dendronephthya
New member
Here's the setup I'm working on-
-120 gallon dark tank for NPS no substrate moderate flow
-75 gallon brightly illuminated high flow algal film snail scrubber- stacked panes of acrylic growing surface and Stomatella-diminant grazers- no substrate
-75 gallon very slow flow dark settling filter
The purpose of this setup is to culture NPS organisms. Imagine, to make this idea clearer, that the Caulerpa in a Miracle Mud filter was continually ground up and returned to the system as food, along with the digestive enzymes and trochophore larvae that Stomatella put out.
I'll have to determine the amount of "œsink" for phosphate in the settling filter, but I suspect phosphate will accumulate; so will probably use KNO3 or NaNO3 for level of 10PPM, aim for phosphate that's nearly detectable, and dose iron and silica and iodine. If phosphate doesn't accumulate would use maybe Florida Aqua Farms additive for NO3 and Phos. Or maybe some phospholipid-rich food for phosphate and use a phosphate remover, although i hate to do that. All the nutrients will be dosed weekly into the top off water.
Setting up test tanks, the problem I get is that it is surprisingly difficult to maintain a rapidly growing algal film and continued pearling. Any deficiencies and the film crashes, along with the micro grazers (ciliates, small nematodes especially). If N or P gets too high, the diatoms overgrow the surface and flocs break off. Probably I can handle this by carefully regulating the dosing.
The most difficult problem, though, has been alkalinity- which climbs (due to denitrification I assume) and pH that rises too high. When I dose vinegar the film thins and crashes, or there is a bacterial bloom that won't clear (maybe not a problem when the sponges start growing but in general liquid carbon dosing has not worked well for algal films).
So- maybe a CO2 reactor into the algal film tank with a target of pH 8.1?
-120 gallon dark tank for NPS no substrate moderate flow
-75 gallon brightly illuminated high flow algal film snail scrubber- stacked panes of acrylic growing surface and Stomatella-diminant grazers- no substrate
-75 gallon very slow flow dark settling filter
The purpose of this setup is to culture NPS organisms. Imagine, to make this idea clearer, that the Caulerpa in a Miracle Mud filter was continually ground up and returned to the system as food, along with the digestive enzymes and trochophore larvae that Stomatella put out.
I'll have to determine the amount of "œsink" for phosphate in the settling filter, but I suspect phosphate will accumulate; so will probably use KNO3 or NaNO3 for level of 10PPM, aim for phosphate that's nearly detectable, and dose iron and silica and iodine. If phosphate doesn't accumulate would use maybe Florida Aqua Farms additive for NO3 and Phos. Or maybe some phospholipid-rich food for phosphate and use a phosphate remover, although i hate to do that. All the nutrients will be dosed weekly into the top off water.
Setting up test tanks, the problem I get is that it is surprisingly difficult to maintain a rapidly growing algal film and continued pearling. Any deficiencies and the film crashes, along with the micro grazers (ciliates, small nematodes especially). If N or P gets too high, the diatoms overgrow the surface and flocs break off. Probably I can handle this by carefully regulating the dosing.
The most difficult problem, though, has been alkalinity- which climbs (due to denitrification I assume) and pH that rises too high. When I dose vinegar the film thins and crashes, or there is a bacterial bloom that won't clear (maybe not a problem when the sponges start growing but in general liquid carbon dosing has not worked well for algal films).
So- maybe a CO2 reactor into the algal film tank with a target of pH 8.1?
