Your tank is too new for _______ organism. Why?

[Lasse]

On a differrent note, I am considering using a calcium reactor on seaweed growout systems. While I didn’t see a problem with effluent low pH on a seaweed tank, would using a second reactor with dolomite make sense to you?

Yes If you have Randy´s remark in your head Skip it if Mg get to high. Play with the pH in the reactor if Ca get too high.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

If I recall, you discharged skimmate under a plenum. How is that working out?

I did it in the start - not now. I´ll see if I can get a microscope ans see was is living in different places in my reef.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[ajmckay]

Generally IMO “tank maturity” is at best misunderstood and at worst overrated…
with the caveat that coralline, sponges and certain pods take time to establish since IME those variable do seem to
matter

Ha I like this. And I agree there's plenty of people who start a tank and within a month have great results. This is something which getting into FW Planted tanks has helped me with immensely. They start new tanks and tear down old tanks like it's nothing!!! After experiencing FW planted my last 2 tanks have been significantly better than previous ones - from day 1. And one is over a year later.

That being said - there is "something" about my older live rock which grows coralline quicker, and overall seems more resistant to nuisance algae growth.

As an experiment I took two pieces of dry branch rock. The first I rinsed thoroughly and chucked into the tank. The second I put in a bucket of gross water change water for 3 weeks with a handful of live sand. The bucket looks disgusting because I added the grossest water I could to it. A few weeks after adding that rock into the tank (no rinse) it has similar properties to my old established rock. It seems to be growing coralline better and it seems to be more resistant to nuisance algae. It also never went through the "ugly" stage.

My theory is that it gets populated with a bacterial film which outcompetes the algae for any nutrients which are coming from the rock and thus prevents algae from growing on it. Now somehow that isn't true for coralline because it seems to be growing better - but maybe coralline has a relationship with said bacteria? No idea honestly.

Maybe I should repeat this experiment again but better to help prove my findings. I found a source for some branch rock and have been thinking to nab one or two more pieces. Any suggestions on how to tweak this experiment to reduce other variables?

 

[Luminous74]

Well there is bacteria in fish. But I don't think it actually contributes the same way for breaking down ammonia and such.

I don’t think fish host nitrifiers either, but who knows . But do we even want nitrifiers? They convert ammonium into nitrate, which we don’t really want—or only in very limited amounts. I imagine that in a balanced system, the ammonium produced would be directly metabolized by corals, and no nitrate would form at all.

 

[Auru]

That being said - there is "something" about my older live rock which grows coralline quicker, and overall seems more resistant to nuisance algae growth.

Algae spores, like coral and clam larvae, have certain settlement cues to help choose a preferred environment. They could be biological, structural, or chemical. Spores from algae can somewhat choose what type of environment they want to settle on and germinate on. Some have flagella or cilia to aid with locomotion or can even travel across surfaces via amoeboid movement. It would not be surprising if the coralline requires some signal from bacteria or other organism to start settling and growing on a surface. That type of environment might also be unsuitable for settlement by some nuisance algae.

 

[Christoph]

Hello!

Since somebody asked about typical exportet elements by the skimmer, id like to post a typical example of a SkimQuant result, which is conducted by ICP-MS from a acid digested skimmate sample. When collection time and skimmate volume is also given, it is possible to calculate a daily export rate.

All the best, Christoph

I hope this is helpful!
All the best,
Christoph

 

[GARRIGA]

Taking that a step further, the entire modern premise of cycling a tank is based on having an excess of ammonia producers over consumers.

There's no reason one cannot start a tank with an excess of consumers (say, macroalgae) over producers (fish). That's the scenario in many frag tanks and in many macro dominant reef tanks.

Did that in FW with floating plants and single cell algae in bare bottom tanks with no other influence other than an air stone or power head for surface agitation at night. Zero ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Never measured PO4 but assumed that was bottomed out as well. Can't see that differing with macroalgae and very possibly a tank full of mature coral colonies.

Ran experiments dosing ammonium chloride and fishless to overfed with fish where they were fed 8-10 times daily. Results didn't change. No cycle needed.

Did noticed that in fishless testing where ammonia was dosed to 5 ppm that took a while to resolve and was expecting it gone within hours but often took a couple of days. Could be not enough plants or dense enough single cell algae. Didn't try this when those conditions existed therefore assuming it likely would have resolved as quick as any media since closest I came to that was when overfeeding 8-10 times daily and nutrients tested were zero.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hello!

Since somebody asked about typical exportet elements by the skimmer, id like to post a typical example of a SkimQuant result, which is conducted by ICP-MS from a acid digested skimmate sample. When collection time and skimmate volume is also given, it is possible to calculate a daily export rate.

All the best, Christoph

I hope this is helpful!
All the best,
Christoph

Thanks, Christoph!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you happen to have the tank water values for that tank used to get the skimmate results?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m going to start a different thread in the chem forum in the icp info as Christoph’s data has a lot of interesting discussion possibilities unrelated to this current thread.