Nutrients In and Nutrients Out – Marine Aquarium

You must have a complete understanding of the full picture of algae in your reef aquarium and its cause, excess nutrients. Having excess nutrients in your marine aquarium, both nitrate and phosphates, will cause an imperfect balance of nutrient input and output in your tank.

Firstly, let’s consider nutrient inputs. These derive from two factors, and the first one is food. Feeding is almost always the most significant cause of excess nutrients, as any food will be adding nitrates and phosphates to your system. It is important to remember that the higher quality of food you add, usually the less excess nutrients it adds. This is because that lower quality foods consist of subpar ingredients that your fish find more difficult to digest, to which ends up causing more waste. Though, any food you decide to use will always lead to excess nutrients if you tend to overfeed your marine aquarium, as uneaten food to degrade in your tank causing your nutrients to increase.

Secondly, some hobbyists become confused as to why their nutrients are so high and then find out that their RO water is through the roof with phosphates and nitrates. It is very important that any water you add to your system is tested beforehand, whether that’s RO or your saltwater / seawater/ natural seawater/ natural sea water / NSW.

Nutrients found in natural reefs and natural seawater is close to nil, so if you add anything to your system that causes your nutrients to spike upward above these benchmarks then there will be a drawback in terms of algae or fish health issues.