I think you will with your setup, it's amazing. Mine is at 2DKH and I only have half the wattage per square foot you have. I dose 40% of my Alk in kalk though so perhaps I have an unfair advantage, dunno.
Bolus dosing
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Hats_
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My tank is also at a consumption of about 2dkh per day running only AFR, and i feel like it can still be better in my tank... pH here is around 8, 8.2 if i just changed the scrubber media. I dont have a pH probe and i test occasionally with my Hanna marine master. Maybe i should get a probe...
Kalk 24 doses. DIY Bicarb (Randy recipe no2) during photosynthesis. Randy's recipe No1 calcium during the night. pH is between 8.2 and 8.4 this time of year. Traces are DIY iron, manganese, iodide. Never ICP'd. I've recently made my sump less silent and increased noise to aid oxygenation.
Unfortunately there's no chance of me doing an ICP.
Reason 1). I don't think they are relevant considering the unlimited forms, bioavailable or otherwise.
Reason 2) I'm cheap.
djf91
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Do you think dosing your 2 part components at different times of the day helps reduce precipitation, thus reducing detritus? Something I continue to hear mentioned with bolus dosing is a reduction in detritus accumulation.
I have a lot of detritus accumulation despite a lot of flow in my tank. I also have a sand bed where it collects. Whenever I remove large amounts of detritus from my system (twice/month) I see a noticeable positive difference in coral health, specifically in Acropora. I currently dose ESV bionic 2 part, 24 times per day for each component. I also dose kalk on a drip 24/7.
I’m wondering if because I’m dosing my components so close together throughout the 24 hour period that this might be leading to my increased precipitation and more detritus.
twentyleagues
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I dont know if I would call the precipitant detritus. Yes you should have the 2 parts on at different times of the day to make sure the 2 parts do not mix directly in the water column typically 30 min to an hour apart is perfectly fine.
I do get get some detritus although it's minimal in the sump and display. I expect the overflow box has got 4 years worth of it, I've not cleaned it. I would expect it in any tank that's fed well. My previous tank had a mat of writhing bristleworms in the sump, consuming.
Large heavy particles are just calcareous algae fragments and such, I'm guessing not any form of abiotic precipitation.
I'm sure it's possible if it's dosed in a very low circulation zone, but I doubt you are doing that.
djf91
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A large percentage of detritus is calcium carbonate precipitate.
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I don't see precipitation being an issue with the very small dosages all day in a high flow area. I have set me Alk/Ca/Mg dosing to be offset so that no two doses occur at the same time, 1ml each.
With GHL - I set the prescribed dose to be spread over 24 hours and the start time for the first dose. It then spreads the doses out.
I built a quick spreadsheet to help me choose first dose time for each of the 3, so that they can never overlap.
What leads you to believe that it is mostly or a high percentage of calcium carbonate precipitate?
With GHL - I set the prescribed dose to be spread over 24 hours and the start time for the first dose. It then spreads the doses out.
I built a quick spreadsheet to help me choose first dose time for each of the 3, so that they can never overlap.
I don't think that is the case -- as long as pH and other IONs are in basic balance most "detritus" is just uneaten food, fish waste and dead microorganisms (algae, phytoplankton, bacteria, and other organics).
What leads you to believe that it is mostly or a high percentage of calcium carbonate precipitate?
twentyleagues
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Do tell?
I wondered that also. My thinking and any detritus I have accumulated looks like "organic?" waste. Not that precipitate wouldn't be organic but I think you know what I mean.
djf91
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Detritus in a reef tank
I have 3 years old, 77 gal bare bottom mixed reef and I'm siphoning out build up detritus every week, last week i decide to measure how much detritus I can collect for two weeks. I'm feeding with 10 grams frozen food daily, and carbon dosing 10 ml daily, two part ca/alk dosing, oversized...
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Thank you for the link.Detritus in a reef tank
I have 3 years old, 77 gal bare bottom mixed reef and I'm siphoning out build up detritus every week, last week i decide to measure how much detritus I can collect for two weeks. I'm feeding with 10 grams frozen food daily, and carbon dosing 10 ml daily, two part ca/alk dosing, oversized...
I don't see any direct link there between the dosing and the amount of detritus.
