Time for another round of
"Rakie's Unpopular Opinions"
I don't like Zeovit. Here's why;
- Given time most Zeovit tanks pale
- To keep from paling corals, you must buy 50 little blue bottles
- Those blue bottles mostly replenish stuff that is done via ANY other product, Water Changes, or just plain having nutrients in the system
- When things go wrong for zeovit tanks they go
wrong and people sometimes can't get it back on track
Q: So why do i think these things, and why do I believe they're connected to nutrients?
A: Oceanic currents push arctic nutrient rich cold water up through the southern, western, and eastern end of Australia (Aussie is a good example here) -- As the arctic ocean mixes with the warmer waters in the Tasmanian Sea.
Look at this --
See the numerous gyre's in the Tasmanian sea (bottom right quadrant)? That's the subtropical water, which is comprised of warmer aussie water mixing with polar water, this super nutrient rich water pushes up through the eastern GBR and New Zealand, in the Tasmanian Sea.
Those gyres are strong northern flows from the GBR (by way of equatorial Peruvian currents, also fed by the Antarctic currents) being pushed back by the same nutrient rich southern polar waters. Causing a strong gyre washing up against the southern GBR until the central area.
So basically, I'm saying the GBR is pounded by nutrient at astounding levels.
Q: But wait, why do we always hear the GBR has the lowest nutrients in the ocean if all that stuff is washing up there?
A: Because of two reasons;
1) How tests work -- Nutrient tests accurately determine the
excess nutrients in the water -- meaning the nutrients which are not in use. A tank with literally zero nutrients will kill all corals. A fully stalked tank testing at "zero nutrients" does NOT have zero nutrients, because you're feeding fish which are excreting ammonia, and creating nitrite and nitrate, plus po4 by way of food/poop. So while you have no testable nutrients, you
do have nutrients in your system.
2) The GBR itself is the largest biological filtration system on the planet. It literally sucks almost every single micron of marine snow (Food/Plankton/Poop/Death/Rot -- basically every source of organics in the ocean) out of the water. That's why the testable amount is so low, and that's why the water is so clear.
To reiterate #2 ---- This is how you should see the GBR itself
Q: But wait, how do the northern area's of western australians GBR get nutrients then? There's reefs there too !
A: There are reefs there too, and they get it nearly the same way. Southern Arctic waters run easterly, and near south america run up Peru towards the equator, there water from Northern South America meets, and the tides collide and push west at the/ near the equator. Those nutrient rich waters push north from southern america until the equator, in which it traverses the warm equatorial line towards Australia, meeting, meeting with other deep sea water moving south along the outside eastern Philippines region.
Q: So, what you're saying is --
A: Yes. Deep water = has a lot of nutrient, as nutrients settle they will settle into deeper waters. Ever see one of those deep sea documentaries? Notice how halfway down (before the bottom) there's a TON of marine snow? like, more than any other area you could see?
There's what I'm talking about. That's the good stuff.
Q: Should I buy marine snow?
A: Just don't use ULNS system, dose some kno3, or just leave it be.
A 2: Ever notice how the majority of TOTM from RC to R2R and everything in between either 1) Have a good amount of nutrients (5+ no3/ .03+ po4)
OR dose a ton of little bottles?
Almost none of them EVER run ULNS and don't have a medicine cabinet full of fixer uppers.
I'll hold off on that and use sponge power in the early stages.
