Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / October 2007

Hi Ruben,

Chaeto is a great algae for removing excess nutrients, and there are less
problems associated with it escaping into local waters than with caulerpa
algaes. It's fine to run a light over your sump 24/7 as long as there's no
light leaking up into the main tank. Thin out the chaeto by hand weekly and
toss out any un-used portions in your garbage instead of flushing it. Sea
lettuce can also be harvested the same way, and makes a tasty snack to tangs
and other herbivores. What you want is a regular harvest of the new growth,
thereby keeping the plants in a constantly growing state. This is what burns
up the available nutrients in your tank water. There will be an equilibrium
reached by your macros as to how much nitrate they can process, and if
there's more available nitrates than fast growing macros to burn it up, then
problematic algaes can continue to grow. So while there are some good
benefits to using macros to remove nutrients, it still has to be a careful
balance versus nitrate being added to or created by the system itself.

A plenum or a deep sand bed in a portion of the sump (or the main tank, or
refugia) may also help. Plenums and deep sand beds over 4" deep encourage
the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which grow in the low oxygen environment.
These bacteria convert nitrate into harmless nitrogen gas, which bubbles up
through the sandbed and is released into the atmosphere. Don't use too great
of a depth however, because if you make the sandbed or plenum layer too
deep, it can grow anoxic bacteria which produce hydrogen sulphide gas (swamp
gas, smells like rotten eggs).

Hope these tips help!

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Yes.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

RubenD wrote on 10/18/2007 6:37 PM: