Organic carbon dosing and long term anemone health?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm contemplating making a big change in my 13 year old tank system, as detailed in the thread below

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1557772

I'm perfectly happy (well, almost perfectly happy) with the display tanks (a 90 and a 120 on teh same system). What I'm looking to possibly change is the very expensive lighting ($1,000 per year in electricity) used to light the four refugia that are my main nutrient export methods.

The thing I'm contemplating is swapping to organic carbon dosing as the primary nutrient export method.

So the question for folks here is about anemones in such systems. I have E.quads and a huge purple H. crispa that I am very happy with, and I would not want to hurt them.

Have any of you kept such anemones happy long term in systems dosing organic carbon sources as the primary nutrient export method?

I'm not really looking to make a ULNS, but it may happen if only by accident, and I do not know how these anemones do in such a setting.

TIA for any comments.

 

[adtravels]

Just my opinion but if the nems are well fed and you provide strong in tank lighting I cant see there being a problem. I have dosed vodka for nearly a year and the rbta I had never showed and issues to being in a ulns, I recently added a purple gigantea to the same system and removed the rbta, the gig was a healthy one its being fed every other day with a mix of mysis and grated fresh seafood. All the while I have been dosing 4 ml of vodka daily and running the bioclean portion of prodibio. The tank is a bare bottom 60 cube with a 20 sump, I have an octo extreme 160 skimmer and run two vortechs for flow. I siphon mulm twice weekly.

 

[shutiny]

Hi Randy! I am not sure what is "organic carbon", but I used regular carbon for about 3 months and almost every carpet anemones bleached, but none other anemones had any sign of problems. In fact, I don't use denitrator or carbon any more because both had affected my anemones. I grow Halymnia, kelp, and few other macro and my anemones seem to be most happy in beds of sea grass.
I didn't loose any carpets from the incident, but it took over 6 months for them to regain most of their colors. Just my experiences and by the way, thanks for all your helps.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, sorry for the confusion. I too have used activated carbon to bind organics from the water. For organic carbon dosing I mean vodka(ethanol), sugar, or vinegar added to drive bacterial growth, and that bacterial growth results in nutrients being at low levels as they consume nitrogen and phosphorus sources. Presumably some of these bacteria or their body parts are exported by skimming.

 

[OrionN]

I have not tried to add organic carbon to the tank and would very much like to see how your experience with this in improve the healthy of your tank.
I have not read much, didn't really have the time spend on searching and reading about this, so if you have any link to discussing and writing about this topic I would love for you to point it out to me.
Thanks

 

[OrionN]

I read the thread. Interesting. Hope some people dosing organic carbon in an anemone tank chime in.

 

[liquidfunk]

Hey Randy, I have been dosing vodka in my 150 reef for about 3 weeks. I have only a ritteri/magnifica as far as anemones go, and it appears to be unchanged by the dosing. I also dose ozone (in a reactor followed by active carbon) which I know some people think is a bad idea. Ill post back if things change.

Note, Im also dosing vodka on 2 FO tanks, in about 10 days my cyano has reduced about 80%.

I have heard vodka or some for of carbon dosing is pretty common place among public aquaria.

One other thing, I dont know if your a member of spsclubhouse, I dont have the "credentials" to get in, but Im sure you do. If you havent looked into it there yet, I would recommend that. I know there was a recent thread about dosing there. I was going to send this via PM, but I noticed you dont accept them.

 

[millerp]

not to take try and steal the thread, but I was wondering about the comment of someone having their anemone's bleach because they were running regular carbon in their system. Is this true? I have never heard of this and was just wondering...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the info folks.

but I was wondering about the comment of someone having their anemone's bleach because they were running regular carbon in their system. Is this true?


FWIW, I use GAC on my system.

 

[shutiny]

I used carbon in my other tanks for years and no problem. But when I added carbon to my new system a few years back, all carpets beached. The tank was running denitraitor for ~ 6 months before I added the carbon. I am not sure, could have been a different issue but the sulfur and carbon were just coincidence.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Maybe the water had light absorbing compounds removed too suddenly, hitting the anemones with too much light all of a sudden? that is a known concern with corals and starting GAC.