Abhishek
2500 Club Member
Hi friends,
I have been thinking of writing this topic for a while now after my short 8-9 months of experience with it and tons of reading on it . Never managed to write it until now as i felt I do not have enough data points to support it . But what the heck !! Its R2R and we have friends to help you and point your shortcomings . So here's my stab at it from a novice perspective.
I came back to reefing after 7 years of exile due to reason both personal and professional . But on my return, I found the whole reefing scene has changed dramatically from what it used to be - most of it for the good of coarse. But one of the things that hit me hard was the unavailability or I should say difficulty in sourcing real live rocks. Of coarse TBS is still there supplying amazing rocks but I read a lot about these dry rocks used and like everyone jumped on the bandwagon to get dry rocks from reefcleaners and set up the tank with the dry rocks .
Being an acro addict for a long time, I knew its gonna be acro dominated for sure. But I have similar soft spot for Non photosynthetic gorgorians too especially with Diodogorgia species. As you know, its not common to see tanks with NPS gorgorians who need frequent feeding to go with acros ! But i was adamant to try and experiment and embarked upon the journey in my quest to make make it happen .
In short - I wanted an acro dominated reef tank with non photosynthetic gorgorians and some of my favorite fishes like deepwater Randall's anthias , copperband butterfly , sand burrowing wrasses like Halichoeres , Anampses and Macrophryngdons - all of these to thrive with dry rocks .
I started studying a lot and was intrigued with the idea of cryptic filteration - an area in your sump devoid of any light whatsoever which maintains and helps sponges to grow which aid in removal of dissolved organic compounds from water or so its believed. I read almost anything and everything i could find on cryptic zone especially from the master Steve Tyree who maintains acro dominated grow out stations only with cryptic filtration and no skimmer which amazed me.
Plus I came across a beautiful reef tank of Paolo from Italy which in my view of being a halide fanboy is the best i have seen . His approach to filtration also involved cryptic or rather semi cryptic zone and I thought I could take a note of 2 from his book :-
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/140-tank-of-the-month
(Sorry @revhtree if I violate any rule in R2R by linking a different forum but its the only document of Paolo's reef I could find )
After all I read , I decided my take on the subject :-
My tank is now roughly 13 months old and about 8-9 months back completely covered my sump area in total darkness to begin with with no light whatsoever . Removed all mechanical filter socks and the water from tank drains down directly in the first chamber filled with dry rocks.
Then water flows through the skimmer chamber where I have my beloved Bubble King DC 150( Love it to death ) and then returned to teh main tank. No GFO or carbon whatsoever !
Started feeding the tank with APBreed phyto twice a day for my gorgorians with heavy 3 times frozen food feeding a day . Never missed a single day of feeding in the last 8 months and now due to favorable office hours , I feed 4 times a day with frozen food for my fishes and 3 times phyto for gorgorians with 10 ml each time. The only other thing dosed is KZ Sponge Power of 5 drops a day .
In a matter of 8 months with no seeding done, the first chamber is filled with sponges and probably hundreds of bristle worms and other creatures . I have counted atleast 3 different kinds of sponges - yellow, turquoise grey and blue and have seen traces of red sponges starting to grow . A short video of a section where the yellow sponges are growing massively . The yellow sponge in the beginning of the video is more than 5-6 inches in size. I wish I could move the rocks during the video to show the other varieties but its really difficult to take a video in this place.
During this time I moved to ATI essentials too and stopped all water changes what so ever . I may have done 2 10% waterchange since June to reduce high metals like Aluminium but thats about it .
No waterchange doesn't mean I do not test
I send water samples every 2-3 months to triton to check my water parameters and necessary actions if needed . My tank ran high on nitrates in the range of 20-25 but for the last couple of months as I have witnessed the explosion of sponges in my crysptic zone , nitrates have been falling down and is holding steady in the range of 10-12 ppm . Phosphates are in the range of .1 - 0.15 and never increases despite of me trying to push the limits . The last Triton test showed PO4 as 0.05 which has made me to increase my feeding .
In all my years of reefkeeping, I have never been successful as keeping Diodogorgia species for more than a couple of months. But (knock on wood) , all my 3 Diodogorgia species are alive after 8 months and thriving too and even I have seen small new growth .
