How many different methods of nutrient export are you using?

[Daniel@R2R]

It's been aptly said that as reefers, we don't keep fish/corals; we keep water. And that keeping water is primarily a game of importing good things and exporting waste. Today let's talk about this second part. There are tons of things you might use for nutrient export in your tank: skimmer, carbon/media reactors, refugium, ATS, filter socks, rolling mats, reef diapers, etc... The options for mechanical and chemical export options seem almost limitless (that may be a slight exaggeration, but you get my point). Most of us use a combination of these nutrient export options to handle this task.

1) So how many different types of nutrient export are you using?
2) How is this working out for you?

Photo by @HB AL

 

[PeterC99]

My number one method of nutrient export is Refugium with Chaeto. Cheap, easy to setup, and very effective! Also use more for other purposes, skimmer and bi-weekly water changes.

Keeps my way over stocked 90g aquarium at PO4 at .08 and NO3 at 4.

 

[shakacuz]

in my 40B i use:

filter sock x 2
marine pure rocks (balls, cubes, plate)
skimmer (red octo classic 110sss)
chaeto
sand bed of approximately 3 inches (probably more)
about 50lbs of LR seeded with MB7, and dr. tims during cycling.

weekly, i dose 4mL of Vibrant and MB7. depending how clean the system is i dose Vibrant bi-weekly, otherwise i do it once every week. due to the Vibrant dosing, my No3 has been going up (still under 15ppm). but generally my No3 is 5-10ppm, and Po4 is .03-.09ppm.

it has been a steady climb to get to where i am in regards of nutrients, but overall everything is working as it should. i definitely need to increase my maintenance on my pumps (nero 3 x2, sicce return pump, skimmer, etc) as my sump is filthy with accumulated detritus.

 

[WheatToast]

1) So how many different types of nutrient export are you using?
Currently, I am running four types of nutrient export on my 40-gallon breeder:
- 10% water changes with Red Sea Salt (not Coral Pro)
- Refugium with 15 pounds of live mud, Sea lettuce (Ulva), Sea grapes (Caulerpa lentillifera), Palm tree algae (Caulerpa paspaloides), and Green fleece algae (Codium decorticatum)
- MarinePure 1.5 inch spheres (Bio balls)
- Other: About 15 pounds of live rock and 115 pounds of live sand

2) How is this working out for you?
There were a few undesirable hitchhikers on the live rock, but ultimately, I have not had too many issues with my setup and it is very effective at lowering nutrient levels. The macroalgae does require fertilization, however.

 

[Quietman]

Just an ATS. Took out the skimmer six months ago which is last time I did a water change. Running about 1/.01 on N/P

 

[Bacon505]

my skimmer is my only nutrients export for my 30 plus fishes

 

[LPS Bum]

I have a few, on both my reef and my FOWLR. Weekly water changes, skimmer, live rock and sand, small daily maintenance dose of NoPox, and carbon and phosguard in a mesh bag (changed out weekly).

I believe in heavy input, heavy output. This system seems to work well for me.

 

[Maureen Hey]

For me, this is a timely question....I haven't posted often but have learned a ton from you all by searching threads - so thank you for that everyone. However, I am am finding myself ( and more importantly my tank) in a struggle to keep nutrients from climbing. I have a 75g tank and a 15g sump stocked with 2 PJ cardinals, 2 Chromis, a Melanurus Wrasse, Tomini Tang, and a Bicolor Blennie, and 4trochus,lots of cerith, 2 bumblebee, 3 conch, and a cleaner shrimp for cuc. I do a 20% w/c every 7 to 10 days. I have live rock and marine pure balls in the sump, use a felt sock and a skimmer rated for up to 130g that pulls a good amount of crud. My phos and nitrate refuse to drop below about .15 and 25 respectively. I battled dinos for about 5 months earlier this year so am kinda freaked about bottoming out my nutrient levels again - my current corals are primarily a mix of zoas, rfa's, acans, hammers, gonis, and a few easy sps...all doing well.... I dose live phyto weekly and culture pods so add a bunch every few weeks - I feed homemade food once per day as well dose to keep ALK/Cal/Mag in line.... is my tank possibly carbon limited and need to provide a carbon source? sorry if this is the wrong place to post this and welcome direction to the correct place...Thanks much in advance

 

[Steve Fast]

VGV has worked quite well for me.

