AND TOTAL ANNIHILATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, after many MANY months, the bryopsis is ........... GONE, almost.
And, before you say it, NO i did not use Tech M, or hydrate MG, or any other sort of hydrated magnesium product.
I have lately been finding it much easy to maintain a much higher pH than usual. And that is because i finally have an exhaust system installed. Now, natural pH levels are around 8.3, constantly, and with the addition of Kalk, easily 8.4-8.5, the best thing is however, is that i am no longer needing to do Kalk Shots, only Kalk top up via saturated solution, which is great.
I'm going to outline this in steps, explain why each is important, and, mostly it will be order of most important (or beneficial) to least, (or not least but do the other first) important.
1. 8.6 is the magic mark
Get the pH up there and keep it there. At least get it above 8.3 at night and during the day.
Identify the problem of the depressed pH, if you have good alkalinity reserves and your pH is still low, then its CO2, plain and simple. CO2 moves into water by diffusion very easily, it doesn't even need to be pumped in by the protein skimmer (although this definitely does not help), it will move into water from the atmosphere as it sees fit all by itself.
This will at least get the bryopsis starting to fight to maintain its internal pH and cell structure as the pH gradient has increased, stressing it badly and getting it to begin to break down. The CO2 being stripped from the water by Kalk, or the removal of CO2 by eliminating it by other means (more ventilation etc) will also not allow the bryopsis to access low levels of nutrient, all plants need CO2, limit it, and you limit its food source (more on this later)
2. N & P - Get em out buddy
And suspended solids!!! a good form of nutrient export is skimming and you have to have a good skimmer, and NO, the skimmer you bought on ebay that has no brand name that cost you $50 and is rated for a 500 liter tank is not a good skimmer, throw it away, fill it with concrete and use it for an anchor, or lay it on its side on the floor and use it for putting practice.
Go and research skimmers, get the best one you can afford and get one that is bigger than you need. You want to pump AT LEAST 2 times the tank volume through the skimmer per hour (without exceeding the flow rate recommendations of the skimmer) to make sure you are really polishing up that water.
With a good skimmer comes the ability to reduce nutrient chemically, biologically or through the use of resins and filtration media, whatever you do, get them down there and keep it down, as low a possible, zero if you can get there. Although its not good for coral long term, short term 0.00 readings on N & P will not hurt your corals and help starve out the bryopsis, stressing it further.
3. MORE FLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get more flow in your tank, and better random flow patterns, get the waste up off and from in the rock and get it out of the system, i.e. into your skimmer and filter for removal.
This not only increases nutrient removal, it decreases nutrient cycling. Bryopsis also captures micro particles and uses it for food, yes, it filter feeds (just when you thought it couldn't get any worse) so get more flow in there.
And when your siphoning and water changing, siphon as much crap off the rocks and from the substrate as possible (if you dont have a deep sand bed that is) and remove, very carefully, and making sure to siphon out all the particles, any bryopsis that you can get to.
All the nutrient removal your doing manually will only help the overall process of nutrient removal to starve and further stress the bryopsis.
4. Get your tank working for you biologically
There are plenty of great bacterial products out there, and there are also some great enzymatic products out there too, that are designed to help further break down waste and clean detritus, if possible, adding an organic carbon source, whilst dosing bacteria will serve to not only introduce efficient strains of beneficial bacteria to your tank, but also help fuel nutrient uptake for removal (by bacterial biomass) by your skimmer, and help to clean up your tank. Win - Win......... Win.
5. Stability
If you have problem algae, you either have some of the issues (like excess CO2/depressed pH) or you might also have tank instability.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- foundation elements stability (are you monitoring and adjusting your kH/calcium/magnesium levels regularly and are the swings small)
- under or over feeding (under feeding can result in poor growth and colour of corals and therefore poor uptake of N & P by corals at low levels which can help to stabilize nutrient concentrations and out complete bryopsis, however small the effect, over feeding, well this is a no brainer and an obvious problem)
- not enough water changes - ever noticed how your tank looks frakkin fantastic 2-3 days after a water change and then looks kinda dull? a decent sized water change (minimum 20% a month) will ensure healthy inhabitants and re-balance's and "reset's" the chemical balance in your tank so to speak that you may have thrown out from dosing, feeding etc. Small water changes more frequently are better, i work off the following rules:
<80 litres - 50% water change a week (especially if running a skimmer-less tank)
80-150 liters - 30% water change weekly-fortnightly (depending on nutrient control and dosing regime)
150-300 litres - 30% water change fortnightly-monthly (again depending on nutrient control and dosing regime)
300 litre and more - 25% a month (again depending on nutrient control and dosing regime)
This is going to be determined entirely by you, obviously more water changes, of a higher volume more frequently will be more beneficial, but this will depend on budget, time constraints and what works best in your tank. But as a rule, this is what I run and recommend before i take everything into account like systems design, dosing etc.
So continuing on:
- No consistent nutrient control method (nutrient levels fluctuate up and down constantly with attention paid to keeping them low consistently)
-Not using a good quality salt, salts are either hydrous, or anhydrous, as a general rule, if it is using more than 37-39 grams or so to mix up water to 35ppt, then its a hydrated salt, this means it has water in it. Anhydrous mixes (Aquavitro salinity, Brightwell Aquatics Neomarine)only use about 36gms of salt per liter to get to 35ppt. I hear you saying 2 grams difference, big deal, well, it kinda is.
If you have 2 grams of water in a salt mix, that is 2000 milligrams of water. Water that can (depending on how the salt and components are harvested) have organics and more importantly phosphate in it.
Now, if even 1% of that water has organics that can break down into phosphate, or phosphate specifically in it, that is 20ppm of possible organics and phosphate PER LITER of water you mix up that you are introducing into the aquarium.
If you do a 20 liter water change, well, that's a value of 400ppm. Now its not likely to ever be that high, BUT, who is to say that a good portion of the organics don't break down straight away, which they don't or some of the phosphate isn't assimilated by coral straight away or locked up by calcium carbonate, which it would be. As i said, its not likely to be this high, but anhydrous salt mixes are more expensive for a reason, because they are better quality salt mixes. Try them and see the results for yourself.
The more pure the salt mix, the better results you will get.
6. RO Water
It seems to be a no brainer but it really does make a difference. Starting with pure water makes a lot of sense for reasons im not going to go into as its been done to death. I firmly believe that had i been using RO water this whole time, the result would have happened much quicker.
No particles or organics, salt mixes up to where it should, all the crap, nutrient, heavy metals etc removed.
Go get a bloody RO filter, its a small cost in comparison to the amount of filtration media you will need to use to correct issues from using de-chlorinated tap water.
7. Vigilance
Keep this up for 4-6 weeks and it should be done and dusted (assuming that your nutrient levels are low), it could take a little longer, but don't get all half arsed about it, as soon as you slack off, everything starts going south.
As with everything, Bryopsis is a symptom of a bigger problem, through my fairly intensive research into this frustrating algae and my successful eradication in 4 tanks to date using the same methods, i know this works.
Its not one silver bullet (again, Tech-M), there needs to be many things addressed if you really have a huge problem with bryopsis.
Tech-M works yeah, but really, if you have depressed pH, high nutrient levels, not enough flow, a skimmer that isnt performing, detritus build up in your rocks and an unbalanced and unstable marine aquarium, then adding Tech-M might kill the bryopsis, but shouldn't you be looking at the cause and the bigger picture?
With all problems that I diagnose and attempt to rectify on a daily basis, I start from the bottom, fix the biggest problems first, then work up from there. If everything isn't working and in range as it should be, then no matter what course of action you take, you are always going to have problems, and possibly never be able to solve the issue or achieve the tank you want to.
I hope this might at least help some people with their bryopsis problems.
Words of Wisdom - Blokes, as soon as the missus sees you cleaning the tank all the time, shell expect it to overflow into cleaning the windows and the bathroom, etc. My advice, get up early in the morning and do it, on a regular basis, so it always stays clean, That way you can say, no its just stays clean, remember the 3 grand I spent on that Deltec skimmer, that how good a job it does.
Either that or get her to help out and give her the worst job possible, like cleaning the skimmer, she'll never want to come near the tank again and subconsciously ignore you whenever your near it.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Coral Coloration With Trace elements
Bloody hell where do I start...............
I have been arguing this over in my head for weeks (i will insert months in here as i have been literally trying for months to find solid research and information on this to support my theories/findings and finding it hard) trying to find a way to quantify and explain the benefits of trace element dosing, and when you should use them, and also, what elements influence what colours/processes.
First of all let me say one thing, although there have been studies showing some of the elements needed for certain colours, some of the trace elements included in some mixes dont have "solid" research supporting their use, so far as i can find anyway, at least at this point in this post. As im sure this will take me quite a few days (again ill insert months in here) to write, I'm assuming ill find more and more information, and by all means if people have any links they would like to share please feel free to post them, i would like to read further into the subject.
So first I'm going to start with when you should be dosing trace elements, and what level of dosing you should be doing depending on your requirements, tank type and time constraints and goals.
So firstly, WHEN:
Well, this is a little hard to quantify, but in general, you can dose some level of trace elements in nearly any tank, but the amount will differ. In a higher nutrient tank (nitrate over 4ppm and phosphate over 0.1ppm) an all round trace element supplement and maybe an amino acid supplement will do fine in most cases, just because the corals are not coloured up fantastically because of the level of Zooxanthelle in them from the higher nutrient levels, does not mean that they are not using these trace elements.
In some cases, in higher nutrient systems, whether the higher nutrient is on purpose, in order to increase coral growth, or not intentional, but is not a huge concern (say a tank with mushrooms, soft corals etc), water changes may, and I stress MAY, be enough to sustain them (trace element levels that is), if you feed a good varied diet of foods, to both your fish and corals and your water changes are large enough and frequent enough. But, without testing at least the main elements (iron, iodine, potassium) to ensure these are in check, along with your other elements, and your using a good quality salt mix, then there is really no way of knowing for certain if water changes are going to suffice to replace and maintain all elements in the aquarium remotely important for sustained growth and colour. And even then, trace elements generally cant be tested for, so a general trace element supplement may still be needed. And in most cases is beneficial.
In Low nutrient systems, it is definitely beneficial. In low nutrient systems, although you are still doing some level of water changes, the amount is usually, not always, but usually, a lot less. and so the amount of trace elements added at water change time is minimal.
These trace elements are in TRACE amounts, and therefore they are used up very quickly, being incorporated into tissue of corals and lifeforms like fish, phytoplankton etc, being passed onto fish and coral in turn. And therefore, as you can imagine, Trace elements would be used up quickly.
