Starving Algae and Pests Until They Die? The Unintended Consequences of Ultra Low Nutrients.

Segment 1/11: Are you actually harming your corals by controlling Nitrate & Phosphate levels to kill problem algae and pests? Have we had this wrong the entire time? How is pest algae and coral zooxanthellae related? Do they react the same to changes in Nitrates and Phosphates?

Today we start a journey to understand the relationship between Nitrogen, Phosphorus, corals, zooxanthellae and algae control in saltwater aquariums & widen our perspective for what our corals need to thrive meaning; care more for the corals as pets themselves rather than an afterthought to the fish & tank husbandry.

If coral=animal and zooxanthellae=plant, which one should you care for the most?

The Nitrate and Phosphate saga continues...

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[trevoryayoshi]

This video is only 10 minutes but I felt like I've heard and absorbed more from this than any other video.

[Hartwig]

Weren't kidding about the production values.

Also, first.

[LiveIbanez]

You guys weren't kidding yesterdays stream about something different! This is awesome and I look forward to all of this!!

[andrewgoode]

The science of cyanobacteria. Phytoplankton have to uptake nutrients from the water column via their cell wall(s). Larger cells (e.g. diatoms) have a smaller surface area:volume ratio and are better at nutrient uptake at higher nutrient concentrations. Conversely, smaller cells (e.g. cyanobacteria) have a higher surface area:volume ratio and are evolutionarily adept to nutrient uptake at very low nutrient levels (hence why they are the most abundant phytoplankter in the tropics and in the center of the ocean basins. In addition to that, some cyanobacteria are diazotrophs, meaning they can fix nitrogen gas and convert it directly to ammonium to be used for growth. So, low or undetectable nutrient levels actually favors the evolutionary adaptations of cyanobacteria and lend itself to blooms (although not guaranteed).

[Saltyaquarium]

Mind blowing! The videos are getting better and better!

[jamesrecon]

This video is University level. We'll done.

[thierryniaison]

Have to say this probably is the first time I have found some actual good reasoning concerning this topic. I've starting reefing about a year ago and I had to fight dinos about 5 times in my 2 tanks. Why you may ask? Because of the "garbage" advice you spoke that everybody keeps giving on repeat. They were all saying that my maintenance was not good enough and blah blah blah... On the contrary, my water was almost immaculate when it came to nutrient levels, and I had to figure that out by myself. From the moment I finally detected nitrates and phosphates, my corals starting thriving after 4 MONTHS of starvation and my snails finally started to get out of their torpor. I would have payed 1000$ bucks just for the truth when it comes to nutrients instead of listening to every garbage advice that was given to me just to see my tank doing extremely poorly in spite of my "perfect" maintenance. In the end I am glad that I trusted myself and I learned an invaluable lesson, and I totally second everything that was explained in this video. Listen to them, they definitely know their stuff way better than any other forum bozo!

[adamcunningham]

Very nice BRS. Nailed the MasterClass style.

[andymaltby]

Please keep this format when doing these deep dive videos like this. I love that there are less distractions and the video is clean and concise. Don’t get me wrong I like all the other videos but when doing serious next level education this is awesome.

[klaveren]

This is amazing, I can't wait for the whole series!

[pattack]

This sounds like something I want in a podcast until there’s more visuals then I want in a video form..either way this is something for people to dive deep and I like it..keep this coming

[hungry]

I love that this is where the conversation is going. I just want to add that when you first start a tank with dry rock, what you have is a ‘vacuum’ as opposed to a complete microbiome. So any of these bacteria’s or algae’s that can get in first are likely to really succeed because they have no other competition for food resources and substrate to grow on.

It can be a long and sometimes painful process to introduce healthy competition in the form of beneficial bacteria, coral biomass, and coralline algae if you are starting a tank from a complete vacuum.

Once we moved over from live rock to mined rock or man made concrete, we changed the game of starting tanks from a more complete microbiome to a total vacuum where anything can succeed and become a nuisance.

Once we understand that. We can start to play with the idea of how we introduce a healthy and more complete microbiome by culturing our tanks with coralline, bacteria blends, living phytoplankton blends of single cell algae’s and diatoms, and even macro algae’s like chaeto, etc.

From there we can start to discuss how we cater to the “good guys” by maintaining the right balance of organics.

[samc]

Solid lighting and audio. Speaking for near a hour on what ultimately is biochemistry should involve legitimate references of research. (I would imagine there’s plenty of research done by marine biologists available) This lesson is telling the audience rather than teaching us. We do not know why— just what to do. For example, there was no scientific explanation of how no phosphate results in no algae. As in what is the algae doing with the phosphate. Ultimately, it makes the lesson sound like it is mostly anecdotal findings.

[mwgarrett]

Hands down... One of BRS's best videos to date!

[kimrosenqvist]

This holistic presentation might have been the best I've seen from BRStv (and I have nothing but positive to say about your other videos)!
Love the new studio setting as well.
A professional production, inside out! Thank you! 😊👍

[Waynerock]

AH you got me!! I was not paying attention to the video Length and I was getting deep into your lecture, on the edge of my seat and then you said “that’s coming up”and I about hit the floor. Great intro to the new series can’t wait to watch

[ShrtyMac]

Great job @Ryan and BRS. I didn't have to rewind but once.

Having children teaches you patience.

[tylerwatanabe-noguera]

Some compelling points to a well debated issue that no one is immune to. Thank you for sharing!

[michaelpetrullo]

Great content, can't wait for what's next! These are daily battles we ALL fight.

[dusk]

Excellent! Simply Excellent.

Please continue down this thought process and framework. Agriculture and ecological principles have massive applications to reefing, if applied in relation to a tank and the organisms that inhabit them. This direction is excellent.