 

[Reefjockey]

My others (besides bio balls, carbon in a media bag, skimmer, and water changes) is foam sponges, and filter floss sheet.
I cannot keep my GCA from being curious about how a powerhead works! Therefore I am always rinsing these foam sponge covers out as they are filled quickly with detritus and algae.

 

[fragit]

I use a filter roller, carbon, gfo, 40 breeder remote fuge and a skimmer on a 120 gal DT. I just shut my skimmer last week. I have undetectable nitrates. We will see what happens.

 

[Grumblez]

GHA is great for nutrient export!


Okay this was actually a empty quarantine tank that turned into a science experiment. It was untouched for almost a year except RO water. If I left the lights off the GHA and subsequently from what I could tell the bristle worm population would decrease with almost all the GHA disappearing. When I turned them back on it would come right back even i had left off for a month plus.

I think this specific bristle worm must eat algae none of them ever got very big but there were tons.

 

[GARRIGA]

Been testing a decomposition filter approach I started in the 80s but didn’t fully grasp the science and stopped in the 90s. Been running it since September with no water changes except changing out 50% to convert from full 35 ppt to 12.5 ppt because I wanted to introduce mollies then convert. I’m back to 33 ppt. Still adding fish.

Nitrates/Phosphates are low but not bottomed out. No hair algae. Almost done with diatoms because of silicates. Experimented with tap for top off. My city water is well managed but apparently high in silicates. Might retry by first filtering the tap with GFO.

My alkalinity keeps rising. Was at 14 but likely due to some extent from the tap top off yet my tap is low in alkalinity. Added Seachem Acid buffer to lower it to 9 and now it’s at 11. Still trying to figure that out. Might be the Reborn being used as gravel where bulk of my nitrification is occurring. Science says you get back half the alkalinity in denitrification that was used by nitrification. Have a few snails and nothing else to consume carbonates.

Only issue I have is low PH at 7.5. Aeration can’t be increased. Can’t add buffers without raising my alkalinity. Next step is acquire some coralline scrapings and seed the tank. Get that growing so I can stabilize the PH via buffering. Then add corals.

Main goal with this build was to finally complete my theory before designing the DT which is a few years away as I need to replace my floors and not doing that with a DT established.

Might try this with a small frag tank I can move around as floor is installed. This way I have my corals established.

No sump. No sock or roller mat. No export other than carbon and changing floss. Might add Purigen back but don’t see the benefit at the moment.

Seems counterintuitive to remove all detritus then add back carbon vis dosing vs having a balanced filtration system that only removes ammonia and nitrites but also handles nitrates and phosphates. Dosing can replace most elements that water changes would resolve although I’m still learning in that aspect. Baby steps.

 

[ZoWhat]

MIT Scientists have just discovered that a Reefer can actually do Water Changes to improve their water quality

 

[Steve Fast]

For me, this is a timely question....I haven't posted often but have learned a ton from you all by searching threads - so thank you for that everyone. However, I am am finding myself ( and more importantly my tank) in a struggle to keep nutrients from climbing. I have a 75g tank and a 15g sump stocked with 2 PJ cardinals, 2 Chromis, a Melanurus Wrasse, Tomini Tang, and a Bicolor Blennie, and 4trochus,lots of cerith, 2 bumblebee, 3 conch, and a cleaner shrimp for cuc. I do a 20% w/c every 7 to 10 days. I have live rock and marine pure balls in the sump, use a felt sock and a skimmer rated for up to 130g that pulls a good amount of crud. My phos and nitrate refuse to drop below about .15 and 25 respectively. I battled dinos for about 5 months earlier this year so am kinda freaked about bottoming out my nutrient levels again - my current corals are primarily a mix of zoas, rfa's, acans, hammers, gonis, and a few easy sps...all doing well.... I dose live phyto weekly and culture pods so add a bunch every few weeks - I feed homemade food once per day as well dose to keep ALK/Cal/Mag in line.... is my tank possibly carbon limited and need to provide a carbon source? sorry if this is the wrong place to post this and welcome direction to the correct place...Thanks much in advance

