NUTRIENT EXPORT HACKS - Pristine Tank Love

[dyno]

I want all my aquariums to look sparkling clean like how a reef looks in the wild. I also want to keep all my animals healthy and have less maintenance to do. The first time I saw what Japanese reefers were able to accomplish with their SPS dominated tanks I was amazed. Not just the aquascaping...but how pristine and clean their aquariums were. My tanks and all the American tanks I observed looked very very much different in comparison. I then ran across tanks from aquarists in Hong Kong and could not believe how heavily they stocked their tanks with giant marine fish. I remember 3-foot tanks with 10 large 10-12” marine angels. This is wrong in a multitude of ways, but I was amazed that their systems could handle the bio load. So…I was thinking about all the different strategies I can use to accomplish these goals and was curious what others had to say about it. Do you use any other strategies to reduce excess nitrogen and phosphorus from being created/introduced into your system?

Food:
Obviously feeding less is a good one or feeding frozen over pellets/flake. I still like to keep my fish fat and healthy to avoid disease and to hope for a long life. My hack has been to melt all my frozen cubes, stir heavily, and pour out the excess “waste” before feeding. This has helped tremendously!

Substrate:
I learned that using bare bottom tanks can help tremendously as well. Having no waste accumulating in the sand has been a game changer in my reef and fish only tanks.

Water:
I do not have a RODI, but obviously starting with good quality water is a huge advantage. I rely heavy on phosphate removers like Phosphate-e from Brightwell Aquatics and PhosGuard from Seachem. I get by but think I need to add an RODI. Also, I do weekly water changes at about 30% of tank volume and this had been a game changer! I made my water change process easy so that I am not annoyed by the frequent changes. I also take this opportunity to clean out all mechanical filtration, filter socks and filter floss changed weekly.

Bacteria:
Our bacterial friends who we never seem to appreciate! I have had some luck with Carbon dosing. I started using NoPoX from Red Sea a few months ago and I think it is working but not sure. I also use SeaChem Pristine and Brightwell Aquatic's Microbacter7 to help establish the variety of bacteria needed to reduce nitrate and phosphate in addition to those simply helping with ammonia and nitrite. I am really interested in using a de-nitrator but have no idea how much of a hassle they are.

Algae:
Using a Refugium with a variety of macroalgae has had a huge impact on exporting nutrients in my tanks and I love using this strategy in my reef and fish only tanks.

Livestock:
Yea so I fail miserably with this here constantly. Wish I was able to control the number of animals in my tanks but can’t seem to do so. There are just so many varieties of fish that I love and want to enjoy daily.

What else can we do to establish the most pristine looking tanks possible?

 

[Nano sapiens]

In reality, these uber pristine reef aquariums only somewhat resemble their wild counterparts. Even the few examples of near pristine reefs that are left in nature (such as the reefs that occur around a few islands in the Line Islands group) have their battle scars from storms, predation, coral interspecies aggression, corals growing large enough that they topple over, corals light starving others by growing on top of one another, etc. when viewed up close within a few feet like you would in our reef aquariums.

Doesn't mean to say that a reef aquarist can't, or shouldn't, maintain a manicured reef system; just that one does so with the realization that it's a human directed construct. Somewhat similar to admiring the beauty and symmetry of a formal English garden, but not confusing it with a spectacular natural woodland or forest setting.