By the way, I forgot to remind you that we deal with 14 day-old algae. At most, 14 days. How you think that compares to "reefs overgrown with algae because of overfishing" is beyond me.algae has been shown to produce elevated levels of dissolved organic carbon (doc) on natural reefs which causes an increase in coral mortality
Also Vannpyt, where are the pics of the algae on your sand and rocks?
Again, there is no excess in our systems. No tank has the algal mass that a reef has. And certainly not as old. 7 to 14 days.Conveniently missed out the word EXCESS from my excess algae quote there Santa again
That's because you forget to remind people that reefers buy and dose Vitamin C and Amino Acids. They buy it, and dose it. Buy it, and dose it. And let's not forget pellets, vodka, etc. How many people are buying pellet DOC and dosing it. Buying it, and dosing it.Secondly, you have the habit of saying that doc is amino acids as if doc is a simple substance whereas in fact there are many hundreds if not thousands of varieties, most of which are not amino acids.
You need to read some reef studies. Benthic algae is the largest biomass on any reef, besides bacteria, and in combination with phyto on deeper reefs (over a few meters) it approches it's 90% level of all biomass. Coral reefs should be called Algal Reefs. The studies I read show that benthic algae do the majority of the filtering when the depth is less that about 10 meters.Thirdly, do not let Santa make you think that hair algae does all the filtration on a reef. Physical levels of such algae are very low on a healthy reef due to herbivorous fish grazing, only unhealthy reefs become algae dominated.
It's there, if you don't have mechanical fiters. There is just not that much water volume for it.The primary algae in the ocean is phytoplankton of which aquariums have virtually zero.
Ekman. But nutrients that are limiting (not DOCs), are consumed/processed long before they are transported. Limiting nutrients are documented to stay almost completely in the reef, and are cycled between the producers and consumers.Most of the water quality experienced on a reef is due to the sheer volume of water being transported there every day as Santa once mentioned, can't remember the name now, something transport, ackman, eckman?
Don't you want the same amount of algae that is on a natural reef?build a scrubber with a smaller size so that there is less algae mass in the system.
Depends what you are trying to feed, and how much growth you want. Remember that wild acros grow a foot a year. Also remember that there is no target feeding in the wild, and filterfeeders have no problem growing.Is it really needed to feed a normal stocing 50 gallon aquarium 5 cubes a day or is it enough with 2 cubes?
I'd agree, except that pro-skimmer folks use that because it confuses new people. They say DOC is bad, but then they buy DOC pellets, DOC vitamins, and DOC aminos, and dose them. And they say the food that skimmers remove is bad, but they buy more food and put it in. There is almost no difference between the food you buy, and waste. It's 90% the same, but waste is more useable to corals.I think we all need to get out of the mindset of comparing DOC levels in the ocean to DOC levels in a tank.
Where do you get this? DOC is eaten by bacteria; bacteria grow to a level that they need to, in order to consume all "excess" DOC. Bacteria are DOC-limited, they would grow more if you added more DOC (which reefers do, via DOC pellets, DOC vitamins, and DOC aminos, and don't forget the DOC water that is part of any liquid food you feed, including phyto).in a glass box, we have maybe 1% of those "tools" at our disposal to keep DOCs in check.
That's their goal. That's why they don't point out that reefers buy and dose the very DOC's that they say are "bad".with all the talk on here lately about DOCs, I think others may be getting the impression they are a major factor in a lot of different problems,
And again, too much water. Increased H20 levels, which reduces the levels of everything else, will kill all corals, all fish, and all inverts in the ocean.Obviously too much of anything can be fatal, even too much oxygen.
Of course not. Look at manure for crops.Just because you have black stinky skimmate doesn't mean it was bad to have in a tank
All of it is good stuff. There is no skimming in the ocean.I would put $ on 70% of the liquid in a skimmer collection cup is actually good stuff that should have remained in the tank
But they are not elevated. Some reefs go to 5ppm. Acros's grow like crazy in lagoons. And reefers dose DOC pellets, DOC vitamins, DOC aminos, and DOC phyto.skimmers remove some DOCs (lipids, oils, and other stuff) that can be considered bad in a reef tank at elevated levels.
You mean bacteria and microbes? What do you think bacteria and microbes eat?without a means to control DOCs in a tank (either skimming or carbon)
Like operating like a real reef? Reefs seem to operate fairly long term, with no way to export DOC except for bacteria and microbes (google "microbial loop"). Just what else do you suppose consumes DOC in the open ocean? This is bio 101.I do believe long term use of a scrubber only system with limited rock and corals in a tank can eventually lead to severe issues.
What point? Bacteria get the DOC to an equilibrium within a few hours, and it stays there forever. Mine is 3 years. Inland Aquatics is 15 years. If DOC "continute to increase unless you filtered it", all tanks would be destroyed within a few days. All tanks without filters; no exceptions.How long until a tank reaches that point