Tag Archive
NP-Biopellets, the story so far
After a couple of months I still had some measurable nitrate (2.5 ppm) and phosphate (0.04 ppm) and I decided to really go “overboard” and ordered 3 more liters of NPBs. »
ULNS is not really L and far from UL
I’m annoyed when I see people boasting about their “ULNS” reef aquarium. Typically the “ULNS” crowd seem to think that their aquariums are at the very edge of complete dissolved inorganic nutrient elimination and that the corals they keep can barely cope with the underwater desert they’ve managed to create. All kinds of pseudoscientific... »
Weapons of Nutrient Destruction: cone and pellets with sugar on top
I have recently added two new components to my nutrient export methods, a cone shaped skimmer and a new filtration media called Biopellets. I also continue to use my old and proven CaCO3 slurry filtration and DOC (dissolved organic carbon) dosing. I’ve also experimented with another method based on microscopic clay particles. Here is... »
Sometimes half full is more than full
One common discussion between hobbyists is “how you skim? Wet or Dry?”. Most aquarists don’t have strong opinion, probably because the decision between two is not easily backed up by any data. Instead, we just use a setting we are used to – maybe because our mentor recommended one or other when we were... »
Charted waters
Sometimes we hobbyists can’t see the forest from the trees when we discuss and worry about the fine details about reef aquariums. It might be useful to remember why we spend so much time trying to find that optimal protein skimmer or argue about the merits of different additives: the ultimate goal of almost... »
Amino acids and reef aquarium: Glycine
Representatives of 10 phyla removed significant quantities of glycine from solution during an observation period of 16 to 24 hrs (Stephens and Schinske 1961) Glycine is not essential nutritional amino acid for prawns (Cowey and Forster 1971) Most abundant DFAA in southern California coastal waters (Clark et al 1972, Carlucci et a 1984) Bivalve Mytilus edulis has very... »
Amino acids and reef aquarium: Glutamic acid
Glutamic acid was very successful feeding activator for stony coral Montastrea cavernosa, causing full envelopment on every trial (Lehman and Porter 1973) One of the predominant amino acids in costal surface water and has high heterotrophic turnover rate (Williams et al 1976) Main contributor to the bacterial intracellular amino acid pool, may compete with nitrate uptake... »
Back to spirits (Updated)
My experiment with Tropic Marin Reef Actif took a huge hit today as I measured some water parameters this morning. As I started using Reef Actif a few weeks ago I also stopped the Vodka + sugar dosing because I read some very promising comments about the Reef Actif’s ability to lower nutrient levels... »
Amino acids and reef aquarium: Cysteine
Cysteine seems to be less interesting amino acid as it is found in only 11 abstracts out of 4300 scientific papers I have in my collection. There are some papers that discuss Cysteine as a part of special proteins in marine invertebrates but these are much too advanced (for me) or theoretical to apply... »
Amino acids and reef aquarium: Aspartic acid
Important carbon source for some bacteria strains (Macleod et al. 1954, Berland et al. 1970) Aspartic acid is not an essential amino acid for crustaceans (Cowey and Forster 1971) As a DFAA reduced in surface water but found in much more larger amount in bottom and interstitial water (Clark et al. 1972) Causes a slight feeding response... »