I would suggest VGV.... I mix 1.75 liters of vodka with 1 cup of dextrose. In my heavily fed and stocked 500 gallon system that never had the water changed (too expensive), I dose 100 ml per day. I recently cut that in half and my nitrates went to 20 and my phosphates around 1. So I dosed 200 ml daily for two weeks and I'm now back at 1.7 and 0.02 respectively. You likely won't need much to do the trick though your skimmer will be working a bit more.

 

[Steve Fast]

Been testing a decomposition filter approach I started in the 80s but didn’t fully grasp the science and stopped in the 90s. Been running it since September with no water changes except changing out 50% to convert from full 35 ppt to 12.5 ppt because I wanted to introduce mollies then convert. I’m back to 33 ppt. Still adding fish.

Nitrates/Phosphates are low but not bottomed out. No hair algae. Almost done with diatoms because of silicates. Experimented with tap for top off. My city water is well managed but apparently high in silicates. Might retry by first filtering the tap with GFO.

My alkalinity keeps rising. Was at 14 but likely due to some extent from the tap top off yet my tap is low in alkalinity. Added Seachem Acid buffer to lower it to 9 and now it’s at 11. Still trying to figure that out. Might be the Reborn being used as gravel where bulk of my nitrification is occurring. Science says you get back half the alkalinity in denitrification that was used by nitrification. Have a few snails and nothing else to consume carbonates.

Only issue I have is low PH at 7.5. Aeration can’t be increased. Can’t add buffers without raising my alkalinity. Next step is acquire some coralline scrapings and seed the tank. Get that growing so I can stabilize the PH via buffering. Then add corals.

Main goal with this build was to finally complete my theory before designing the DT which is a few years away as I need to replace my floors and not doing that with a DT established.

Might try this with a small frag tank I can move around as floor is installed. This way I have my corals established.

No sump. No sock or roller mat. No export other than carbon and changing floss. Might add Purigen back but don’t see the benefit at the moment.

Seems counterintuitive to remove all detritus then add back carbon vis dosing vs having a balanced filtration system that only removes ammonia and nitrites but also handles nitrates and phosphates. Dosing can replace most elements that water changes would resolve although I’m still learning in that aspect. Baby steps.

What's the CO2 in the room? I had the same problem and my room CO2 was 600+. Now that it is winter I vent the room and the room CO2 is down to the outside level and my pH has moved from 7.8 to 8.3 without any other adjustments to my dosing

 

[Lylelovett]

I was having issues with just my skimmer, reef socks, and refugium. When my chaeto died off I added an algae scrubber from Santa Monica. That scrubber has worked SO well - my skimmer is just serving as an aerator now, LOL.

 

[Maureen Hey]

I would suggest VGV.... I mix 1.75 liters of vodka with 1 cup of dextrose. In my heavily fed and stocked 500 gallon system that never had the water changed (too expensive), I dose 100 ml per day. I recently cut that in half and my nitrates went to 20 and my phosphates around 1. So I dosed 200 ml daily for two weeks and I'm now back at 1.7 and 0.02 respectively. You likely won't need much to do the trick though your skimmer will be working a bit more.

Awesome Steve...thank you! I've read a bunch on this carbon dosing and really needed to hear from someone much more experienced to give it a go...much appreciation

 

[TastyScrants]

Recently switched to refugium only.

All nitrate and phosphate being stripped from water by skimmer and filter floss and carbon. It’s all gone now.

Still struggling with undetectable nutrients. Refugium is probably keeping nitrate low, I think all the phosphate is becoming bound to my aragonite sand and (dry) rock however.

 

[SHINYSuccubus]

I use water changes & a skimmer. (I tried lanthanum chloride in the past and killed my 12yr old yellow tang. I’ll never use that again.)

in my new tank i’ll have a refugium as well.