This, coupled with the fact that at low nutrient levels, the browning associated with corals, or at least fading of colour being held at high nutrient levels (because of the higher level of zooxanthelle due to increased photosynthesis) is not as apparent or intense.
Therefore, the natural pigment of coral is able to show through, and the colour pigments of the individual coral can be seen. This of course means that the chemicals and trace elements included in colouration pigments in coral tissue need to be present in order to intensify those pigments. If they are lacking, the colours can become dull, and washed out. If they are in proper levels, the colours will usually be more intense, if they are in excess, you can sometimes intensify the levels of pigmentation and colouration dramatically.
What if they are too much? well i have seen some not so great, and then catastrophic misuse of trace elements, right from receding tissue, to full blown polyp and zoox bailout. so you can use too much.
Trace elements are exactly that, they are in TRACE amounts. Yes they can be beneficial, and are great tools for manipulating health and colour, but just because it says add this much much of this on the bottle, doesn't mean you should.
when starting to add trace elements, read about it and research it. Most good manufacturers, even if it is a proprietary mix with no ingredients list, will still give you a good background on the supplement itself, Brightwell Aquatics Koral Color comes to mind here (and i know this stuff works), but this doesn't mean you should dumping in the recommended dose straight away. And don't you dare let me hear anyone yelling snake oil!!!!!!!!!!! at least not yet......
Even if it does recommend a starting dose, if it isn't say 1/4 of the end dose they recommend, then go with 1/5th to 1/4 of the dose and continue this for at least 3 weeks. And remember daily dosing will ALWAYS be better, for any element.
After this, and through monitoring your corals (obviously assuming that your nutrient levels are low and warrant specific trace element dosing then you can start to increase if you need to, to get better colouration. This doesn't necessarily mean your dose rate is going to reach the recommended level, you may find that for example, a dose rate of a little over half that of recommended, starts to darken up some of your corals, a good indication that you need to back off a bit.
Use your corals a guide, obviously, as biomass of corals and size of colonies increases, so will your demand for the trace element in question, its always going to change, so keep on top of it.
Then after you get to comfortable place with one trace element, maybe start on another.
Two things i will say about trace element dosing
1. PICK A BLOODY SYSTEM AND STICK TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
I have seen many hip shooters (yes ive tried it also) try to mix different trace element programs trying to re-invent the wheel, there are reasons why companies formulate the trace elements they make they way they do, they are made to complement each other, you start mixing them, and you can get too much of one element and not enough of the other, sometimes with VERY bad results.
2. Don't expect to see overnight results, and don't expect to get results if you don't follow the manufacturers instructions.
3. (yes i only said there was two but I'm on a rant so stick with me) If you tank is not ready, and all elements of husbandry are not in line, do not expect to see results, or for this to be a magical supplement to solve your problems. Coloration through trace elements, will only be achieved at an enhanced rate, at low nutrient levels. At low nutrient levels you need to feed more in order to supply more nutrition to the coral as the amount of food they are getting from photosynthesis is limited. With increased feeding, you need a higher level of flow to carry food too, and waste away from the coral, without properly sized filtration to handle the increased food input, nutrient levels will go up. Its all about balance and perfecting every part of the system and environment. Its common sense, but lets face it, these issues are things that alot of people overlook, including me sometimes.
These are lifeforms in a glass box, without constant replenishment of elements from the ocean, without constant flow and the best lighting (the sun), its not as simple as throwing coral and fish in there and expecting to get the best out of them.
So, this will be the first post in a series of posts in regards to trace element dosing ill try cover one at a time, breaking it down and providing solid information, rather than pulling my hair out trying to do it all in one go.
I have to give credit to Chris for this, thanks mate, damn well would have killed me if i tried to do it all in one go i recon.
So, next post, will start with Iron as a trace element, what its used by, how its used, what colours it effects, etc etc.
So until next time, a parting piece of advice, DON'T drink skimmate, it doesn't taste at all good.
I have been arguing this over in my head for weeks (i will insert months in here as i have been literally trying for months to find solid research and information on this to support my theories/findings and finding it hard) trying to find a way to quantify and explain the benefits of trace element dosing, and when you should use them, and also, what elements influence what colours/processes.
First of all let me say one thing, although there have been studies showing some of the elements needed for certain colours, some of the trace elements included in some mixes dont have "solid" research supporting their use, so far as i can find anyway, at least at this point in this post. As im sure this will take me quite a few days (again ill insert months in here) to write, I'm assuming ill find more and more information, and by all means if people have any links they would like to share please feel free to post them, i would like to read further into the subject.
So first I'm going to start with when you should be dosing trace elements, and what level of dosing you should be doing depending on your requirements, tank type and time constraints and goals.
So firstly, WHEN:
Well, this is a little hard to quantify, but in general, you can dose some level of trace elements in nearly any tank, but the amount will differ. In a higher nutrient tank (nitrate over 4ppm and phosphate over 0.1ppm) an all round trace element supplement and maybe an amino acid supplement will do fine in most cases, just because the corals are not coloured up fantastically because of the level of Zooxanthelle in them from the higher nutrient levels, does not mean that they are not using these trace elements.
In some cases, in higher nutrient systems, whether the higher nutrient is on purpose, in order to increase coral growth, or not intentional, but is not a huge concern (say a tank with mushrooms, soft corals etc), water changes may, and I stress MAY, be enough to sustain them (trace element levels that is), if you feed a good varied diet of foods, to both your fish and corals and your water changes are large enough and frequent enough. But, without testing at least the main elements (iron, iodine, potassium) to ensure these are in check, along with your other elements, and your using a good quality salt mix, then there is really no way of knowing for certain if water changes are going to suffice to replace and maintain all elements in the aquarium remotely important for sustained growth and colour. And even then, trace elements generally cant be tested for, so a general trace element supplement may still be needed. And in most cases is beneficial.
In Low nutrient systems, it is definitely beneficial. In low nutrient systems, although you are still doing some level of water changes, the amount is usually, not always, but usually, a lot less. and so the amount of trace elements added at water change time is minimal.
These trace elements are in TRACE amounts, and therefore they are used up very quickly, being incorporated into tissue of corals and lifeforms like fish, phytoplankton etc, being passed onto fish and coral in turn. And therefore, as you can imagine, Trace elements would be used up quickly.
This, coupled with the fact that at low nutrient levels, the browning associated with corals, or at least fading of colour being held at high nutrient levels (because of the higher level of zooxanthelle due to increased photosynthesis) is not as apparent or intense.
Therefore, the natural pigment of coral is able to show through, and the colour pigments of the individual coral can be seen. This of course means that the chemicals and trace elements included in colouration pigments in coral tissue need to be present in order to intensify those pigments. If they are lacking, the colours can become dull, and washed out. If they are in proper levels, the colours will usually be more intense, if they are in excess, you can sometimes intensify the levels of pigmentation and colouration dramatically.
What if they are too much? well i have seen some not so great, and then catastrophic misuse of trace elements, right from receding tissue, to full blown polyp and zoox bailout. so you can use too much.
Trace elements are exactly that, they are in TRACE amounts. Yes they can be beneficial, and are great tools for manipulating health and colour, but just because it says add this much much of this on the bottle, doesn't mean you should.
when starting to add trace elements, read about it and research it. Most good manufacturers, even if it is a proprietary mix with no ingredients list, will still give you a good background on the supplement itself, Brightwell Aquatics Koral Color comes to mind here (and i know this stuff works), but this doesn't mean you should dumping in the recommended dose straight away. And don't you dare let me hear anyone yelling snake oil!!!!!!!!!!! at least not yet......
Even if it does recommend a starting dose, if it isn't say 1/4 of the end dose they recommend, then go with 1/5th to 1/4 of the dose and continue this for at least 3 weeks. And remember daily dosing will ALWAYS be better, for any element.
After this, and through monitoring your corals (obviously assuming that your nutrient levels are low and warrant specific trace element dosing then you can start to increase if you need to, to get better colouration. This doesn't necessarily mean your dose rate is going to reach the recommended level, you may find that for example, a dose rate of a little over half that of recommended, starts to darken up some of your corals, a good indication that you need to back off a bit.
Use your corals a guide, obviously, as biomass of corals and size of colonies increases, so will your demand for the trace element in question, its always going to change, so keep on top of it.
Then after you get to comfortable place with one trace element, maybe start on another.
Two things i will say about trace element dosing
1. PICK A BLOODY SYSTEM AND STICK TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
I have seen many hip shooters (yes ive tried it also) try to mix different trace element programs trying to re-invent the wheel, there are reasons why companies formulate the trace elements they make they way they do, they are made to complement each other, you start mixing them, and you can get too much of one element and not enough of the other, sometimes with VERY bad results.
2. Don't expect to see overnight results, and don't expect to get results if you don't follow the manufacturers instructions.
3. (yes i only said there was two but I'm on a rant so stick with me) If you tank is not ready, and all elements of husbandry are not in line, do not expect to see results, or for this to be a magical supplement to solve your problems. Coloration through trace elements, will only be achieved at an enhanced rate, at low nutrient levels. At low nutrient levels you need to feed more in order to supply more nutrition to the coral as the amount of food they are getting from photosynthesis is limited. With increased feeding, you need a higher level of flow to carry food too, and waste away from the coral, without properly sized filtration to handle the increased food input, nutrient levels will go up. Its all about balance and perfecting every part of the system and environment. Its common sense, but lets face it, these issues are things that alot of people overlook, including me sometimes.
These are lifeforms in a glass box, without constant replenishment of elements from the ocean, without constant flow and the best lighting (the sun), its not as simple as throwing coral and fish in there and expecting to get the best out of them.
So, this will be the first post in a series of posts in regards to trace element dosing ill try cover one at a time, breaking it down and providing solid information, rather than pulling my hair out trying to do it all in one go.
I have to give credit to Chris for this, thanks mate, damn well would have killed me if i tried to do it all in one go i recon.
So, next post, will start with Iron as a trace element, what its used by, how its used, what colours it effects, etc etc.
So until next time, a parting piece of advice, DON'T drink skimmate, it doesn't taste at all good.
Monday, 2 April 2012
Cyano, tips for control and erradication
Cyano, Cyano-bacteria, red slime algae
They are all names for an algae that is very common in reef aquaria, plagues and frustrates many people and their tanks, and is also, surprisingly, extremely easy to eradicate compared to other nuisance algae in marine Aquariums.
First of all you need to find the cause of it, and it can be a problem in even the lowest nutrient tanks. Mostly it is a product of a few things, the main ones being
- high levels of nitrogen (and not only nitrate, cyano can lock, harvest and utilise ionic nitrogen in the form of ammonia and nitrite as well as many organic bound forms of nitrogen)
- any levels of phosphate, even if none are detectable in the water column
- low water flow, and most importantly the export and movement of detritus and organics from the system ( or in this case, lack of) into the filtration where they can be collected and removed
I have recently been consulting on a friends tank (2000 litre marine wonderland) and the tank consistently reads 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates, on multiple testings with high accuracy testing kits. However, and it has been an issue for quite some time, that the tank requires more flow.
This however is beside the point as he has not had a cyano bloom for quite some time until now, and it is only occurring in one of the tanks (this system consists of two identical tanks plumbed into the same filtration system) the cause we believe is that one of the wavemakers at the back of the tank is blowing the substrate off the eggcrate the live rock is sitting on. This is enough to create enough circulation under the substrate, blowing water with organics and potential phosphates up through the sand bed.
Now, as i have mentioned this system runs very close to 0 nutrients, in fact it is too clean, and it has meant the system needs to be fed a lot more for the benefit of the corals, which is mainly SPS. This however does not mean that there is not phosphate in the system, in fact, it is impossible that there is no phosphate being produced in the system, the zero readings we are achieving are the readings in the water column, and are simply either being taken up by photosynthesis or by the nutrient export system in place in the tank, and this is the reason that we are not getting a reading.
However, water with trace levels of phosphate is still being pumped down in, and through the substrate in this case, and as we know and has been explained in previous posts, phosphate will bind to calcium carbonate based substances, like substrate in a marine tank. Substrate also has a lot of organics and sediments in it as well which, with increased water flow through the substrate bed may have also contributed to the accelerated breakdown of these sediments into nitrate and phosphate (instead of the normal biological processes in the sand bed, however shallow or deep, breaking these down naturally at a much more controlled rate)
This is where your thinking, hold on a second, this joker has said in previous posts that phosphate moves from high concentration in the substrate (phosphate loading) to low concentration in the water column, so why wouldn't the phosphate just diffuse straight back out of the substrate and into the water column and be removed.
Well, remember that cyano needs a way to harvest these nutrients, and have ever seen cyano floating around in a marine tank in the water column? (unless you've knocked it off and stirred it up) Don't bother answering, the answer is NO.
Cyano harvests nutrient directly from substrates and rock, this is why it causes so many problems, and why it is a such a big problem in systems with phosphate loaded rock.
In the case of this tank with the wavemaker pumping water through the substrate, yes the phosphate should bind to the substrate and then re-release into the tank, and the organics should break down, and then be released into the water column, but a combination of the two releasing from the substrate at far accelerated rates, along with there not being quite as much flow in tank as we would like, has allowed the cyano to harvest this nutrient directly from the substrate water interface, capturing these nutrients first before they can be removed by the filtration.
Before I start describing how to combat this problem It should be noted that you first have to diagnose what the cause is, as we have done above. Get an Accurate set of test kits and collect some data on nutrient levels and your other tanks parameters levels as well.
In the case of phosphate loaded rock, this will be confirmed by the use of phosphate absorption resins, if you place a phosphate absorption resin or media in your tank (especially something like Seachems Phosgaurd, and activated alumina product that is incredibly aggressive at removing phosphate) and your phosphate doesn't change, or indeed actually increases, it is a good indication that you have phosphate loaded substrate and rock. As the phosphate is removed by the media, the phosphate in the rock diffuses from high concentration (in the rock) to low concentration in the water column that the media has stripped phosphate from.
Combating cyano
There are a few simple things you can do to get rid of cyano in your aquarium, but you need to eliminate the nutrient first. I have gone over organic carbon dosing and Nitrate limitation in a previous post HERE so if you need information on nutrient dynamics I would recommend also reading this before going any further.
First of all let me point out, things are going to get worse before they get better, much worse in some cases, make sure you have water mixed, on hand ready for water changes. It can be a bit of work but this is your reef tank punishing you for not being diligent in controlling nutrient, harsh but unfortunately true, but its an easy fix (relatively speaking) so don't get too upset about it.
1. Manual removal
Because Cyano harvests and actually stores nutrient for later use, syphoning off this nutrient will result in the removal of a lot of nutrient, as well as letting more nutrient leach from the substrate for removal. In a way, the cyano is actually helping you out a bit here, kind of, but we all still hate it and it deserves to die so syphon it out and show it who's boss. Make sure you remove as much as you can with a syphon hose, trying your best not to stir it up in the water column, and also being careful not to suck up too much of the substrate, however, it is easier to replace a bit of sand than rip a tank down completely (which i have done, and it ain't fun) so if you do, you can easily put a handful of new sand into the tank. You can even run it through a net or similar capture device to catch the substrate but wash the cyano off.
Keep doing it as it appears, over the course of the tank's nutrient reduction.
2. Removal of as much of of the nutrient, and stored nutrient as possible
This means not only getting rid of the phosphate and nitrate (through water changes, phosphate absorption resin/media or organic carbon dosing) but also detritus. As i just mentioned i have actually ripped a tank down and set it up again in the past, to remove the bulk of the sediments and nutrient from the tank to "get ahead" of the nutrient cycle. This essentially involved taking everything out of tank, saving about 30% of the water, cleaning the rock without causing too much havoc, stirring up the substrate and syphoning as much sediment and detritus from the system as possible., then cleaning the foam and bio media in the tank water to remove the detritus, syphoning every possible nook and cranny, cleaning the pumps and skimmer, and then placing all the rock back in the tank, with the corals and fish and filling the tank back up again. And the starting a very aggressive syphoning, and organic carbon/bacterial driven nutrient removal regime.
In this case, I was adding HUGE amounts of nitrate to drive accelerated phosphate removal from the rock and substrate, to the point where i was adding 10mls morning and night of Seachem Flourish nitrogen along with 15-20mls of NO3:PO4X organic carbon a day to a 250 Litre tank.
Even at this rate, it took around 3 months to get to consistently low nutrient levels, and was progressively backed off over that time period, to the point now where it is sitting at 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate as well. And i am still adding nitrate (in the form of seachem flourish nitrogen) every day, to the tune of 3ml. for consistent removal of nutrient
My point here is, whichever method you choose, its going to be a long road, so be prepared, organic carbon dosing i have found is a lot easier and cheaper than media based phosphate removal as you have nitrate removal AND in general it costs a lot less per unit of phosphate removed.
As a side note, I also have another person I know who i am helping with the exact same problem (phosphate loaded rock) and they were and still are running, organic carbon dosing (with nitrate dosing), a refugium (dosing with iron) which is growing at a rate that needs trimming weekly, HEAVY TRIMMING, and ROWAPHOS, also Phosgaurd at one point, and is only starting to see results now, after around 5 months. At one point soon they are going to have to decide which method of nutrient removal will be the dominant one and at that point shut down the others. but that is another story altogether, the point is, this problem can get VERY out of hand.
What i will point out is, re-scaping a tank and doing such a large overhaul should really only be done by people with experience in this area, or if your are confident enough doing it yourself and have been involved in the hobby enough to know you can deal with the possible reactions that could ensue. If not, just vacuum the substrate as much as possible (unless its a deep sand bed, then your in a bit of strife because it is most definitely not as easy).
3. Maintain skimming
Clean your skimmer and clean it often, every day to second day, and i find cleaning it in water from the tank helps it gets back up and skimming quicker, especially if cleaning daily. Your skimmer is skimming off nutrient, especially in an organic carbon driven nutrient removal situation, so keep it operating at peak performance, and if you have a skimmer that you feel might be underdone, go and invest in a decent skimmer, the best you can afford, that is correctly sized for your tank.
4. KALK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have read my post on Maintaining pH you will know why I like this supplement so much, but in short, A higher pH will eradicate nuisance algae, as well as the Kalkwasser will also precipitate phosphate. Go down to your Local Aquarium/Pet store, talk to someone who knows how to use it, Buy it, put it in your top off, make a dosing system, shot it in a slurry...... it doesn't matter how you do it, just get your pH up there, monitor it, keep it above 8.4 (while testing your Alkalinity and Calcium so you don't overshoot) and it will most definitely help you get over this issue faster. if you would like to read the post on Kalk and increased pH you can HERE
5. Be Vigilant
You have to be committed to getting rid of this stuff, otherwise your never going to get anywhere.
6. Maintain lower nutrient levels and good husbandry
Make sure you keep your nutrient levels low consistently (and all water parameters stable and where they should be) and practise good husbandry. Your tank will thank you for it, and you will be a lot happier. This is not a part of the Aquarium keeping hobby that you can achieve good results in without work, unless you can pay someone to come and maintain your tank, be prepared to do some work, and you have to be committed to your tank.
.................... And then
A new beginning for your tank!!!! You can get down to business of growth, colour and chemistry, and start developing the tank you wanted.
I have been through this exact thing with three different tanks and it isn't easy, in fact its frustrating as hell, but the results are incredibly satisfying.
Know your path, and follow it, and you will be rewarded.
They are all names for an algae that is very common in reef aquaria, plagues and frustrates many people and their tanks, and is also, surprisingly, extremely easy to eradicate compared to other nuisance algae in marine Aquariums.
First of all you need to find the cause of it, and it can be a problem in even the lowest nutrient tanks. Mostly it is a product of a few things, the main ones being
- high levels of nitrogen (and not only nitrate, cyano can lock, harvest and utilise ionic nitrogen in the form of ammonia and nitrite as well as many organic bound forms of nitrogen)
- any levels of phosphate, even if none are detectable in the water column
- low water flow, and most importantly the export and movement of detritus and organics from the system ( or in this case, lack of) into the filtration where they can be collected and removed
I have recently been consulting on a friends tank (2000 litre marine wonderland) and the tank consistently reads 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates, on multiple testings with high accuracy testing kits. However, and it has been an issue for quite some time, that the tank requires more flow.
This however is beside the point as he has not had a cyano bloom for quite some time until now, and it is only occurring in one of the tanks (this system consists of two identical tanks plumbed into the same filtration system) the cause we believe is that one of the wavemakers at the back of the tank is blowing the substrate off the eggcrate the live rock is sitting on. This is enough to create enough circulation under the substrate, blowing water with organics and potential phosphates up through the sand bed.
Now, as i have mentioned this system runs very close to 0 nutrients, in fact it is too clean, and it has meant the system needs to be fed a lot more for the benefit of the corals, which is mainly SPS. This however does not mean that there is not phosphate in the system, in fact, it is impossible that there is no phosphate being produced in the system, the zero readings we are achieving are the readings in the water column, and are simply either being taken up by photosynthesis or by the nutrient export system in place in the tank, and this is the reason that we are not getting a reading.
However, water with trace levels of phosphate is still being pumped down in, and through the substrate in this case, and as we know and has been explained in previous posts, phosphate will bind to calcium carbonate based substances, like substrate in a marine tank. Substrate also has a lot of organics and sediments in it as well which, with increased water flow through the substrate bed may have also contributed to the accelerated breakdown of these sediments into nitrate and phosphate (instead of the normal biological processes in the sand bed, however shallow or deep, breaking these down naturally at a much more controlled rate)
This is where your thinking, hold on a second, this joker has said in previous posts that phosphate moves from high concentration in the substrate (phosphate loading) to low concentration in the water column, so why wouldn't the phosphate just diffuse straight back out of the substrate and into the water column and be removed.
Well, remember that cyano needs a way to harvest these nutrients, and have ever seen cyano floating around in a marine tank in the water column? (unless you've knocked it off and stirred it up) Don't bother answering, the answer is NO.
Cyano harvests nutrient directly from substrates and rock, this is why it causes so many problems, and why it is a such a big problem in systems with phosphate loaded rock.
In the case of this tank with the wavemaker pumping water through the substrate, yes the phosphate should bind to the substrate and then re-release into the tank, and the organics should break down, and then be released into the water column, but a combination of the two releasing from the substrate at far accelerated rates, along with there not being quite as much flow in tank as we would like, has allowed the cyano to harvest this nutrient directly from the substrate water interface, capturing these nutrients first before they can be removed by the filtration.
Before I start describing how to combat this problem It should be noted that you first have to diagnose what the cause is, as we have done above. Get an Accurate set of test kits and collect some data on nutrient levels and your other tanks parameters levels as well.
In the case of phosphate loaded rock, this will be confirmed by the use of phosphate absorption resins, if you place a phosphate absorption resin or media in your tank (especially something like Seachems Phosgaurd, and activated alumina product that is incredibly aggressive at removing phosphate) and your phosphate doesn't change, or indeed actually increases, it is a good indication that you have phosphate loaded substrate and rock. As the phosphate is removed by the media, the phosphate in the rock diffuses from high concentration (in the rock) to low concentration in the water column that the media has stripped phosphate from.
Combating cyano
There are a few simple things you can do to get rid of cyano in your aquarium, but you need to eliminate the nutrient first. I have gone over organic carbon dosing and Nitrate limitation in a previous post HERE so if you need information on nutrient dynamics I would recommend also reading this before going any further.
First of all let me point out, things are going to get worse before they get better, much worse in some cases, make sure you have water mixed, on hand ready for water changes. It can be a bit of work but this is your reef tank punishing you for not being diligent in controlling nutrient, harsh but unfortunately true, but its an easy fix (relatively speaking) so don't get too upset about it.
1. Manual removal
Because Cyano harvests and actually stores nutrient for later use, syphoning off this nutrient will result in the removal of a lot of nutrient, as well as letting more nutrient leach from the substrate for removal. In a way, the cyano is actually helping you out a bit here, kind of, but we all still hate it and it deserves to die so syphon it out and show it who's boss. Make sure you remove as much as you can with a syphon hose, trying your best not to stir it up in the water column, and also being careful not to suck up too much of the substrate, however, it is easier to replace a bit of sand than rip a tank down completely (which i have done, and it ain't fun) so if you do, you can easily put a handful of new sand into the tank. You can even run it through a net or similar capture device to catch the substrate but wash the cyano off.
Keep doing it as it appears, over the course of the tank's nutrient reduction.
2. Removal of as much of of the nutrient, and stored nutrient as possible
This means not only getting rid of the phosphate and nitrate (through water changes, phosphate absorption resin/media or organic carbon dosing) but also detritus. As i just mentioned i have actually ripped a tank down and set it up again in the past, to remove the bulk of the sediments and nutrient from the tank to "get ahead" of the nutrient cycle. This essentially involved taking everything out of tank, saving about 30% of the water, cleaning the rock without causing too much havoc, stirring up the substrate and syphoning as much sediment and detritus from the system as possible., then cleaning the foam and bio media in the tank water to remove the detritus, syphoning every possible nook and cranny, cleaning the pumps and skimmer, and then placing all the rock back in the tank, with the corals and fish and filling the tank back up again. And the starting a very aggressive syphoning, and organic carbon/bacterial driven nutrient removal regime.
In this case, I was adding HUGE amounts of nitrate to drive accelerated phosphate removal from the rock and substrate, to the point where i was adding 10mls morning and night of Seachem Flourish nitrogen along with 15-20mls of NO3:PO4X organic carbon a day to a 250 Litre tank.
Even at this rate, it took around 3 months to get to consistently low nutrient levels, and was progressively backed off over that time period, to the point now where it is sitting at 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate as well. And i am still adding nitrate (in the form of seachem flourish nitrogen) every day, to the tune of 3ml. for consistent removal of nutrient
My point here is, whichever method you choose, its going to be a long road, so be prepared, organic carbon dosing i have found is a lot easier and cheaper than media based phosphate removal as you have nitrate removal AND in general it costs a lot less per unit of phosphate removed.
As a side note, I also have another person I know who i am helping with the exact same problem (phosphate loaded rock) and they were and still are running, organic carbon dosing (with nitrate dosing), a refugium (dosing with iron) which is growing at a rate that needs trimming weekly, HEAVY TRIMMING, and ROWAPHOS, also Phosgaurd at one point, and is only starting to see results now, after around 5 months. At one point soon they are going to have to decide which method of nutrient removal will be the dominant one and at that point shut down the others. but that is another story altogether, the point is, this problem can get VERY out of hand.
What i will point out is, re-scaping a tank and doing such a large overhaul should really only be done by people with experience in this area, or if your are confident enough doing it yourself and have been involved in the hobby enough to know you can deal with the possible reactions that could ensue. If not, just vacuum the substrate as much as possible (unless its a deep sand bed, then your in a bit of strife because it is most definitely not as easy).
3. Maintain skimming
Clean your skimmer and clean it often, every day to second day, and i find cleaning it in water from the tank helps it gets back up and skimming quicker, especially if cleaning daily. Your skimmer is skimming off nutrient, especially in an organic carbon driven nutrient removal situation, so keep it operating at peak performance, and if you have a skimmer that you feel might be underdone, go and invest in a decent skimmer, the best you can afford, that is correctly sized for your tank.
4. KALK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have read my post on Maintaining pH you will know why I like this supplement so much, but in short, A higher pH will eradicate nuisance algae, as well as the Kalkwasser will also precipitate phosphate. Go down to your Local Aquarium/Pet store, talk to someone who knows how to use it, Buy it, put it in your top off, make a dosing system, shot it in a slurry...... it doesn't matter how you do it, just get your pH up there, monitor it, keep it above 8.4 (while testing your Alkalinity and Calcium so you don't overshoot) and it will most definitely help you get over this issue faster. if you would like to read the post on Kalk and increased pH you can HERE
5. Be Vigilant
You have to be committed to getting rid of this stuff, otherwise your never going to get anywhere.
6. Maintain lower nutrient levels and good husbandry
Make sure you keep your nutrient levels low consistently (and all water parameters stable and where they should be) and practise good husbandry. Your tank will thank you for it, and you will be a lot happier. This is not a part of the Aquarium keeping hobby that you can achieve good results in without work, unless you can pay someone to come and maintain your tank, be prepared to do some work, and you have to be committed to your tank.
.................... And then
A new beginning for your tank!!!! You can get down to business of growth, colour and chemistry, and start developing the tank you wanted.
I have been through this exact thing with three different tanks and it isn't easy, in fact its frustrating as hell, but the results are incredibly satisfying.
Know your path, and follow it, and you will be rewarded.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Probiotic/beneficial bacteria for improving water quality and nutrient control
Probiotic or beneficial bacteria, in general, are used to improve water quality through degradation of solid and dissolved wastes.
These strains of bacteria are usually Heterotrophic bacteria, and there are many different strains that are used that perform specific jobs in the Aquarium.
These bacteria CAN, be naturally occurring in the aquarium, and if regular cleaning and water changes are performed, the natural bacterial population may be large enough and effective enough to control solid and dissolved wastes, but in most cases, the aquarium needs a little help.
These heterotrophic bacteria reproduce so quickly (every 30 minutes or so) that not only do they very quickly eat themselves out of a food source, but the rapid cellular reproduction means they they mutate into less effective forms of the strain they first started as, and become less and less efficient at the job they do.
More often than not, probiotic bacteria need to be dosed every 7-14 days in a closed system like an aquarium or pond, depending on the type, brand and effectiveness of the bacteria. These Bacteria usually have a wide range of salinity, pH and temperature they will operate in, and most often than not will opperate in both freshwater and saltwater aquariums, although some bacteria will be more effective in either fresh or marine environments, the majority of heterotrophic bacteria (and even some Autotrophic bacteria, such as those responsible for nitrification such as nitrosomonas, nitrobacter, nitrococcus, nitrosococcus, nitrospira, nitrosospria, nitrosolobus) will operate in both fresh and saltwater
The strains included in most good probiotic bacteria supplements will be chosen because they are very effective at specific jobs, such as organic waste reduction, nitrate reduction, phosphate reduction, disease suppression etc.
And so, by adding these bacteria every week to two weeks, you keep a good colony of efficient strains of bacteria in your aquarium suited to reduction of waste, and therefore your tank stays cleaner, for longer.
Dosing in freshwater Tanks:
Although dosing for every tank is going to be different, generally you can judge the dose rate needed by the level of solid waste in your substrate, and the nitrate levels in your aquarium. Most manufacturers will provide detailed dose rates for their Bacteria cultures and these are good starting points.
Using these two indicators to determine dose rates obviously will only work with bacterial mixes that actually reduce nitrate and solid waste and you will need to try for yourself to determine which bacteria is the one for you.
At the start of dosing, having an idea of waste levels in your substrate and nitrate levels will give you an idea of how well a given bacterial mix is working in your aquarium. Using a dose rate that well and truly reduces these waste products to start with will then allow you to "work backwards" and determine a dose rate by measuring your nitrate levels and monitoring your water clarity and level of waste in the substrate, once either of these indicators start to increase, simply increase the dose rate slightly until you no longer have either problem and you can continue dosing from there.
Strangely enough, compared to marine aquariums, enough organic carbon seems to be liberated from the breakdown of organic waste to fuel the waste reduction process and dosing more bacteria seems to be better (to an extent). Perhaps this is due to the breakdown of the bacteria that have previously digested the waste products releasing organic carbon that is then taken up next time by bacteria when it is re dosed, much like PHA (or similar compounds) based Bio-pellets used in Marine Aquariums.
