Intelligent Design is Natural Filtration

[seabass]

51 minutes ago, Subsea said:

the best light for them would be sunlight.

While the sun might provide the best light, corals don't always get a typical daylight color spectrum at depth.  Coral can be found as far down as 60 feet; and as you pointed out, that color spectrum is quite different than that of sunlight entering our tanks through less than a foot a water.

I'm not saying that natural sunlight is necessarily a bad thing.  It certainly isn't as bad for tanks as many would lead you to believe (especially if nutrient levels aren't a problem).  However, the original premise of bluer lighting was to simulate the color spectrum at depth.  But today, (like you) I feel that reproducing natural lighting conditions of the reef isn't necessarily the primary goal of many light manufacturers.

[Subsea]

Thank you for the color spectrum vrs depth graph.  It brings up another point about photoadaptability.  Red Grapes are collected between 60’-100’.  When I get it from the divers it is a rich dark burgundy.  All to often, when put under bright light it pales and loses its berries.  Now, I don’t know what it is like to lose ones berries, but it doesn’t sound good.  Last year, I had some red grapes demise, “lost their berries”, in my 55G growout tank”.  

 

This is picture shows an eggcrate bracket with Dragon Tongue bushes mounted on eggcrate hanging on acrylic brackets.  Note the red flotation balls attached everywhere with some in high light areas.  I moved a small bracket into another tank with more light.  The red grapes are 6” tall with vibrant red/maroon color.

[Subsea]

To help me adjust my focus on  “Intelligent Design” let us start from the top down.  

 

The most important biochemistry that that connects our athmosphere with our oceans is the water air interface.

 

NITROGEN PUMP

Consider nitrogen as 79% of our our atmosphere.  Physics says that the partial pressure of a gas between athmosphere and a saturated solution is a two way process.  Biochemistry says that cynobacteria consumes free nitrogen gas to produce an inorganic nutrient, nitrate.

 

Carbon Fixation

Instead of “carbon dosing” for nutrient export, Nature uses the second most abundant gas in our athmosphere to dose carbon using carbonate &bicorbonate alkalinity combined with photosynthesis to produce glucose.

 

Oxygen

Dynamic Equilibrium between gas solubility of co2 and o2 are DYNAMIC.

.  

[Subsea]

On 9/29/2017 at 7:15 AM, CronicReefer said:

I definitely agree that biological filtration benefits the tank more than any synthetic product on the market. For biological filtration in my 75g I currently have: ~100lbs live rock (Haitian is very dense), DSB in display, ~8g in-sump refugium overgrown with chaeto and 10lb of miracle mud, and a Bio-Brick doped with sulfur that is rated for up to 1000g aquariums. I have stopped using a fiber sock and only use a protein skimmer when dosing carbon. The bio-brick has made the biggest difference along with dosing a carbon source because I now have large anaerobic bacteria colonies inside the bio-brick and DSB. Another thing I did is increase the water temperature which now stays between 80-81F. This is supposed to more beneficial to corals and provides them with more energy for growth.

 

After not much success with this tank for the first year, the past 6 months I've seen corals growing noticeably and maintaining vibrant colors. Nuisance algae problems have become a thing of the past. I don't even have to scrape the glass except to remove coralline algae off the front panel. The only time I use any chemical filtration is a bag of carbon to remove water discoloration once a month. Water testing for phosphates/nitrates has become unnecessary so that saves me time and money on test kits. Another benefit is now I can feed my fish without worrying about polluting the water with nutrients because the huge bacteria populations have no problem eating up the waste. My clownfish have bred regularly over the past 6 months from the increased feeding which has never happened despite them being mature for over two years.

 

Considering the pros and cons of macro algae in a reef tank, I will expound on my experience with it.  First, I like using it.  Just like rock structure provides hiding places, so does a patch of Oar Grass simulating a lagoon ecosystem.  I find sea grasses too difficult, instead of Oar Grass, I use Caulerpa Prolifera, a seaweed.  When you mentioned the use of GAC to get yellow tint from the water, you correctly identified one component of the many that are included in DOC (dissolved organic carbon).  

 

Ken Felderman has peer reviewed articles on Advanced Aquaria about the effectiveness of filtration in a reef tank that is carbon dosed.   His findings show:

protein skimming removes, at best, 35% of DOC

GAC removes 60% of DOC

Biological filter removes 75% of DOC

 

Three months ago, I turned out the lights on my 30G EcoSystem mud macro refugium that had been set up for 25 years.  I composted tomatoes with macro removed, added rock seeded with cryptic sponges and as Willie Nelson said “Turn out the lights”, but I say, “the party is just getting started”.  During these three months, I received a Chilli Coral which is non photosynthetic that was not doing well in display tank for several reasons.  First, detritus from sandbed without janitors is plugging up feeding polyps requiring numerous cleaning each day.  Even though I made a shaded platform, I think light is the issue.  So, I moved Chilli into an unlit refugium with pods, snails and worms in abundant populations.  Due to three compartments in EcoSystem refugium, all detritus is deposited in first compartment which is crawling with worms.  So, why cryptic sponges?  Because they consume DOC and give off DIC which is an inorganic nutrient for macro and coral.  Cryptic sponges also give off a gelatin which is conviently called “Marine Snow”, which is coral food.  So, this recycled nutrient  loop feeds itself and coral.

 

To learn more about sponges, I think that Steve Tyree has used cryptic zone filtration for > 25 years.

 

 

On 9/29/2017 at 7:15 AM, CronicReefer said:

 

 

 

[Subsea]

 

 

I removed one 4’ blue light bar.  I like the looks better with less light.  I have always found that less light is better than more light.   Corals need food to grow, not more light.

 

PS. I just realized I meant to post to my Jaubert Plenum tank journal, but went to Reef Discussion instead. c’est la vie.