In depth explanation of nitrogen and amino acids?

Dr. Dendrostein

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Which ever egg, i put in a blender used only for my Children of the sea.
I did have a parakeet that pooped in one tank i had in garage. Corals loved it. @Hemmdog , set up a refugium outside and hopefully seagulls,will use it like a crapper. Crapper is the last name of person who invented it. No one should be offended. Corals will love you for that. Heeee
 

Hemmdog

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Which ever egg, i put in a blender used only for my Children of the sea.
I did have a parakeet that pooped in one tank i had in garage. Corals loved it. @Hemmdog , set up a refugium outside and hopefully seagulls,will use it like a crapper. Crapper is the last name of person who invented it. No one should be offended. Corals will love you for that. Heeee
Haha there might be some truth to that! I have read that sea bird poo and fish eating fish are vital food sources to corals in the wild and a key missing element in home aquariums.
 
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ScottR

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@Hemmdog - is this your new setup?

8A3797D7-5F35-4859-826E-0B6850657183.jpeg
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I’m not sure I understand the question. If there is a sufficient source of BOTH N and P (and many other things), algae or cyano will grow. It is never caused by an excess of one thing, but enough of many things.

Randy, I guess what I’m trying to say. When I had no nitrates I added Nitrogen. I got cyano. Is that because I added Nitrogen which caused cyano to bloom. I never had cyano in this tank until I brought up nitrates.

Yes, The most likely explanation is that before you added it, the growth of cyano was limited by the availability of nitrogen, and the added nitrogen allowed it to grow faster.
 

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Yes, The most likely explanation is that before you added it, the growth of cyano was limited by the availability of nitrogen, and the added nitrogen allowed it to grow faster.

Thanks Randy, thats what I thought. Should I just wait and let it runs it’s course. It’s only on Tonga rock for some reason. I got the nitrates where I want. I don’t want to add anything or do anymore water changes.
 

CoralNerd

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This thread went to the birds in a hurry. Darn hijacking bird talk lol eggs huh wow
I've been dosing Acro Power pretty heavy in my low nutrient sps tank. Also some Neo Nitrogen. Makes a world of difference. I tried Coral Essentials aminos but seem to get better PE from Acro Power.
 

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I have this issue with 0 nitrates now. I have no fish in the tank, due to going fallow after an ich outbreak (going on 6 weeks). I’ve gotten my phosphates down from 1.0 to .04. Now how to raise nitrates without the availability of stump removers or KNO3, while also not raising the phosphates? I’m in Japan, so these things are not easy to come by.
 
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I have this issue with 0 nitrates now. I have no fish in the tank, due to going fallow after an ich outbreak (going on 6 weeks). I’ve gotten my phosphates down from 1.0 to .04. Now how to raise nitrates without the availability of stump removers or KNO3, while also not raising the phosphates? I’m in Japan, so these things are not easy to come by.
You could load up on shrimps. I went fallow for a few months and fed my shrimps frozen food every day. The shrimps arguably eat more than a lot of fish of similar size do. I’d sometimes cut a frozen scallop and feed them that as well. My nitrates stayed at about 20 which is quite high for a fallow tank. I reduced feedings and they went down to around 10.
 

Hans-Werner

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It’s only on Tonga rock for some reason. I got the nitrates where I want. I don’t want to add anything or do anymore water changes.
The answer is quite easy. At low phosphate concentrations in the water cyanos are superior in the utilisation of phosphate from substrates. GHA can also do this but the cyanos will overgrow the GHA. You can hardly give a better example what might start cyano blooms. Nitrogen was the limiting element. Adding nitrate did offset the N limitation and P got limiting. This was the chance for the cyanos to grow, nitrate from the water and phosphate from the rocks. The Tonga rock had enough phosphate deposits for good cyano growth.
 
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Hans-Werner

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There are many different amino acids that are required for corals to grow. Some can be synthesized directly by the dinoflagellates inside the corals themselves but others must be acquired from an outside source.
The coral holobiont consists of more kinds of organisms than the cnidarian animal and the zooxanthellae. It also consists of bacteria, archaea and other protists than zooxanthellae. If the zooxanthellae do not supply all amino acids needed the bacteria will. But some amino acids may still be limiting coral growth and heterotrophic feeding seems to be supporting coral growth significantly.
 

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The answer is quite easy. At low phosphate concentrations in the water cyanos are superior in the utilisation of phosphate from substrates. GHA can also do this but the cyanos will overgrow the GHA. You can hardly give a better example what might start cyano blooms. Nitrogen was the limiting element. Adding nitrate did offset the N limitation and P got limiting. This was the chance for the cyanos to grow, nitrate from the water and phosphate from the rocks. The Tonga rock had enough phosphate deposits for good cyano growth.
Thanks , that really makes sense. I will let it run it’s course. Since it goes away when the lights shut off. And little comes back.
 

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I have this issue with 0 nitrates now. I have no fish in the tank, due to going fallow after an ich outbreak (going on 6 weeks). I’ve gotten my phosphates down from 1.0 to .04. Now how to raise nitrates without the availability of stump removers or KNO3, while also not raising the phosphates? I’m in Japan, so these things are not easy to come by.

See if you can find potassium nitrate there.
 

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Yes, The most likely explanation is that before you added it, the growth of cyano was limited by the availability of nitrogen, and the added nitrogen allowed it to grow faster.


So let me chime in here and ask ..... should you up the amount being added otherwise aren't you just feeding the cyano or other outbreaks ? i recently started adding this product ( below ) and im starting to see small red patches appear along with small green patches of algae .... dosing 30ml daily for 400gal. TWV ... my NO3 is still undetectable on Hanna ULN checker ( clear reading every time ) since adding this my colors do look better but for those of us in the same boat here should i increase the amount until i get a NO3 reading ?
green-leaf-aquariums-dry-aquarium-fertilizer-potassium-nitrate-kno3-jar__21448.1542579798.jpg
 

ScottB

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So let me chime in here and ask ..... should you up the amount being added otherwise aren't you just feeding the cyano or other outbreaks ? i recently started adding this product ( below ) and im starting to see small red patches appear along with small green patches of algae .... dosing 30ml daily for 400gal. TWV ... my NO3 is still undetectable on Hanna ULN checker ( clear reading every time ) since adding this my colors do look better but for those of us in the same boat here should i increase the amount until i get a NO3 reading ?
green-leaf-aquariums-dry-aquarium-fertilizer-potassium-nitrate-kno3-jar__21448.1542579798.jpg
IMO, just keep on dosing. I assume 30ml was not randomly selected. If you increase it beyond "recommended" just go gradually.

VERY IMPORTANT: in my experience of dosing nitrate (NaNO2 in my case) my already low PO4 went zero. Fast. The corals will hate you for it too. Took me a while to match dosing (trisodium phosphate) to keep a steady relationship between the two nutrients. I don't know if it works in reverse (dose PO4 to lower NO3) but at least in two of my systems dosing nitrates lowered PO4 every time.

I'll take cyano and some green algae over dinoflagellates every day of the week.

Disclosure: the whole reason I got into dosing nutrients was a nasty ostreopsis battle.
 
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