Growing Impatient! (Kind of)

[jhadaway117]

So I’ve recently battled Dino’s and Cyano and then Dino’s again. Quite frankly my tank is doing better than ever, but the problem is I can’t keep phosphates at detectable level unless I dose daily.

This tank was at roughly 4 months ago with dry rock and live sand. I’m concerned that the phosphate issue will continue to give me issues. My coral are thriving and even showing good growth which is great, but i don’t want to continue to worry about these two again…lol. I’m even growing patches of coralline on my rocks and power heads!

So I guess my question is, at what point does the rock and sand become saturated with phosphate that I can become more comfortable with not testing every single day? Also, how can I induce growth of macro algae to outcompete the nuisance stuff? I use a Hannah checker by the way. This is a 33.5 gallon waterbox with roughly 25 lbs of dry rock. My parameters are below as well as pics of the tank.

Salinity 1.026
Alk 8.9
Nitrate 10 ppm
Phosphate .07 (Will be back to zero by morning)
Calcium 440
Mag 1300
PH (unknown) haven’t checked in a while and decided not to chase it) last I tested at 7.9)

 

[Timfish]

Macro algae can be pretty bad on their own as they dump DOCs into the water htat have been shown to disrupt coral microbiomes. FWIW sponges and biofilms are soaking up PO4. Cryptic sponges may sequester PO4 in the form of polyphosphate crystals. You didn't mention haw often or how much you feed your fish. You might try feeding for frequently to see if that helps.

 

[jhadaway117]

Macro algae can be pretty bad on their own as they dump DOCs into the water htat have been shown to disrupt coral microbiomes. FWIW sponges and biofilms are soaking up PO4. Cryptic sponges may sequester PO4 in the form of polyphosphate crystals. You didn't mention haw often or how much you feed your fish. You might try feeding for frequently to see if that helps.

You know I really didn’t think about the sponges. Now that you brought that up I do have several of these growing in low light spots and under ledges. Should I look at removing these?

 

[Timfish]

No, they're definitley beneficial. They recycle DOC putting it back in the food webs and are very important for reef ecosystems.

 

[jhadaway117]

No, they're definitley beneficial. They recycle DOC putting it back in the food webs and are very important for reef ecosystems.

Ok thanks. And by the way. I feed two to three times a day a combination of mysis/brine shrimp and sometimes pellets. Usually enough for them to consume in about 30 seconds. I stopped aminos and reef roids so I didn’t fuel any outbreaks. Current stock is an Anthias, blue damsel, royal gramma, mccoskers wrasse, and a watchman goby/pistol combo. Also have around 15 misc CUC snails along with an emerald crab.

 

[Timfish]

I definitely would add an urchin. Unlike most herbivores that will leave some algae behind to start regrwowing immediatley, urchins actually scour the surface free and have bigger appetites. Feeding corals is problematic since it's so species specific so wait until you have more experience with corals before you start feeding them again. And FWIW amino acids are organic nitrogen and epending on what's happening in your system can cause problems by sewing N/P ratios (that's the problem with trying to use N/P rtios is we can't easily measure the organic levels, just the inorganic ones).

Here's a data bomb if you're interested:

Fish Poop

https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00842/95393/103168.pdf

Fish Guts Explain Marine Carbon Cycle Mystery

Research reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life. The discovery could help solve a mystery that has puzzled marine chemists for decades. Published in Science, the study provides new...

www.sciencedaily.com

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1015895108

Feed

Elucidating an optimal diet for captive Acropora corals

Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve the growth and overall health of captive corals. This study evaluated …

www.sciencedirect.com

https://jssm.umt.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2023/03/8-JSSM-Volume-18-Number-1-January-2023-UPDATED.pdf

Influence of different feeding regimes on the survival, growth, and biochemical composition of Acropora coral recruits

Heterotrophic feeding in newly-settled coral planulae can potentially improve survivorship and accelerate early development in some species; however, an optimal diet to facilitate this does not currently exist. This study evaluated the efficacy of three heterotrophic feeding regimes (enriched...

