Macro algae as primary nutrient export.

[Subsea]

I must say, I am impressed with quality of information on BRSTV. I just did watch a four part series on using chaeto refugium as primary nutrient export method. The next phase of test was to couple
25G Chaeto refugium with 160G 2 year old SPS reef tank. Unfortunately, I lost the link and I am unable to find that series on your website.

Can you assist with providing that link. Also, I will read your Triton Method thread as I find the method interesting and as a Laissez Faire reefkeeper, I would seek methods associated with your ULM reef tank. I suspect, I am running a modified Triton Method because I don’t do water changes.

What is the cost of complete water test with recommendations?

 

[miPapareef]

Pretty sure your looking for the BRS160 conversion to triton video. Link here

Also the Triton test kit is regularly $49 plus you pay postage. Link here

 

[Subsea]

I am as “Old School” as it gets. In 1971, we didn’t have the internet. As a student at the Texas Maritime Academy in Galveston, I had little spare time and less money. I saw a marine tank with Curly Que anemones and was hooked. I have been addicted for 47 years.

During that first semester at TAM, after taking a chemical oceanography elective I realized the connections between athmosphere & ocean and have come to realize just how complex & efficient nature is. To that end, I was very pleased after reviewing some videos from BRSTV dealing with vegetable filters of which I have some 25 years experience.

The scientific method to be objective was the most impressive component of these BRS videos. I must admit, I was very skeptical prior to watching videos thinking a vendor platform would be slanted. BRS hit a home run with objectiveness, completeness of covering pros & cons with no “sacred cows” and professional that is to be admired. Kudos to BRS staff & management for taking a stewardship position with hobby support. I will be surfing this information. Thank you again for that commitment.

 

[SantaMonica]

Yes algal filtering could be considered old school, or it could be considered cutting edge, depending on how deep you get into understanding it.

 

[hart24601]

It's pretty interesting - way back in the 1840s and 1850s marine zoologists noticed keeping seaweed seemed to improve the quality of the water in captivity. Been a long road back to there!

 

[Subsea]

Yes algal filtering could be considered old school, or it could be considered cutting edge, depending on how deep you get into understanding it.

I would never have called vegetable filters as cutting edge, but then again, I would not have thought of using vegetable filter for low nutrient SPS systems. It seems that Trident Method is grounded to vegetable filters, which I find interesting and reassuring. I always felt that John Tullock had it right when he said,
“Less Technology/ More Biology”.

 

[Subsea]

A big component of the discussion involved specific components to the words nutrition. While I have searched for the ideal nutrient/ inorganic fertilizer cocktail by mixing miracle grow with ammonia, I think that I observed a much more organic formula used by BRS/WWW: organic raw fish protein. Considering that amino acids are generated by bacteria consuming animal & plant protein, I see a very organic approach here. Build up a mature biological filter by supplying it with raw animal protein from outside of the tank, then grow an algae filter to consume inorganic nutrients and supply DOC as a food source for those same bacteria. I have used this approach for years, but never knew the complete story.

BRS,
Keep the science up. I read research papers often. It is gratifying to hear a discussion about science applied at the hobby level with a visual presentation on a reef tank.

 

[randyBRS]

BRS,
Keep the science up. I read research papers often. It is gratifying to hear a discussion about science applied at the hobby level with a visual presentation on a reef tank.

Thanks! We do have a lot more investigating to do in the coming months/years. We really appreciate the vote of confidence from community members like you!

 

[SantaMonica]

Yes I think photosynthetic filtration, when you get down to the cellular level, is high tech. They can communicate with each other, and have billions of years more evolution that humans.

 

[Subsea]

Yes I think photosynthetic filtration, when you get down to the cellular level, is high tech. They can communicate with each other, and have billions of years more evolution that humans.

On a recent post with Dana Riddle, he qualified how certain blocking pigments protected algae from sunburn, but then later macro morphed into an accelerated growing cycle under the same light.

When I see a high light energy 25G Chaeto refugium at 1700 PAR absorb the ridiculously large volume of food feed to a thriving SPS 160G reef tank, I am impressed.

 

[Subsea]

Yes I think photosynthetic filtration, when you get down to the cellular level, is high tech. They can communicate with each other, and have billions of years more evolution that humans.

I am in awe of how the coral holobiont functions. Crosstalk between coral and bacteria, coral and algae and. Now, we find out that algae can adjust DNA to match growing conditions to changing environmental parameters.

I marvel at the complexity of nature. Energy is not wasted and most nutrient pathways have redundancy. One nitrogen back up system for coral includes Cynobacteria within coral biomass that perform nitrogen fixation to grow coral.