We don't know how or where he was dosing, but there is certainly the possibility that his method was causing significant calcium carbonate precipitation.
Local pH - (from above) where was he dumping the stuff in? Was it accumulating in a pocket and cuasing precipitation?
Was it carbonate or bicarbonate?
He was carbon dosing as well, how much of that precipitate was a direct result of abiotic precipitation?
How much of the carbon dosing caused heterotrophic bacterial blooms that quickly die and release alkalinity in low flow areas and cause local precipitation due to supersaturation? I assume this is very possible.
So yes, it is possible to create a lot of precipitation, but I don't think that general well planned dosing will result in a large portion of that dose precipitating or becoming "detritus".
Randy and others may have differing opinions.
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Also @Randy Holmes-Farley may want to correct me, because I could be very wrong regarding my math for the precipitation...
He said 10ml per day of two part. By my math, 10ml of each of a balanced average two part solution would produce maybe 0.5 g of Calcium Carbonate if fully reacted.
in 14 days (by his math) that would be
8.8 grams of food, but I don't see where he tested that food for calcium carbonate. It may have had some?
7 grams of Calcium Carbonate if the full contents of the doses precipitated and none contributed to alk or ca in the water column... which of course did not happen, or he would be dosing more than 10ml per day.
7 grams (which, by my math is not realistic) is a far cry from the ~23g that he reported.
I would posit that his analysis, methods and conclusions demonstrate extreme error. Especially considering that he only likely captured a small portion of the detritus in the system and was not able to even account for other exports, or structures that used the ions, etc.
He said 10ml per day of two part. By my math, 10ml of each of a balanced average two part solution would produce maybe 0.5 g of Calcium Carbonate if fully reacted.
in 14 days (by his math) that would be
8.8 grams of food, but I don't see where he tested that food for calcium carbonate. It may have had some?
7 grams of Calcium Carbonate if the full contents of the doses precipitated and none contributed to alk or ca in the water column... which of course did not happen, or he would be dosing more than 10ml per day.
7 grams (which, by my math is not realistic) is a far cry from the ~23g that he reported.
I would posit that his analysis, methods and conclusions demonstrate extreme error. Especially considering that he only likely captured a small portion of the detritus in the system and was not able to even account for other exports, or structures that used the ions, etc.
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ReneReef
Active Member
No, calcium carbonate precipitate is not considered detritus. Because it is not organic matter.
“Detritus is organic matter made up of the decomposing remains of organisms and plants, and also of feces. Detritus usually hosts communities of microorganisms that colonize and decompose (remineralise) it. Such microorganisms may be decomposers, detritivores, or coprophages.”
Detritus - Wikipedia
djf91
Valuable Member
Thanks but in our very loose aquarium definition of detritus, calcium carbonate precipitate is grouped in. This isn’t something new I just came up with.No, calcium carbonate precipitate is not considered detritus. Because it is not organic matter.
“Detritus is organic matter made up of the decomposing remains of organisms and plants, and also of feces. Detritus usually hosts communities of microorganisms that colonize and decompose (remineralise) it. Such microorganisms may be decomposers, detritivores, or coprophages.”
Detritus - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
What is detritus exactly?
Hey so what exactly is the makeup of detritus and is it inert?
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Question being, what does a detritivore eat/consume? Anyhow, old sand or calcium carbonate particles coated in organics would necessarily become more concentrated as the organics were consumed, would they not? I'm calling it the Dolus effect.Thanks but in our very loose aquarium definition of detritus, calcium carbonate precipitate is grouped in. This isn’t something new I just came up with.
What is detritus exactly?
Hey so what exactly is the makeup of detritus and is it inert?
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Not sure I’ve ever looked it up or cared but in 20 years of this, I’ve never once heard calcium carbonate being called detritus or associated with detritus
But I have a new product line coming out: Detri Snow! It’s just chalk and RO water but I’ll call it a coral food and microorganism feeder to promote pods and bacteria (good and/or bad)
But I have a new product line coming out: Detri Snow! It’s just chalk and RO water but I’ll call it a coral food and microorganism feeder to promote pods and bacteria (good and/or bad)
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Regardless of the definition, or even how it arises, why do we care about it? Lots of folks dose it as coral snow.
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