Although there is still a certain amount of waste that is leftover after dosing and running a course of pro biotic bacteria in freshwater aquariums that need to be removed manually, the amount of this waste compared to what would be present without dosing is orders of magnitude less.
The reason this doesn't work that well on a consistent basis in marine aquariums in my opinion, is because the biological recycling or nutrients is much more complex in a marine environment, and therefore consistent breakdown of waste and dead bacterial cells, if not removed by protein skimming, is taken up by other organisms (which may not be beneficial in a marine aquarium, such as cyano bacteria), or will simply breakdown into the waste by-products (to an extent) previously digested and only reduce nutrient so far, and since low levels of nutrient are required in most cases for reef systems, more "enhanced" and effective removal of these bacterial cells is required to maintain a higher level of water quality. But more on this later.
Dosing In Marine Aquariums:
Dosing In marine Aquariums, as mentioned above, when not using a protein skimmer will only get you so far, but it will still work, I use a Bacterial product in my 25 liter skimmer less nano and it maintains close to zero nitrate and phosphate levels around 0.5ppm, this is enough to encourage some corraline algae growth, however does not enhance water quality enough to keep SPS corals or some corals that require a higher standard of water quality.
To remove enough of this bacteria to reduce overall waste levels, not only does the bacteria have to be efficient enough to break down and digest the majority of the waste in the first place, but you also need to remove as much as the new biomass that is produced, in order to harvest the nutrient locked up in its cell structure, otherwise, as is the case in freshwater systems, the bacterial biomass left over breaks down and nutrient removal slows down, this is not so much of a concern in a freshwater system as generally, most inhabitants are able to endure levels of phosphate, and other waste products without any long term issues, and the low levels of waste achieved by using a Probiotic bacteria are FAR lower than usual, and thus, enhanced removal is not really necessary.
Unlike dosing in freshwater systems, in marine systems, bacterial dosing is usually used in conjunction with organic Carbon dosing, as mentioned in my previous blog post, organic carbon accelerates the reproduction of bacteria to increase the speed and amount of nutrient uptake. Therefor it makes sense, that if accelerating the uptake of nutrient, for the most effective nutrient removal you should use the most effective bacteria by using a probiotic bacterial mix that contains bacteria chosen to be efficient at specific types of waste reduction.
However, when using organic carbon to accelerate bacterial production in marine systems, less seems to be more.
Even though it seems to be extremely beneficial to dose probiotic solutions in marine aquariums, dosing less bacteria seems to achieve a better result, and I have a theory as to why.
As you know, marine environments are ion soup, making it the ideal place for bacteria to proliferate, as such marine environments are extremely biologically complex. Especially when adding organic carbon, the bacteria proliferate quickly, and in some cases I think too quickly, resulting in bacterial blooms that reach critical mass, and then die, which results in a larger quantity of biomass being produced then that which was present before dosing, which then breaks down into nutrient.
By adding smaller quantities of bacteria, the nutrient is digested (and then removed by protein skimming) at a slower more "controlled" rate, resulting in better nutrient removal. Unlike freshwater systems, larger volumes of bacteria are needed because in a freshwater system organic carbon is not fuelling rapid reproduction of the bacteria being added, and therefore not only is more bacteria needed to break down the waste, but the bacteria added does not spike exponentially as there is a certain degree of biological control in that there is a limitation on the amount of organic carbon present to fuel biomass growth.
Some things to remember when choosing and dosing bacterial products are:
- not all bacterial supplements are created equally, you must research your chosen bacterial product and make your own findings, monitoring of water parameters and water quality are very important in this regard
- When dosing bacteria, oxygen can be depleted, ensure good aeration is provided and do not exceed manufacturers dose rates lightly, as I have said, some systems will need higher volumes of bacteria than others, but exceeding manufacturers dose rates should be done with caution, and slowly, whilst carefully monitoring water quality and oxygen levels.
- dosing bacterial supplements dose not reduce the need for water changes, it does in most cases improve water quality and reduce waste, but water changes do more than simply remove waste products from the aquarium, it replenishes salts and minerals, replenishes pH and removes the end products of bacterial reduction like staining and generally freshens up your water.
- in marine aquariums, in most cases, when dosing a bacterial supplement, you must have a protein skimmer, and unless you have a lot of experience with marine ecosystems and bacterial driven systems and dosing, I would not recommend even trying to run a bacterial system without a protein skimmer
- although heterotrophic bacteria can have long shelf lives owing to the fact that they can form spores or go dormant in liquid form, they are much better off being kept in the fridge. When looking for a bacterial product, one that recommends it being kept in the fridge (or is being kept in the fridge by the aquarium store) and has a range of dose rate information, but albeit is still very concentrated are things to look for that more often than not indicate a product that is worth trying.
Other advantages to dosing Bacterial Probiotics:
- the reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas results in carbonates used up in the nitrogen cycle to be re-released back to the aquarium, providing a degree of "re-buffering" for the water, keeping your pH more stable.
- dosing bacterial products results in a process called competitive exclusion, by which bacteria out-compete disease causing bacteria resulting in a lower likelihood of fish contracting disease, and because most diseases are bacterial, or start off as bacterial disease, this reduces a vast percentage of chances of your fish catching disease. This, and the improvement in water quality overall, results in the fish having a better immune response, which results in much healthier fish tank inhabitants.
- Further to this, some bacterial supplements have have specific disease reducing bacteria that produce antibacterial/antimicrobial substances that directly harm/denature/kill other bacteria that can potentially cause disease.
- heterotrophic bacteria can in some cases perform ammonia and nitrite reduction as well, this is referred to as heterotrophic nitrification, and in general is not as effective or as long lived as autotrophic nitrification, but still is very beneficial.
- Probiotic waste assimilating bacteria remove the vast majority of solid waste (the good ones do anyway) which improve the nitrifiers ability to process ammonia and nitrite, this results in a faster functioning nitrogen cycle which means your tank can resist or cope with changes in ammonia levels faster, processing waste quicker. It also means solids wastes will be broken down faster into other compounds including ammonia, resulting in a tank that doesnt have as much chance of building up harmful by-products.
- heterotrophic bacteria in Probiotic bacterial supplements create biofilms, in these biofilms (and in the water column) solids wastes especially are broken down into "simpler" elements and "chopped" up into finer particles. Once this is done, the bacteria then microfloculate these small particles by incorporating them into their biofilm, these are then easier to collect by mechanical filtration.
- An interesting fact about bacteria and pre-filter sponges, in the course pre-filter sponge often included in cannister filters and other sorts of filters, a huge amount of bacteria is present. Most people will wash these off when they clean their denser, finer filter pad. Whilst you really have no option with the dense filter pad, the coarser, more open cell sponge can easily be squeezed out in water from the tank and be relatively well cleaned, this removes the solid waste but retains the bacteria. Sponges and media that are loaded with bacteria are "stickier" and will collect more waste as they collect micro fine particles in their biofilms.
- along these lines again, dosing pro-biotics will help keep you biofilter media cleaner, just like it keeps your substrate cleaner allowing for increased nitrification. However, there will still be a point where the biofilm on the outside of the media will get too thick and the hetertrophic bacteria will risk smothering the nitrifying bacteria already on the biofilter media. Every couple of weeks when you open your canister filter to check and clean the prefilter sponges, have a look at your biofilter media (noodles, bioballs etc) and if needed, give them a slosh in water from the tank to remove any mulm, you will find you will get a much better result with more regular maintainence.
----- On a side note, anyone who recommends a canister filter only needs to be pulled apart and looked at/cleaned every couple of months (and i have heard of people recommending only every 6 months) is completely incorrect. Even in a lightly stocked aquarium you would want to pull it apart and at least have a look at the impeller and give that a clean, and Activated carbon should be replaced every 3-4 weeks in a normally stocked aquarium anyway. Look at it this way, the more often you maintain your canister, the more waste you remove from your system on your pre-filter sponges, and this is waste that can break down into ammonia and other waste products in your aquarium. That, coupled with checking the impeller and checking for blockages means that the canister runs smoother and you should get a longer service life out of it.
So that's it really, at least that's all i can remember at 2am, if you have any questions or comments please feel free.
G
These strains of bacteria are usually Heterotrophic bacteria, and there are many different strains that are used that perform specific jobs in the Aquarium.
These bacteria CAN, be naturally occurring in the aquarium, and if regular cleaning and water changes are performed, the natural bacterial population may be large enough and effective enough to control solid and dissolved wastes, but in most cases, the aquarium needs a little help.
These heterotrophic bacteria reproduce so quickly (every 30 minutes or so) that not only do they very quickly eat themselves out of a food source, but the rapid cellular reproduction means they they mutate into less effective forms of the strain they first started as, and become less and less efficient at the job they do.
More often than not, probiotic bacteria need to be dosed every 7-14 days in a closed system like an aquarium or pond, depending on the type, brand and effectiveness of the bacteria. These Bacteria usually have a wide range of salinity, pH and temperature they will operate in, and most often than not will opperate in both freshwater and saltwater aquariums, although some bacteria will be more effective in either fresh or marine environments, the majority of heterotrophic bacteria (and even some Autotrophic bacteria, such as those responsible for nitrification such as nitrosomonas, nitrobacter, nitrococcus, nitrosococcus, nitrospira, nitrosospria, nitrosolobus) will operate in both fresh and saltwater
The strains included in most good probiotic bacteria supplements will be chosen because they are very effective at specific jobs, such as organic waste reduction, nitrate reduction, phosphate reduction, disease suppression etc.
And so, by adding these bacteria every week to two weeks, you keep a good colony of efficient strains of bacteria in your aquarium suited to reduction of waste, and therefore your tank stays cleaner, for longer.
Dosing in freshwater Tanks:
Although dosing for every tank is going to be different, generally you can judge the dose rate needed by the level of solid waste in your substrate, and the nitrate levels in your aquarium. Most manufacturers will provide detailed dose rates for their Bacteria cultures and these are good starting points.
Using these two indicators to determine dose rates obviously will only work with bacterial mixes that actually reduce nitrate and solid waste and you will need to try for yourself to determine which bacteria is the one for you.
At the start of dosing, having an idea of waste levels in your substrate and nitrate levels will give you an idea of how well a given bacterial mix is working in your aquarium. Using a dose rate that well and truly reduces these waste products to start with will then allow you to "work backwards" and determine a dose rate by measuring your nitrate levels and monitoring your water clarity and level of waste in the substrate, once either of these indicators start to increase, simply increase the dose rate slightly until you no longer have either problem and you can continue dosing from there.
