Nutrient levels

[DonW]

Wow that's a big thread ! Will it answer my question ? If not then I won't bother

I really doubt it, Zeo is going to remain a mystery until someone can get the formulas and prove it works or doesnt.
It dose however rely on good general reef keeping practices. You can simply follow those and improve overall system stability and water quality.
As far as adding nutrient goes, I'm sure it is necessary but you have to remove the excess at the same rate. Thats the tough part.

Don

 

[reedman]

I think Don hit it straight on....there are nutrients that are beneficial, but we don't know at what levels, and in some cases we can't (realistically) measure them. So the Zeovit method, as best I understand it, works by removing as much of the available nutrients as possible and then add known desireable nutrients back in controled doses.

Don makes another great point in that the zeo system isn't a great departure from popular husbandry. Skim big (nutrient export), good lighting, and good flow. nothing new, just good practice. The wild card is the bateria culturing. We don't understand this fully yet (and may not for quite some time) but can't deny the results.

 

[MikeS]

John,

You have a great question that I am still trying to find an answer (or just some insight into). Can higher nutrients benefit corals if the negative effect of fueling invasive algae can be kept in check? I'll keep looking

I'd say that generally speaking, the algae is caused by the excess nutrients in our tanks that are not being tied up by corals or other organisims. There is also a proximity issue IMO, ie.algae growing on live rock that is using up nutrients before other organisims like corals have a crack at them, but I'd say overall the main issue is the amount of excess nutrients in our reef tank water overall when compared to the natural reef water.

I think there are two very significant differences between our reef tanks and the wild reef when it comes to nutrients. First...on the wild reef, the nutrients are there, but they are tied up in an extremely vast and complex food chain we can never hope to duplicate in our tanks. Second, what tiny amount of nutrient that does remain free is greatly diluted by the vast amount of water on the reef. Our tanks lack the biodiversity to recreate this food chain, and our bioload vs. water ratio is much, much greater in our tanks
than what one sees on the natural reef. To me, this is what makes very agressive nutrient export in our tanks a necessity to compensate for this...

MikeS

 

[wrightme43]

I was looking at some of the other articles on there, showing photos of large pipes pumping what if I remember right, like 12,000,000 gallons of treated sewage a day.
Now if you get shipped live rock from area down stream of something like that, what happens?
I know most of the wild rock is coming from pretty empty areas, but what about the aquacultured rocks. I may be way off base here, just something I was thinking about.

 

[aquariumdebacle]

don't forget the waterflow on a reef is vastly larger volume than in our little boxes of water