question about algae and nutrients consumption

[reef4life!!!]

So i had a dumb thought last night and i decided to make a thread about it.My thought was that if the algae forming in the live rock is using phosphates and nitrates as primary nutrients to form, is there a chance that by brushing the rocks or by picking massive algae eaters such as urchins or sea hare and they wipe out the algae from the rocks,would that lead to some drop in nutrients???I don't wait to see the nitrates drop from 10ppm to 1ppm or phosphates to drop from 1ppm to 0.1ppm but if this is continuously happening would that lead to a small drop in the nutrients?

 

[lelandmarine]

i think the nutrients are just recycled so you wouldnt see a drop unless it is exported from the tank

 

[reef4life!!!]

i think the nutrients are just recycled so you wouldnt see a drop unless it is exported from the tank

When you mean recycled you mean re-used by the algae to form?As for the export problem,wouldn't that be solved by filters and skimmer?

 

[TheDuude]

Skimmer, manual removal of algae from the tank, water changes, and consumption by bacteria ( carbon dosing ) are all ways to export.

 

[reef4life!!!]

Skimmer, manual removal of algae from the tank, water changes, and consumption by bacteria ( carbon dosing ) are all ways to export.

alright i know that may sound stupid but when you have an urchin and is eating every piece of algae from your rocks there is no export solution to this right?So if you urchin or your sea hare is constantly eating the algae shouldn't your nutrients get down?

 

[TheDuude]

alright i know that may sound stupid but when you have an urchin and is eating every piece of algae from your rocks there is no export solution to this right?So if you urchin or your sea hare is constantly eating the algae shouldn't your nutrients get down?

Hoping someone jumps in to confirm but how I understand it is they will absorb a very small amount of nutrients to build tissue and "grow" but the majority will end up back in your tank as waste which will, in turn, feed more algae. It needs to be actually exported from the system.

 

[reef4life!!!]

Hoping someone jumps in to confirm but how I understand it is they will absorb a very small amount of nutrients to build tissue and "grow" but the majority will end up back in your tank as waste which will, in turn, feed more algae. It needs to be actually exported from the system.

interesting...yeah i think you are right because the invert-fish that will eat the algae will poop so they return back as waste and you can only remove them though water changes,skimmers,filter etc. I didn't actually thought of that

 

[Kermit999]

When your fish eat your own algae you can feed less, that leads to less nutrients going in the tank, that leads to lower nutrient levels.

 

[reef4life!!!]

When your fish eat your own algae you can feed less, that leads to less nutrients going in the tank, that leads to lower nutrient levels.

well this can only happen in large tanks that have 3-4 surgeonfish in there that will consume the algae but in smaller tanks that you only have 1 tang and 2-3 other fishes i think it's not gonna work.The problem is that 1 tang won't be able to consume so much algae from the rocks.I might be wrong here though

 

[takitaj]

When you remove the algae (or it's eaten) that only removes what is already captured within the algae. So no, it will not reduce nutrients. As the algae grows back it will absorb more nutrients and the cycle repeats.

However, If the algae growing isn't absorbing as much or more than what is going into the tank then it won't change or will continue to rise. You will need some other form or export such as water changes, an algae scrubber, and or refugium or some other method like carbon dosing or denitrator, etc.

 

[takitaj]

You could also try putting less into the tank by feeding less.

 

[reef4life!!!]

You could also try putting less into the tank by feeding less.

well for now i don't have serious problems with my nutrients so i don't want to reduce or anything. I just had this thought-question and i posted it xD. 5-6 years ago i had the same tank with only fishes and my nitrates-phosphates were sky rocketing. One day i decided to add a globulus urchin in the tank and he was constantly removing brown algae from all my rocks in just a week but the algae always returned back very shortly. That's why i had this thought that by consuming the algae is a form to reduce nutrients in your tank