Strangely enough, compared to marine aquariums, enough organic carbon seems to be liberated from the breakdown of organic waste to fuel the waste reduction process and dosing more bacteria seems to be better (to an extent). Perhaps this is due to the breakdown of the bacteria that have previously digested the waste products releasing organic carbon that is then taken up next time by bacteria when it is re dosed, much like PHA (or similar compounds) based Bio-pellets used in Marine Aquariums.
Although there is still a certain amount of waste that is leftover after dosing and running a course of pro biotic bacteria in freshwater aquariums that need to be removed manually, the amount of this waste compared to what would be present without dosing is orders of magnitude less.
The reason this doesn't work that well on a consistent basis in marine aquariums in my opinion, is because the biological recycling or nutrients is much more complex in a marine environment, and therefore consistent breakdown of waste and dead bacterial cells, if not removed by protein skimming, is taken up by other organisms (which may not be beneficial in a marine aquarium, such as cyano bacteria), or will simply breakdown into the waste by-products (to an extent) previously digested and only reduce nutrient so far, and since low levels of nutrient are required in most cases for reef systems, more "enhanced" and effective removal of these bacterial cells is required to maintain a higher level of water quality. But more on this later.
Dosing In Marine Aquariums:
Dosing In marine Aquariums, as mentioned above, when not using a protein skimmer will only get you so far, but it will still work, I use a Bacterial product in my 25 liter skimmer less nano and it maintains close to zero nitrate and phosphate levels around 0.5ppm, this is enough to encourage some corraline algae growth, however does not enhance water quality enough to keep SPS corals or some corals that require a higher standard of water quality.
To remove enough of this bacteria to reduce overall waste levels, not only does the bacteria have to be efficient enough to break down and digest the majority of the waste in the first place, but you also need to remove as much as the new biomass that is produced, in order to harvest the nutrient locked up in its cell structure, otherwise, as is the case in freshwater systems, the bacterial biomass left over breaks down and nutrient removal slows down, this is not so much of a concern in a freshwater system as generally, most inhabitants are able to endure levels of phosphate, and other waste products without any long term issues, and the low levels of waste achieved by using a Probiotic bacteria are FAR lower than usual, and thus, enhanced removal is not really necessary.
Unlike dosing in freshwater systems, in marine systems, bacterial dosing is usually used in conjunction with organic Carbon dosing, as mentioned in my previous blog post, organic carbon accelerates the reproduction of bacteria to increase the speed and amount of nutrient uptake. Therefor it makes sense, that if accelerating the uptake of nutrient, for the most effective nutrient removal you should use the most effective bacteria by using a probiotic bacterial mix that contains bacteria chosen to be efficient at specific types of waste reduction.
However, when using organic carbon to accelerate bacterial production in marine systems, less seems to be more.
Even though it seems to be extremely beneficial to dose probiotic solutions in marine aquariums, dosing less bacteria seems to achieve a better result, and I have a theory as to why.
As you know, marine environments are ion soup, making it the ideal place for bacteria to proliferate, as such marine environments are extremely biologically complex. Especially when adding organic carbon, the bacteria proliferate quickly, and in some cases I think too quickly, resulting in bacterial blooms that reach critical mass, and then die, which results in a larger quantity of biomass being produced then that which was present before dosing, which then breaks down into nutrient.
By adding smaller quantities of bacteria, the nutrient is digested (and then removed by protein skimming) at a slower more "controlled" rate, resulting in better nutrient removal. Unlike freshwater systems, larger volumes of bacteria are needed because in a freshwater system organic carbon is not fuelling rapid reproduction of the bacteria being added, and therefore not only is more bacteria needed to break down the waste, but the bacteria added does not spike exponentially as there is a certain degree of biological control in that there is a limitation on the amount of organic carbon present to fuel biomass growth.
Some things to remember when choosing and dosing bacterial products are:
- not all bacterial supplements are created equally, you must research your chosen bacterial product and make your own findings, monitoring of water parameters and water quality are very important in this regard
- When dosing bacteria, oxygen can be depleted, ensure good aeration is provided and do not exceed manufacturers dose rates lightly, as I have said, some systems will need higher volumes of bacteria than others, but exceeding manufacturers dose rates should be done with caution, and slowly, whilst carefully monitoring water quality and oxygen levels.
- dosing bacterial supplements dose not reduce the need for water changes, it does in most cases improve water quality and reduce waste, but water changes do more than simply remove waste products from the aquarium, it replenishes salts and minerals, replenishes pH and removes the end products of bacterial reduction like staining and generally freshens up your water.
- in marine aquariums, in most cases, when dosing a bacterial supplement, you must have a protein skimmer, and unless you have a lot of experience with marine ecosystems and bacterial driven systems and dosing, I would not recommend even trying to run a bacterial system without a protein skimmer
- although heterotrophic bacteria can have long shelf lives owing to the fact that they can form spores or go dormant in liquid form, they are much better off being kept in the fridge. When looking for a bacterial product, one that recommends it being kept in the fridge (or is being kept in the fridge by the aquarium store) and has a range of dose rate information, but albeit is still very concentrated are things to look for that more often than not indicate a product that is worth trying.
Other advantages to dosing Bacterial Probiotics:
- the reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas results in carbonates used up in the nitrogen cycle to be re-released back to the aquarium, providing a degree of "re-buffering" for the water, keeping your pH more stable.
- dosing bacterial products results in a process called competitive exclusion, by which bacteria out-compete disease causing bacteria resulting in a lower likelihood of fish contracting disease, and because most diseases are bacterial, or start off as bacterial disease, this reduces a vast percentage of chances of your fish catching disease. This, and the improvement in water quality overall, results in the fish having a better immune response, which results in much healthier fish tank inhabitants.
- Further to this, some bacterial supplements have have specific disease reducing bacteria that produce antibacterial/antimicrobial substances that directly harm/denature/kill other bacteria that can potentially cause disease.
- heterotrophic bacteria can in some cases perform ammonia and nitrite reduction as well, this is referred to as heterotrophic nitrification, and in general is not as effective or as long lived as autotrophic nitrification, but still is very beneficial.
- Probiotic waste assimilating bacteria remove the vast majority of solid waste (the good ones do anyway) which improve the nitrifiers ability to process ammonia and nitrite, this results in a faster functioning nitrogen cycle which means your tank can resist or cope with changes in ammonia levels faster, processing waste quicker. It also means solids wastes will be broken down faster into other compounds including ammonia, resulting in a tank that doesnt have as much chance of building up harmful by-products.
- heterotrophic bacteria in Probiotic bacterial supplements create biofilms, in these biofilms (and in the water column) solids wastes especially are broken down into "simpler" elements and "chopped" up into finer particles. Once this is done, the bacteria then microfloculate these small particles by incorporating them into their biofilm, these are then easier to collect by mechanical filtration.
- An interesting fact about bacteria and pre-filter sponges, in the course pre-filter sponge often included in cannister filters and other sorts of filters, a huge amount of bacteria is present. Most people will wash these off when they clean their denser, finer filter pad. Whilst you really have no option with the dense filter pad, the coarser, more open cell sponge can easily be squeezed out in water from the tank and be relatively well cleaned, this removes the solid waste but retains the bacteria. Sponges and media that are loaded with bacteria are "stickier" and will collect more waste as they collect micro fine particles in their biofilms.
- along these lines again, dosing pro-biotics will help keep you biofilter media cleaner, just like it keeps your substrate cleaner allowing for increased nitrification. However, there will still be a point where the biofilm on the outside of the media will get too thick and the hetertrophic bacteria will risk smothering the nitrifying bacteria already on the biofilter media. Every couple of weeks when you open your canister filter to check and clean the prefilter sponges, have a look at your biofilter media (noodles, bioballs etc) and if needed, give them a slosh in water from the tank to remove any mulm, you will find you will get a much better result with more regular maintainence.
----- On a side note, anyone who recommends a canister filter only needs to be pulled apart and looked at/cleaned every couple of months (and i have heard of people recommending only every 6 months) is completely incorrect. Even in a lightly stocked aquarium you would want to pull it apart and at least have a look at the impeller and give that a clean, and Activated carbon should be replaced every 3-4 weeks in a normally stocked aquarium anyway. Look at it this way, the more often you maintain your canister, the more waste you remove from your system on your pre-filter sponges, and this is waste that can break down into ammonia and other waste products in your aquarium. That, coupled with checking the impeller and checking for blockages means that the canister runs smoother and you should get a longer service life out of it.
So that's it really, at least that's all i can remember at 2am, if you have any questions or comments please feel free.
G
Friday, 2 March 2012
Nutrient reduction using Organic Carbon - Nitrate deficiency
A phrase I hear all too often is, organic carbon dosing (whether it be referring to vodka, Vodka vinegar sugar dosing/VSV, Commercial supplements like zeofood/ReefBiofuel/NO3:PO4X or Bio-pellets) reduced my nitrate to Zero but doesn't reduce phosphate, so i have discontinued/taken them offline, OR, so i am running GFO, or some other phosphate absorbing product in conjunction with it.
In any marine system that is already, or will possibly use, a bacterial driven system to reduce nutrient (I.E. organic carbon dosing) it is usually (NOT ALWAYS, but more often than not) organic carbon limited. That means, for bacteria to take up nutrients and waste, they need an organic carbon source in order to reproduce more and take up more nutrient.
A certain amount of organic carbon is liberated when organic wastes are broken down by bacteria (and the enzymes they produce) but more often than not, there is not enough organic carbon liberated in relation to nitrate and Phosphate levels in the aquarium for bacteria to reduce these nutrients as well.
And thus, you need to add more organic carbon.
Now when you add organic carbon, you get an increase in bacterial production and an increase in nutrient uptake by bacteria, let me say right now, that an efficient protein skimmer processing a good portion of the overall system volume and flow is ESSENTIAL to remove this bacteria.
When bacteria proliferates, it takes up more nutrient, and to get the nutrient out, you need to remove the bacteria through protein skimming.
Enter the redfield ratio. Now, let me be the first to say that this doesn't exactly apply to Bacteria, it mostly applies to phytoplankton nutrient uptake, and bacteria may take up levels of organic carbon:nitrate:phosphate differently to phytoplankton, but it has been proved time and again that applying this rule to organic carbon dosing works.
