Nutrition Export - What is it?

[Oceanwave45]

What does this mean? Someone said you need to work on Nutrition Export?

Thanks

 

[Fishfinder]

Nutrients. PO4, NO3, getting them out of your tank. Exporting them out

 

[Ocelaris]

Nutrients in, refers to food usually. Nutrient export is skimming and algae reactors etc... Things that remove waste.

 

[Oceanwave45]

Awe okay - so now that I'm have a protein skimmer I am doing that correct?

 

[Sherman]

Excess PO4 and NO3 removal by either skimmer or phos remover or zeolite or biopellet

 

[Even Further]

Water changes also count as nutrient export.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Just don't go overboard with nutrient export. NO3 and PO4 are not invasive species out to kill your tank. In fact most if not all organisms in the tank require X amounts of nutrients. Depending on the age of the tank, frequent tests should be performed so that you don't go over the PO4 range of 0.01 - 0.10 and NO3 of 2-10. Best way to go about this is to take initial water tests and then retest in a week. Ideally you want stable parameters as well as nutrients. We add certain equipment or filtration because we've either overfed, overstocked, or algae is getting out of control.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Skimmers won't remove nitrate or phosphate directly. It will remove organics that may degrade into those, but by itself, a skimmer is often not adequate export for many reef tanks.