbon dosing and nitrogen enrichment.

Lets park here:
1. Natures way to carbon dose uses the solubility of carbon dioxide in water to provide carbonate alkalinity to algae that when combined with photosynthesis produces glucose, which is carbon for the reef. @Dana Riddle said it this way, “Photosynthesis combines the inorganic with the organic works.

2. Nitrogen enrichment uses cynobacteria to convert free nitrogen gas molecules in the water into ammonia that is assimilated into their biomas. For this reason, when you starve your system for nitrogen, you open the door for opportunistic nuisance species as you reduce completion for other nutrients by limiting nitrogen to those that require inorganic nitrogen in bulk wate

 

[IKD]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Subsea]

Thanks for sharing!

Glad t9 oblidge.

 

[Subsea]

I should better define my use of “elegance” as “effortless beauty” which is how nature operates. Because nature is efficient with its use of energy & nutrients, when things are balanced in homeostasis the intricate details are never known.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

in the ocean, nobody is dosing nopox and chemiclean nor whenever a coral dies, the ocean dosent do a water change nor does it raise calcium and alkalinity

 

[Subsea]

in the ocean, nobody is dosing nopox and chemiclean nor whenever a coral dies, the ocean dosent do a water change nor does it raise calcium and alkalinity

The ocean does balance calcium with calcium solubility in limestone sediments and alkalinity with carbon dioxide solubility between athmosphere and water. It’s called “Dynamic Equilibrium”

ACS Advocacy Workshops - American Chemical Society

American Chemical Society: Chemistry for Life.

www.acs.org

Did you not read the link on nitrogen fixation.

BioLINCS | Nitrogen Cycling in the Open Ocean

hahana.soest.hawaii.edu

What fixes nitrogen in the ocean?





Nitrogen gas is the most abundant form of nitrogen in the ocean, but is not useful to most living things. Dissolved nitrogen gas is taken up by just a few types microbes, which convert the nitrogen into a much more useable form, known as ammonium (NH4+). This process, known as “nitrogen fixation,” is vitally

 

[Kennya]

The ocean does balance calcium with calcium solubility in limestone sediments and alkalinity with carbon dioxide solubility between athmosphere and water. It’s called “Dynamic Equilibrium”

ACS Advocacy Workshops - American Chemical Society

American Chemical Society: Chemistry for Life.

www.acs.org

Did you not read the link on nitrogen fixation.

BioLINCS | Nitrogen Cycling in the Open Ocean

hahana.soest.hawaii.edu

What fixes nitrogen in the ocean?




Nitrogen gas is the most abundant form of nitrogen in the ocean, but is not useful to most living things. Dissolved nitrogen gas is taken up by just a few types microbes, which convert the nitrogen into a much more useable form, known as ammonium (NH4+). This process, known as “nitrogen fixation,” is vitally

Wow, think my brain went into overload with this. Guess it explains why there are threads on here suggesting that it may be better to dose ammonia/ ammonium to a tank rather than e.g. sodium nitrate. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

The ocean does balance calcium with calcium solubility in limestone sediments and alkalinity with carbon dioxide solubility between athmosphere and water. It’s called “Dynamic Equilibrium”

ACS Advocacy Workshops - American Chemical Society

American Chemical Society: Chemistry for Life.

www.acs.org

Did you not read the link on nitrogen fixation.

BioLINCS | Nitrogen Cycling in the Open Ocean

hahana.soest.hawaii.edu

What fixes nitrogen in the ocean?




Nitrogen gas is the most abundant form of nitrogen in the ocean, but is not useful to most living things. Dissolved nitrogen gas is taken up by just a few types microbes, which convert the nitrogen into a much more useable form, known as ammonium (NH4+). This process, known as “nitrogen fixation,” is vitally

i agree, i was trying to imply that the ocean dosent have a giant bucket of kalkwasser and hanna tests that they use every day

 

[Subsea]

@Kennya
Because I don’t do water changes but once a year, I regularly add chaetogro & ammonia to assist with high nutrients for high growth required in ornamental seaweed mixed garden lagoon.

 

[Kennya]

@Subsea
Interesting, makes sense. Chaetogro for trace elements and ammonia as the nitrogen source?
What about phosphorus or is this generally in abundance in your systems?

 

[Subsea]

Phosphorus is abundant in sentiments. I think it comes in with the air.

 

[Subsea]

i agree, i was trying to imply that the ocean dosent have a giant bucket of kalkwasser and hanna tests that they use every day

Noah,
My bad to misunderstand your indent. Thank you for joining in. And you are right, I have not tested in > 20 yrs.

At the risk of being a “disciple of the obvious”, it’s more than implied. ”Dynamic Eqilibrium“ is a principle of science. It’s foundational in Chemical Oceanorgraph.

Alkalinity and mineral balance are maintained using limestone sediments in the ocean and carbon dioxide concentration in the athmosphere.

carbon dosing is accomplished using carbon dioxide in atmosphere to buffer water with alkalinity that when coupled with photosynthesis produces glucose, which is carbon for the reef.

Amino acids are produced when bacteria act on proteins. With 20 types of amino acids, about 1/3 are from plant proteins and 2/3 are derived from animal protein.

 

[Subsea]

Nutrient recycling is a complex process. For me, it intrigues me to see how does nature do it. After observing the Coral Holibiont for 50 yrs, I see how nature does it, yet I don’t know the scientific details on how bacteria communicate & cooperate using gene expression.

Instead of trying to explain the science, I would like to illustrate some of the processes.

Nutrient recycling using macroalga. Becaus I can’t keep desirable macro in display with Hippo, when I prune & remove green caulerpa & red grapes from seaweed mixed garden lagoon, it is nutrient export but it would be nutrient recycling if fish in same tank eat it.

In #1 picture, macro from 40G lagoon is added to 75G display for Hippo Tang.

In #2 picture is a different type of nutrient recycling with ornamental Red Tree Sponge which filters out microbes of bacteria & micro inverts into sponge biomass. Algae Blennie, Flame Angel and Tangs graze on tree sponge.

#3, 4, 5 picture shows 40G cryptic refugium on 120G display of 4 yr mature tank.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

what kind of fish would eat macro but not kill it that could livei n 10 gallons

 

[Subsea]

Sailfin algae Bennie will eat both desirable & undesirableslgae. Personally, I would stick with snails and prune macro as required.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

could a sea hare work?

 

[Subsea]

could a sea hare work?

Many things “could” work. Sea Hares haven’t worked out for me. In addition to snails, I have mollies adjusted to full strength salt in some tanks.