The redfield ratio is:
106:16:1, OR 106ppm Organic Carbon to 16ppm nitrogen to 1ppm phosphorus
In simple terms, in order to accelerate uptake of nutrient by addition of organic carbon, you need 106ppm of organic carbon to reduce 16ppm of nitrate, and you need 106 ppm of Organic carbon and 16ppm nitrate to reduce 1ppm of phosphate.
As i said, the ratio is not exactly this, and there are other elements like iron, that are believed to be involved, but the general idea to keep in mind is that you need organic carbon, nitrate and phosphate in these types of ratios to reduce overall nutrient.
It is believed, and i must say i agree to a certain extent, that bacteria need both nitrate and phosphate (and organic carbon obviously) to reduce them both effectively. Now there are certain types of phosphate (and indeed nitrate) specific bacteria that will mostly only target either nitrate or phosphate, and these are commonly included in good probiotic bacterial mixes (more on this later in another post) and do help, and can be an exception to the redfield ratio and the belief that bacteria need both nitrate and phosphate to reduce both effectively, but in general, and for the most part, the redfield ratio still applies.
Thus, looking at the redfield ratio, you can see that nitrate is very easily reduced, and phosphate isn't, and so when people say, "all my nitrate is gone but my phosphate is still high", it is not that organic carbon dosing is not working, it is that the entire requirements of an organic carbon dosing system are not being met. In other words......... YOUR NITRATE LIMITED BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!
Simple solution, add more nitrate! AND possibly more organic carbon. obviously if your nitrate limited you need to add nitrate to remove your leftover phosphate levels, but, if the level of phosphate is too high, then just like to remove phosphate you have to add more nitrate because you are nitrate limited, you may have to add more organic carbon simultaneously as by increasing the ratio of nitrate to phosphate, you may have also decreased the ratio of organic carbon to nitrate, and therefore may have (to a certain extent) become organic carbon limited again.
I personally have reduced phosphate levels from 1.6ppm to 0.1ppm in 6 hours using nitrate dosing, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS, it is simply an example to show how well it works.
Nitrate can be added in the form of ammonia (adding ammonium chloride), urea, or mixing up a solution of something like potassium or calcium nitrate.
I have personally used Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen to achieve VERY effective nitrate dosing/phosphate reduction in the past, but am now using potassium nitrate alone. Off the top of my head Flourish Nitrogen is potassium nitrate and Urea, and seems to work very very well.
I have also heard of people using ammonium chloride successfully (urea in flourish nitrogen would break down into ammonia and therefore perform the same action). Which is the better option i can not comment exactly but i personally believe that adding ammonia based nitrogen may possibly be better as the elemental nitrogen/nitrate being produced is being done so by bacterial/biological action and may have different ions/enzymes/proteins, amino acids bound with it, or produced in certain ratios to it, that make it a more effective and biologically available form of nitrate/nitrogen, but i cannot confirm this for sure.
It may also be that the nitrogen used by the bacteria to remove the phosphate is not consisted of nitrate ions alone, and the bacteria could be using nitrogen directly from the ammonia or urea, although I have no evidence to back it up, the super fast reduction of phosphate in my above example (1.6ppm to 0.1ppm in 6 hours) may be an insight into this, as the reduction of phosphate happened so quickly, and it was Seachem Flourish nitrogen which was used in this example. this however is open to argument as it also contain potassium nitrate, AND the urea would also have to be broken down into ammonia first, but it is an interesting thought either way.
Obviously adding ammonia based nitrogen needs to be done carefully and slowly.
The things you need to do when entering into an organic carbon/bacterial driven system for nutrient reduction in marine aquaria are:
- know the in's and out's of your particular bacterial driven system (VSV, biopellet) BEFORE applying them to your system i.e. research research research
- stay on top of the nutrient demand, this kind of system, especially when nitrate limited, can possibly need DAILY dosing and attention in order to keep the system stable and operating a low and balanced nutrient level
- have not only a good, but an EXCELLENT skimmer, i cannot stress this enough, in fact, with any marine system, go for the best skimmer you can afford, and aspire to get better if the skimmer you have has shortcomings on your system, it is the backbone of any good marine system.
- have a set of very accurate, high quality test kits to monitor nutrient levels
- and finally, dose these element in accordance with YOUR TANK, not anyone else's, and make changes and additions SLOWLY, every tank is different, albeit the basics are the same, but your tank will run differently, even if every other parameter (water flow, size and design of skimmer, tank size, salt mix etc) is the same, I can almost guarantee that it will run differently in some way or another to any other tank.
On the flip side, something as simple as feeding more and/or adding more fish can increase your nitrate levels sufficiently, but a few things to consider are, your tank may not be big enough, you may not want to add anymore fish, AND feeding more will (however slight) add more phosphate to you tank as well. Any of these reasons may be a good argument to add more nitrate chemically, instead of biologically.
Finally might i say, before applying, or indeed, writing off a filtration/nutrient control method completely, DO YOUR RESEARCH, it can mean the difference between a excellent system, or total disaster, this applies to using a system incorrectly, and also taking it offline without understanding why it isn't working, and/or addressing the main issues causing the problems or concerns in the first place.
Happy Fish keeping
G
In any marine system that is already, or will possibly use, a bacterial driven system to reduce nutrient (I.E. organic carbon dosing) it is usually (NOT ALWAYS, but more often than not) organic carbon limited. That means, for bacteria to take up nutrients and waste, they need an organic carbon source in order to reproduce more and take up more nutrient.
A certain amount of organic carbon is liberated when organic wastes are broken down by bacteria (and the enzymes they produce) but more often than not, there is not enough organic carbon liberated in relation to nitrate and Phosphate levels in the aquarium for bacteria to reduce these nutrients as well.
And thus, you need to add more organic carbon.
Now when you add organic carbon, you get an increase in bacterial production and an increase in nutrient uptake by bacteria, let me say right now, that an efficient protein skimmer processing a good portion of the overall system volume and flow is ESSENTIAL to remove this bacteria.
When bacteria proliferates, it takes up more nutrient, and to get the nutrient out, you need to remove the bacteria through protein skimming.
Enter the redfield ratio. Now, let me be the first to say that this doesn't exactly apply to Bacteria, it mostly applies to phytoplankton nutrient uptake, and bacteria may take up levels of organic carbon:nitrate:phosphate differently to phytoplankton, but it has been proved time and again that applying this rule to organic carbon dosing works.
The redfield ratio is:
106:16:1, OR 106ppm Organic Carbon to 16ppm nitrogen to 1ppm phosphorus
In simple terms, in order to accelerate uptake of nutrient by addition of organic carbon, you need 106ppm of organic carbon to reduce 16ppm of nitrate, and you need 106 ppm of Organic carbon and 16ppm nitrate to reduce 1ppm of phosphate.
As i said, the ratio is not exactly this, and there are other elements like iron, that are believed to be involved, but the general idea to keep in mind is that you need organic carbon, nitrate and phosphate in these types of ratios to reduce overall nutrient.
It is believed, and i must say i agree to a certain extent, that bacteria need both nitrate and phosphate (and organic carbon obviously) to reduce them both effectively. Now there are certain types of phosphate (and indeed nitrate) specific bacteria that will mostly only target either nitrate or phosphate, and these are commonly included in good probiotic bacterial mixes (more on this later in another post) and do help, and can be an exception to the redfield ratio and the belief that bacteria need both nitrate and phosphate to reduce both effectively, but in general, and for the most part, the redfield ratio still applies.
Thus, looking at the redfield ratio, you can see that nitrate is very easily reduced, and phosphate isn't, and so when people say, "all my nitrate is gone but my phosphate is still high", it is not that organic carbon dosing is not working, it is that the entire requirements of an organic carbon dosing system are not being met. In other words......... YOUR NITRATE LIMITED BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!
Simple solution, add more nitrate! AND possibly more organic carbon. obviously if your nitrate limited you need to add nitrate to remove your leftover phosphate levels, but, if the level of phosphate is too high, then just like to remove phosphate you have to add more nitrate because you are nitrate limited, you may have to add more organic carbon simultaneously as by increasing the ratio of nitrate to phosphate, you may have also decreased the ratio of organic carbon to nitrate, and therefore may have (to a certain extent) become organic carbon limited again.
I personally have reduced phosphate levels from 1.6ppm to 0.1ppm in 6 hours using nitrate dosing, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS, it is simply an example to show how well it works.
Nitrate can be added in the form of ammonia (adding ammonium chloride), urea, or mixing up a solution of something like potassium or calcium nitrate.
I have personally used Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen to achieve VERY effective nitrate dosing/phosphate reduction in the past, but am now using potassium nitrate alone. Off the top of my head Flourish Nitrogen is potassium nitrate and Urea, and seems to work very very well.
I have also heard of people using ammonium chloride successfully (urea in flourish nitrogen would break down into ammonia and therefore perform the same action). Which is the better option i can not comment exactly but i personally believe that adding ammonia based nitrogen may possibly be better as the elemental nitrogen/nitrate being produced is being done so by bacterial/biological action and may have different ions/enzymes/proteins, amino acids bound with it, or produced in certain ratios to it, that make it a more effective and biologically available form of nitrate/nitrogen, but i cannot confirm this for sure.
It may also be that the nitrogen used by the bacteria to remove the phosphate is not consisted of nitrate ions alone, and the bacteria could be using nitrogen directly from the ammonia or urea, although I have no evidence to back it up, the super fast reduction of phosphate in my above example (1.6ppm to 0.1ppm in 6 hours) may be an insight into this, as the reduction of phosphate happened so quickly, and it was Seachem Flourish nitrogen which was used in this example. this however is open to argument as it also contain potassium nitrate, AND the urea would also have to be broken down into ammonia first, but it is an interesting thought either way.
Obviously adding ammonia based nitrogen needs to be done carefully and slowly.
The things you need to do when entering into an organic carbon/bacterial driven system for nutrient reduction in marine aquaria are:
- know the in's and out's of your particular bacterial driven system (VSV, biopellet) BEFORE applying them to your system i.e. research research research
- stay on top of the nutrient demand, this kind of system, especially when nitrate limited, can possibly need DAILY dosing and attention in order to keep the system stable and operating a low and balanced nutrient level
- have not only a good, but an EXCELLENT skimmer, i cannot stress this enough, in fact, with any marine system, go for the best skimmer you can afford, and aspire to get better if the skimmer you have has shortcomings on your system, it is the backbone of any good marine system.
- have a set of very accurate, high quality test kits to monitor nutrient levels
- and finally, dose these element in accordance with YOUR TANK, not anyone else's, and make changes and additions SLOWLY, every tank is different, albeit the basics are the same, but your tank will run differently, even if every other parameter (water flow, size and design of skimmer, tank size, salt mix etc) is the same, I can almost guarantee that it will run differently in some way or another to any other tank.