journals.plos.org

Comparing the capacity of five different dietary treatments to optimise growth and nutritional composition in two scleractinian corals

Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve captive coral growth and health. This study evaluated the efficacy of three exogenous diets: Artemia nauplii (ART), a commercially available coral diet (Reef Roids) (RR), and a novel, micro-bound diet (ATF), against...

journals.plos.org

(PDF) Coral farming: Effects of light, water motion and artificial foods

PDF | Improved coral cultivation will facilitate the reduction of wild harvesting, reef restoration, preservation of biodiversity, and the use of corals... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Urchins

To Save Corals in an Oahu Bay, First Vacuum up Invasive Algae, Then Apply Sea Urchins | response.restoration.noaa.gov

response.restoration.noaa.gov

https://nmsfloridakeys.blob.core.windows.net/floridakeys-prod/media/archive/review/documents/keysreefresto.pdf

 

[Miami Reef]

can cause problems by sewing N/P ratios (that's the problem with trying to use N/P rtios is we can't easily measure the organic levels, just the inorganic ones).

Why are ratios important? As long as you have enough N & P, the ratio shouldn’t matter, right?

Dose more phosphate. It will take a while for the rocks to adsorb enough for the water column to become detectable.

I highly doubt the sponges are soaking up the phosphate. I believe it’s from the rocks and sand; you don’t even have that much sponge.

 

[jhadaway117]

I definitely would add an urchin. Unlike most herbivores that will leave some algae behind to start regrwowing immediatley, urchins actually scour the surface free and have bigger appetites. Feeding corals is problematic since it's so species specific so wait until you have more experience with corals before you start feeding them again. And FWIW amino acids are organic nitrogen and epending on what's happening in your system can cause problems by sewing N/P ratios (that's the problem with trying to use N/P rtios is we can't easily measure the organic levels, just the inorganic ones).

Here's a data bomb if you're interested:

Fish Poop

https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00842/95393/103168.pdf

Fish Guts Explain Marine Carbon Cycle Mystery

Research reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life. The discovery could help solve a mystery that has puzzled marine chemists for decades. Published in Science, the study provides new...

www.sciencedaily.com

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1015895108

Feed

Elucidating an optimal diet for captive Acropora corals

Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve the growth and overall health of captive corals. This study evaluated …

www.sciencedirect.com

https://jssm.umt.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2023/03/8-JSSM-Volume-18-Number-1-January-2023-UPDATED.pdf

Influence of different feeding regimes on the survival, growth, and biochemical composition of Acropora coral recruits

Heterotrophic feeding in newly-settled coral planulae can potentially improve survivorship and accelerate early development in some species; however, an optimal diet to facilitate this does not currently exist. This study evaluated the efficacy of three heterotrophic feeding regimes (enriched...

journals.plos.org

Comparing the capacity of five different dietary treatments to optimise growth and nutritional composition in two scleractinian corals

Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve captive coral growth and health. This study evaluated the efficacy of three exogenous diets: Artemia nauplii (ART), a commercially available coral diet (Reef Roids) (RR), and a novel, micro-bound diet (ATF), against...

journals.plos.org

(PDF) Coral farming: Effects of light, water motion and artificial foods

PDF | Improved coral cultivation will facilitate the reduction of wild harvesting, reef restoration, preservation of biodiversity, and the use of corals... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Urchins

To Save Corals in an Oahu Bay, First Vacuum up Invasive Algae, Then Apply Sea Urchins | response.restoration.noaa.gov

response.restoration.noaa.gov

https://nmsfloridakeys.blob.core.windows.net/floridakeys-prod/media/archive/review/documents/keysreefresto.pdf

Funny you say that. I have a Tuxedo Urchin in my other tank that was previously in this one. I moved him after the rock in my other tank started to get covered in a green macro algae. That tank is in the same situation as this one, although not as bad and no Dino bloom. It also has low phosphate issues even though it’s been set up for around 8 months. I’ll look at moving the urchin back over or just get another one.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If phosphate keeps dropping back to zero by 24 h, I’d up the dose to double what you are using now and monitor it for a while.