Reef nutrition

Would You Put Bird Poop in Your Tank?

bluprntguy

bluprntguy

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While searching for a somewhat unrelated topic, I ran across this article that seems to suggest that bird poop increases coral growth significantly: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-importance-bird-poo-coral-growth.html

Since I have a parrot, it got me thinking about whether I should try dropping her droppings in my tank. I don’t have to worry about pesticides, she mostly eats organic apples, edamame, and blueberries. I’ve been struggling to keep any phosphates in this tank at all, so perhaps this might help. I also actually have an icp test ready. It might be interesting to see what happens before and after.

So, would you, or should I, chance this and how much do you think is enough to make a difference?
 
Seems to me that it isn’t the bird poop specifically, but rather the extra nutrients in certain areas of an otherwise nutrient-starved environment. I don’t think we have that problem in our tanks for the most part. And if we do, there are easier ways to increase nutrient levels :)
 
Bird poop is going to be high in urates such as uric acid. These are nitrogenous compounds that birds excrete along with their feces. This is because birds don't pee. So it might increase your need to export nitrogen and maybe phosphorous.
 
JVU said:
Seems to me that it isn’t the bird poop specifically, but rather the extra nutrients in certain areas of an otherwise nutrient-starved environment. I don’t think we have that problem in our tanks for the most part. And if we do, there are easier ways to increase nutrient levels :)
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I thought that as well. I haven’t found the original study, but it seems like the researchers thought the two islands were identical enough that the presence of birds on one was the only differentiating factor. I’m not sure why birds wouldn’t be present on one of the islands other than lack of food or a predator.

Wlachnit said:
Bird poop is going to be high in urates such as uric acid. These are nitrogenous compounds that birds excrete along with their feces. This is because birds don't pee. So it might increase your need to export nitrogen and maybe phosphorous.
Click to expand...

My tank is relatively new (+/- 6months) and set up using dry rock. My phosphates were 2 PPB (or .006 PPM) on Sunday. I do have some nitrates, but those are always low (under 2-3). My refugium is sitting there just waiting to export some nutrients...
 
Parrot pooping into a single tank might be the equivalent of a billion birds pooping over every acre of reef... I dunno just wildly throwing out numbers because yeah...


But... all those "trace elements" that you never knew what was in them but maybe dosed anyways, now you know... bird poop is part of it :)
 
bluprntguy said:
I thought that as well. I haven’t found the original study, but it seems like the researchers thought the two islands were identical enough that the presence of birds on one was the only differentiating factor. I’m not sure why birds wouldn’t be present on one of the islands other than lack of food or a predator.
Click to expand...
In island systems, seabirds go out for miles around, actively harvesting the nutrients (fish) from a very large nutrient-poor area, and then concentrating the nutrients (poop) back on their island, making it nutrient rich. I really doubt it’s specific to bird poop, but rather the concentration of nutrients by the birds. You could probably see the same effect with other nutrient concentrators, like sea lions or music festivals.
 
JVU said:
In island systems, seabirds go out for miles around, actively harvesting the nutrients (fish) from a very large nutrient-poor area, and then concentrating the nutrients (poop) back on their island, making it nutrient rich. I really doubt it’s specific to bird poop, but rather the concentration of nutrients by the birds. You could probably see the same effect with other nutrient concentrators, like sea lions or music festivals.
Click to expand...
haha "music festivals"
 
sfsuphysics said:
But... all those "trace elements" that you never knew what was in them but maybe dosed anyways, now you know... bird poop is part of it :)
Click to expand...

LOL. Now I’m thinking that if this works, it could be the next big “miracle” coral growth accelerator and maybe I’ll be bottling it and selling it for $20/ounce on BRS in a year!
 
I wouldn’t, but only because I’m risk averse. Now if there was plenty of documented success with bird poop, I might be inclined to try it.


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