exporting nutrients

[garvin90]

Im wondering if its a bad idea that when I prune my refugium, I usually feed some of the algaes back to the fish in the main display. Does that just bring the nutrients that were absorbed through the plants right back into the system imediately or does it just retard the process by way of a fishes intestinal track?

 

[flipteg]

it's called the nitrogen cycle...

 

[Samala]

This idea really seems illogical to me. Yes, in a way, you are recycling nutrients from the algae back into the tank by feeding to the herbivore.

However, anything you feed that herbivore is going to get into the tank system. Whether or not its algae you cultured or algae you bought doesnt matter, anything he eats and processes is going to be cycled into the tank and processed out again with algae growing in the sump.

Now, if algae in our systems has higher amounts of nutrients than algae we might feed otherwise, then I could see this argument being made. However, all things being equal when they're put out as waste by the animal, I dont see the reasoning behind this idea. (And I see it in a few places on the boards lately.)

>Sarah

 

[graveyardworm]

I'm not really sure how the food you take from your own tank or the food you import into your tank containing higher amounts of nutrients might factor in, but I would think that using food you culture in your own tank would be better choice. If all that you fed your fish was food you grew there eventually the tank would become nutrient starved. Granted it would probably take a long time but eventually it would happen. I would not consider it a to be a bad idea, but if you're trying to keep macros you will eventually need to get more nutrients into the system.

 

[garvin90]

Well what I was getting at really was, is it just better to prune back the algae and get rid of it completely to keep nutrients lower rather than "is this a good food source for my fish".

I honestly did not mean to start a arguement samala, I just have never used a refugium before and I was just verifying to make sure I wasnt shooting myself in the foot.

 

[graveyardworm]

I dont see any argueing here just opinions. I've been thinking about it a little bit and would like to add one more thing. By dropping in processed food which is already dead there is no alternative to it either being eaten or decomposing in your tank whereas by feeding live food if it doesnt get eaten it will not foul your water.