 

[Subsea]

Thanks! We do have a lot more investigating to do in the coming months/years. We really appreciate the vote of confidence from community members like you!

@randyBRS
On the algae forum on this web site @AlgaeBarn made a statement that I would like BRSTV to consider doing a test with. Conversation dealt with 24 hour photoperiod used on ATS and macro in general. There were two conclusions made by AlgaeBarn. First, 24 hour photoperiod grew less than 12 hour cycle. The second conclusion to run overlapping photoperiod is the “point of interest”.

I disagree that steady state pH is healthy in a reef tank. The reefs in nature fluctuate between
8.2 to 7.8 pH. Why is lower pH during lights out detrimental for coral?

 

[randyBRS]

@randyBRS
On the algae forum on this web site @AlgaeBarn made a statement that I would like BRSTV to consider doing a test with. Conversation dealt with 24 hour photoperiod used on ATS and macro in general. There were two conclusions made by AlgaeBarn. First, 24 hour photoperiod grew less than 12 hour cycle. The second conclusion to run overlapping photoperiod is the “point of interest”.
I disagree that steady state pH is healthy in a reef tank. The reefs in nature fluctuate between
8.2 to 7.8 pH. Why is lower pH during lights out detrimental for coral?

This one is heavily debated indeed, I really like is as a topic and it's now on the board. Completely anecdotally, the BRS160 fuge seemingly "took off" after switching to a 12hr lighting period over the 24hr we had initially started with. I couldn't say with certainty that the increased growth came from adding a period of night time respiration, but theoretically it seems plausible (given that the same applies to the natural world as it pertains to lighting).

I honestly don't know when we could get to this one as our list is extremely long, but I've captured it. Here's an example of just on of our Investigates boards.

 

[Subsea]

Without a doubt, for me, BRS is becoming a source of valuable information pertaining to complexities of coral holobiont and biofiltration in general. In a conversation that I had with @Randy Holmes-Farley a few years back concerning biochemistry, his answer was, “We landed a man on the moon 50 years ago, yet we can’t cure cancer today”. Martin Moe said this about the reefkeeping hobby shortly after landing that man on the moon, “It ain’t rocket science, it is more complicated”.

@randyBRS
Keep the information coming and thank you for providing it.

 

[SantaMonica]

Photoperiod is related to growth density and color. Darker and denser growth self-shade and therefore the dark side is getting photoperiod by default.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

@randyBRS
On the algae forum on this web site @AlgaeBarn made a statement that I would like BRSTV to consider doing a test with. Conversation dealt with 24 hour photoperiod used on ATS and macro in general. There were two conclusions made by AlgaeBarn. First, 24 hour photoperiod grew less than 12 hour cycle. The second conclusion to run overlapping photoperiod is the “point of interest”.

I disagree that steady state pH is healthy in a reef tank. The reefs in nature fluctuate between
8.2 to 7.8 pH. Why is lower pH during lights out detrimental for coral?

Subsea, we run closer to a 16-18 photoperiod. The benefit of running 24 hours didn't seem to be there.

I do think this paper is interesting. It looks like we may want to be measuring oxygen levels with regards to coral growth in light calcification and dark calcification.
I'm curious about the % of oxygen saturation in the average reef tank running macroalgae vs no macroalgae. Looks like I need to bust out our dissolved oxygen meter.

Higher pH is mathematically related to the soluble of CO2 and tend to be correlated with higher amounts of oxygen (oxygen concentration doesn't really influence pH in aquoues systems, but growing macroalgae/microalgae to absorb CO2 and produce O2 should result in saturation being closer to 100%.)

Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen

We can also see the importance of pH on coral calcification. While the sample size isnt big (n=4), the error bars show and the ANOVA test they ran show a big difference.

 

[Subsea]

IMO, oxygen & alkalinity are more important than pH for coral growth. But I don’t do SPS. I prefer NPS.

Considering “Dynamic Equilibrium” between carbon dioxide, oxygen, pH and alkalinity, it is difficult to impossible to isolate these parameters.

 

[vanpire]

Out of curiosity, how do u measure dissolved oxygen and how accurate are the measurements?

 

[vanpire]

Out of curiosity, how do u measure dissolved oxygen and how accurate are the measurements?

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Out of curiosity, how do u measure dissolved oxygen and how accurate are the measurements?

http://www.milwaukeeinst.com/site/c...7-products-g-standard-portable-meters-g-mw600

O2 Range 0.0 to 19.9 mg/l
O2 resolution 0.1 mg/l
O2 Accuracy ±1.5% Full Scale

 

[Subsea]

Out of curiosity, how do u measure dissolved oxygen and how accurate are the measurements?

Meters are not cheap. They are accurate. In my early days I used a meter and a chart recorder to follow trends.