Nutrients

[Isiah1820]

So I get my water tested at a trusted LFS, living reef Orlando for the ones from Orlando. And my nutrients are constantly low, I feed a good amount. I do have a lot of coral and I’ve been told the coral absorbs it all and I should feed a bit more. I use to do WCs every week but now I do them bi weekly. Corals are growing pretty quick especially my torches, frogspawn, hammers, and octospawns. Thoughts and opinions?

 

[Wayofthereef]

So I get my water tested at a trusted LFS, living reef Orlando for the ones from Orlando. And my nutrients are constantly low, I feed a good amount. I do have a lot of coral and I’ve been told the coral absorbs it all and I should feed a bit more. I use to do WCs every week but now I do them bi weekly. Corals are growing pretty quick especially my torches, frogspawn, hammers, and octospawns. Thoughts and opinions?

What are your parameters?

 

[Stephen Glover]

what is your nutrient export? Maybe you are overdoing it.

 

[Isiah1820]

what is your nutrient export? Maybe you are overdoing it.

Skimmer, water changes, purigen, chemi clean, and fiber filter that I replace every few days if I remember lol. And a **** Ton of clean up crew sized from large to small of snails and hermits. And I have 4 fish. Tank is a AIO fluval 32. It’s been running for about 11 months.

 

[Stephen Glover]

Skimmer, water changes, purigen, chemi clean, and fiber filter that I replace every few days if I remember lol. And a **** Ton of clean up crew sized from large to small of snails and hermits. And I have 4 fish. Tank is a AIO fluval 32. It’s been running for about 11 months.

You can try running your skimmer only at night and see if that raises your nutrients.

 

[Isiah1820]

You can try running your skimmer only at night and see if that raises your nutrients.

I’ll try that.

 

[jda]

I would stop the purigen and/or chemi clean before I shut off a skimmer - the gas exchange is just too helpful.

If everything looks good, then why worry about numbers than what your eyes and corals are telling you?

If you really want numbers higher, then just feed more.

 

[o2manyfish]

In the wild corals feed on a huge diverse range of microfauna. Regardless of how much we seed our tanks, buy the most expensive live rock, or feed the latest coral food - it's nothing compared to what's available in the wild.

Nutrients/phosphates are the substitute for microfauna in a closed environement - your aquarium.

Nutrient's aren't a bad thing. And they aren't a particular number that should be chased.

You want nutrients as high as possible - So that your coral has the most amount of food available.

The limit to how high you keep your nutrients is how good your filtration is. There are some aquariums that the phosphates get over .03 and all algae hell breaks loose and the algae over runs the tank.

Most aquariums are underfiltered in terms of biological filtration, and that's why the hobby - not science - has proliferated concepts of Ultra Low Nutrient Systems, or targeting phosphate values of .03 or .08.

But if you exclude Zeovit based systems - there are lots of beautiful, successful, mature aquariums, with no algae issues that run phosphates at 1.2, 1.6, 2.0. over 4.0

In some higher nutrients aquariums it's been observed that the corals seem to have more brittle or delicate calcium skeletal structure. Leading to the thought(s) that the with the higher nutrient levels the corals are consuming and growing at a faster rate than they can uptake Calc and bulid a typical coral structure.

Where your tank falls as to what nutrients are enough vs too much is a matter of trial and error. Do you need less filtration, more filtration, more fish, bigger fish (bigger poops), more feedings - These are multiple methods to control these values naturally - rather than chemical addition to raise or lower the level on an as needed basis.

Dave B

 

[jda]

"nutrients" and especially nitrate and phosphate are no substitute for microfauna. First, microfauna that corals can use (think bacteria and other microscopic things caught in slime coats and not through polyp feeding) have real energy like carbons and useful forms of phosphorous and nitrogen. Nitrate and phosphates are fools gold and most corals cannot use them without a large expenditure of energy to convert them to other forms. Real energy comes from the light through the zoox and if a coral can catch any useful food.

Nitrate and phosphate are not food. They do not have any energy. They are not even a good form for our corals to use. Nitrogen and phosphorous are building blocks of life needed for organic tissue to grow, but these things are obtained by corals mostly through ammonia/ammonium and polyphosphates from fish waste. Our test kids only test for orthophosphate which appears to be the least useful form.

Yes, nutrients are important, but nitrate and phosphate are not that important, as long as they don't get too high.

There have been some wonderful discussions about these things in the Chemistry section lately with some smart folks. In summary, the nitrate thread could be understood with 2 things... first, the only thing in a tank that NEEDS nitrate is denitrifying bacteria, and second, that no3 might be a sign that your tank is not deficient in nitrogen in other forms, have not having any nitrate does not mean that any tank is deficient (see denitrifying bacteria from number one).

 

[Isiah1820]

I would stop the purigen and/or chemi clean before I shut off a skimmer - the gas exchange is just too helpful.

If everything looks good, then why worry about numbers than what your eyes and corals are telling you?

If you really want numbers higher, then just feed moreI would stop the purigen and/or chemi clean before I shut off a skimmer - the gas exchange is just too helpful.

If everything looks good, then why worry about numbers than what your eyes and corals are telling you?

If you really want numbers higher, then just feed more.

I would stop the purigen and/or chemi clean before I shut off a skimmer - the gas exchange is just too helpful.

If everything looks good, then why worry about numbers than what your eyes and corals are telling you?

If you really want numbers higher, then just feed more.

I’m not really worried about numbers, I had a Dino issue in the sand bed that has pretty much all but disappeared now,have a patch or two left. I should test more but like you said I trust my eyes and all my coral look good besides a digitata I have. Just surprised how low my numbers are, the are almost zero on the nitrate and phosphate side.

 

[Isiah1820]

"nutrients" and especially nitrate and phosphate are no substitute for microfauna. First, microfauna that corals can use (think bacteria and other microscopic things caught in slime coats and not through polyp feeding) have real energy like carbons and useful forms of phosphorous and nitrogen. Nitrate and phosphates are fools gold and most corals cannot use them without a large expenditure of energy to convert them to other forms. Real energy comes from the light through the zoox and if a coral can catch any useful food.

Nitrate and phosphate are not food. They do not have any energy. They are not even a good form for our corals to use. Nitrogen and phosphorous are building blocks of life needed for organic tissue to grow, but these things are obtained by corals mostly through ammonia/ammonium and polyphosphates from fish waste. Our test kids only test for orthophosphate which appears to be the least useful form.

Yes, nutrients are important, but nitrate and phosphate are not that important, as long as they don't get too high.

There have been some wonderful discussions about these things in the Chemistry section lately with some smart folks. In summary, the nitrate thread could be understood with 2 things... first, the only thing in a tank that NEEDS nitrate is denitrifying bacteria, and second, that no3 might be a sign that your tank is not deficient in nitrogen in other forms, have not having any nitrate does not mean that any tank is deficient (see denitrifying bacteria from number one).

Good info thanks.