On the flip side, something as simple as feeding more and/or adding more fish can increase your nitrate levels sufficiently, but a few things to consider are, your tank may not be big enough, you may not want to add anymore fish, AND feeding more will (however slight) add more phosphate to you tank as well. Any of these reasons may be a good argument to add more nitrate chemically, instead of biologically.
Finally might i say, before applying, or indeed, writing off a filtration/nutrient control method completely, DO YOUR RESEARCH, it can mean the difference between a excellent system, or total disaster, this applies to using a system incorrectly, and also taking it offline without understanding why it isn't working, and/or addressing the main issues causing the problems or concerns in the first place.
Happy Fish keeping
G
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Trials in pH stability, getting to the magic 8.4
Or dare I say it, even 8.5. Let me paint a picture for you;
After having no luck securing an economical and reliable supply of Kent Marine Tech M for treatment of bryopsis algae, I started looking Abroad.
And so I emailed Anthony Calfo, who I have dealt with on a business level in my time in wholesale, asking if he knew of anywhere I could get bulk quantities of it, freighted over from the USA, without a massive price tag (a pipe dream I know but hell, worth a shot).
The answer I got back, was not only interesting, but brilliant.
Long story short, attaining a stable pH, 8.4-8.5, consistently, would not only rid your aquarium of many ailments such as cyano bacteria etc, but also KILL bryopsis algae.
Using a Kalk slurry recommended by Anthony I proceeded to mess with the holding and display tanks at work to get to this magic number.
IT WORKS. Plain and simple, using Kalk to get to a higher pH kills bryopsis.
Now, here is the sticky part, I have too Much CO2 in my water, working in an insulated fish room means lots of CO2, and without a clean Air source I can’t get the pH up consistently, even using drip systems to dose Kalk water.
so I started to look into CO2 scrubbers using Soda Lime as an absorbent on the skimmer suction line, as this is where most of the CO2 is getting dissolved into the tank water, this crap is expensive in Australia, (anyone who knows where I can get some cheap, it would be much appreciated if you could let me know).
I found a supply at a scuba diving store for use in regulators, and ordered some anyway, but that afternoon had a brainwave on the drive home from work.
If Kalkwasser works by grabbing the CO2 in the water and binding it to the hydroxide ions to form Bicarbonate and carbonate and the remaining hydroxide ions, in conjunction with the lack of CO2 forming carbonic acid, allows the pH to climb, then why can’t I use this to treat the air intake on the skimmer?
I got home, and a quick search told me people on many forums have already tried this with success, however, it doesn't usually last very long.
the next morning I drilled a few holes on a large 2 liter jar (old kalkwasser jar actually), put a tube right to the bottom of the jar, stuck the now extended skimmer intake tube in the other hole, filled it halfway up with water, put 5 teaspoons of Kalk in it, screwed on the lid, and turned the skimmer on.
Theory was, as the bubbles travelled through the Kalk saturated water, the CO2 would, theoretically, bind to the Kalk and CO2 free air would enter the void above the water, to then be sucked into the skimmer intake.
Kalk had just finished dosing from the night before and Ph was sitting at about 8.3. Over the course of the day, through the hours of the day, pH sat stable at 8.25 or there abouts right up until the time I went home.
Came in the next morning, pH had dropped to 7.8 (again), Sweet Jesus there must be some CO2 in this room, no wonder I get headaches all the time!!!!
So I re-dosed another 2 tablespoons of Kalk and the pH climbed to around 7.9 and finally to around 7.98 before I dosed Kalk again for the night this afternoon.
Lesson 1. This experiment into the Kalk CO2 stripper showed that it is in fact CO2 lowering the pH, and that the amount of time it took to saturate it with CO2 and stop working indicates there is a hell of lot of CO2 in the fish-room. I'm going to need to take some drastic steps to decrease the CO2 getting into the tank, whether it be a Soda Lime based stripper or ducting the air intake to the skimmer outside.
Lesson 2. Increasing pH on a more constant basis can, and does kill bryopsis, keeping it up on a more constant basis (through the use of clean air intake on the skimmer and Kalk) should eradicate the bryopsis quicker.
Lesson 3. Increased pH in the marine aquarium, although not a necessity sometimes, can, and definitely in this case has, unlocks a marine aquarium unlike any that can be achieved by normal means, growth is better, coralline algae is brighter and more prolific, and you get less issues with problem algae. Corals also love it, frags grow quicker, and it precipitates a certain portion of phosphate as well.
Something interesting about the lack of CO2, higher pH and dying bryopsis, I read a paper, back when I was first researching possible alternatives to this bloody irritating algae, and it said bryopsis thrives with excess CO2 and bicarbonates in the water, just like all plant matter I guess, and is the same principal and a CO2 driven freshwater planted tank.
I tried a few things like Aquvitro Balance (a hydroxide blend) to eliminate the bicarbonates and re-establish the buffer/carbonate balance, bicarbonates having CO2 in them, and it didn’t really have an effect. Now I realize it was CO2 itself in the air, DUH.
All these little bits of information have fit into place, and I don’t think I would have stumbled upon it had it not been for Anthony Calfo, thanks buddy, you deserve the credit here.
I might add, that I have also been aggressively limiting nutrient, both nitrate and phosphate, and also increasing Magnesium, although not with Kent tech M, and it was most definitely not getting results before I started with Kalk.
Lack of Co2 and a higher pH also results in a stronger calcified skeleton on stony corals, another Plus.
Anyone who reads this, and is having problems with any problem algae, or simply wants to increase the level of their pH and subsequently the quality of their Aquarium, decrease the Co2, by using a scrubber on the skimmer intake or ducting the suction outside, and start dosing kalk, you won’t regret it.
After having no luck securing an economical and reliable supply of Kent Marine Tech M for treatment of bryopsis algae, I started looking Abroad.
And so I emailed Anthony Calfo, who I have dealt with on a business level in my time in wholesale, asking if he knew of anywhere I could get bulk quantities of it, freighted over from the USA, without a massive price tag (a pipe dream I know but hell, worth a shot).
The answer I got back, was not only interesting, but brilliant.
Long story short, attaining a stable pH, 8.4-8.5, consistently, would not only rid your aquarium of many ailments such as cyano bacteria etc, but also KILL bryopsis algae.
Using a Kalk slurry recommended by Anthony I proceeded to mess with the holding and display tanks at work to get to this magic number.
IT WORKS. Plain and simple, using Kalk to get to a higher pH kills bryopsis.
Now, here is the sticky part, I have too Much CO2 in my water, working in an insulated fish room means lots of CO2, and without a clean Air source I can’t get the pH up consistently, even using drip systems to dose Kalk water.
so I started to look into CO2 scrubbers using Soda Lime as an absorbent on the skimmer suction line, as this is where most of the CO2 is getting dissolved into the tank water, this crap is expensive in Australia, (anyone who knows where I can get some cheap, it would be much appreciated if you could let me know).
I found a supply at a scuba diving store for use in regulators, and ordered some anyway, but that afternoon had a brainwave on the drive home from work.
If Kalkwasser works by grabbing the CO2 in the water and binding it to the hydroxide ions to form Bicarbonate and carbonate and the remaining hydroxide ions, in conjunction with the lack of CO2 forming carbonic acid, allows the pH to climb, then why can’t I use this to treat the air intake on the skimmer?
I got home, and a quick search told me people on many forums have already tried this with success, however, it doesn't usually last very long.
the next morning I drilled a few holes on a large 2 liter jar (old kalkwasser jar actually), put a tube right to the bottom of the jar, stuck the now extended skimmer intake tube in the other hole, filled it halfway up with water, put 5 teaspoons of Kalk in it, screwed on the lid, and turned the skimmer on.
Theory was, as the bubbles travelled through the Kalk saturated water, the CO2 would, theoretically, bind to the Kalk and CO2 free air would enter the void above the water, to then be sucked into the skimmer intake.
Kalk had just finished dosing from the night before and Ph was sitting at about 8.3. Over the course of the day, through the hours of the day, pH sat stable at 8.25 or there abouts right up until the time I went home.
Came in the next morning, pH had dropped to 7.8 (again), Sweet Jesus there must be some CO2 in this room, no wonder I get headaches all the time!!!!
So I re-dosed another 2 tablespoons of Kalk and the pH climbed to around 7.9 and finally to around 7.98 before I dosed Kalk again for the night this afternoon.
Lesson 1. This experiment into the Kalk CO2 stripper showed that it is in fact CO2 lowering the pH, and that the amount of time it took to saturate it with CO2 and stop working indicates there is a hell of lot of CO2 in the fish-room. I'm going to need to take some drastic steps to decrease the CO2 getting into the tank, whether it be a Soda Lime based stripper or ducting the air intake to the skimmer outside.
Lesson 2. Increasing pH on a more constant basis can, and does kill bryopsis, keeping it up on a more constant basis (through the use of clean air intake on the skimmer and Kalk) should eradicate the bryopsis quicker.
Lesson 3. Increased pH in the marine aquarium, although not a necessity sometimes, can, and definitely in this case has, unlocks a marine aquarium unlike any that can be achieved by normal means, growth is better, coralline algae is brighter and more prolific, and you get less issues with problem algae. Corals also love it, frags grow quicker, and it precipitates a certain portion of phosphate as well.
Something interesting about the lack of CO2, higher pH and dying bryopsis, I read a paper, back when I was first researching possible alternatives to this bloody irritating algae, and it said bryopsis thrives with excess CO2 and bicarbonates in the water, just like all plant matter I guess, and is the same principal and a CO2 driven freshwater planted tank.
I tried a few things like Aquvitro Balance (a hydroxide blend) to eliminate the bicarbonates and re-establish the buffer/carbonate balance, bicarbonates having CO2 in them, and it didn’t really have an effect. Now I realize it was CO2 itself in the air, DUH.
All these little bits of information have fit into place, and I don’t think I would have stumbled upon it had it not been for Anthony Calfo, thanks buddy, you deserve the credit here.
I might add, that I have also been aggressively limiting nutrient, both nitrate and phosphate, and also increasing Magnesium, although not with Kent tech M, and it was most definitely not getting results before I started with Kalk.
Lack of Co2 and a higher pH also results in a stronger calcified skeleton on stony corals, another Plus.
Anyone who reads this, and is having problems with any problem algae, or simply wants to increase the level of their pH and subsequently the quality of their Aquarium, decrease the Co2, by using a scrubber on the skimmer intake or ducting the suction outside, and start dosing kalk, you won’t regret it.
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