Here is a pic of one of them at the worst hours . At night the PE is out of the world - so much so that you hardy can see the body .
And just to prove that I haven't killed my acros here's some shots of them
Sorry for the inhuman writing but Long story short - may be its the cryptic zone that has helped me to keep the tank in balance or may be not - who knows !!! But certainly , am thrilled to see the tank mature so fast with dry rocks and grow sponges everywhere and support both acros and Diodogorgia species . Am not saying the above method will work for anyone but it does for me .
No Water change for over 8-9 months and feeding as much as I want and able to keep both my acros and gorgs alive - that's like match made in heaven for me
I know my methods are controversial and many would argue and debate about it . Doesnt mean am gonna change it but just sharing my ways of doing reefing - Joy of this hobby is the thousand ways to skin a cat !
So do you believe in Cryptic filtration ? Do you run one ? Share your story .
Regards,
Abhishek
I have been thinking of writing this topic for a while now after my short 8-9 months of experience with it and tons of reading on it . Never managed to write it until now as i felt I do not have enough data points to support it . But what the heck !! Its R2R and we have friends to help you and point your shortcomings . So here's my stab at it from a novice perspective.
I came back to reefing after 7 years of exile due to reason both personal and professional . But on my return, I found the whole reefing scene has changed dramatically from what it used to be - most of it for the good of coarse. But one of the things that hit me hard was the unavailability or I should say difficulty in sourcing real live rocks. Of coarse TBS is still there supplying amazing rocks but I read a lot about these dry rocks used and like everyone jumped on the bandwagon to get dry rocks from reefcleaners and set up the tank with the dry rocks .
Being an acro addict for a long time, I knew its gonna be acro dominated for sure. But I have similar soft spot for Non photosynthetic gorgorians too especially with Diodogorgia species. As you know, its not common to see tanks with NPS gorgorians who need frequent feeding to go with acros ! But i was adamant to try and experiment and embarked upon the journey in my quest to make make it happen .
In short - I wanted an acro dominated reef tank with non photosynthetic gorgorians and some of my favorite fishes like deepwater Randall's anthias , copperband butterfly , sand burrowing wrasses like Halichoeres , Anampses and Macrophryngdons - all of these to thrive with dry rocks .
I started studying a lot and was intrigued with the idea of cryptic filteration - an area in your sump devoid of any light whatsoever which maintains and helps sponges to grow which aid in removal of dissolved organic compounds from water or so its believed. I read almost anything and everything i could find on cryptic zone especially from the master Steve Tyree who maintains acro dominated grow out stations only with cryptic filtration and no skimmer which amazed me.
Plus I came across a beautiful reef tank of Paolo from Italy which in my view of being a halide fanboy is the best i have seen . His approach to filtration also involved cryptic or rather semi cryptic zone and I thought I could take a note of 2 from his book :-
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/140-tank-of-the-month
(Sorry @revhtree if I violate any rule in R2R by linking a different forum but its the only document of Paolo's reef I could find )
After all I read , I decided my take on the subject :-
My tank is now roughly 13 months old and about 8-9 months back completely covered my sump area in total darkness to begin with with no light whatsoever . Removed all mechanical filter socks and the water from tank drains down directly in the first chamber filled with dry rocks.
Then water flows through the skimmer chamber where I have my beloved Bubble King DC 150( Love it to death ) and then returned to teh main tank. No GFO or carbon whatsoever !
Started feeding the tank with APBreed phyto twice a day for my gorgorians with heavy 3 times frozen food feeding a day . Never missed a single day of feeding in the last 8 months and now due to favorable office hours , I feed 4 times a day with frozen food for my fishes and 3 times phyto for gorgorians with 10 ml each time. The only other thing dosed is KZ Sponge Power of 5 drops a day .
In a matter of 8 months with no seeding done, the first chamber is filled with sponges and probably hundreds of bristle worms and other creatures . I have counted atleast 3 different kinds of sponges - yellow, turquoise grey and blue and have seen traces of red sponges starting to grow . A short video of a section where the yellow sponges are growing massively . The yellow sponge in the beginning of the video is more than 5-6 inches in size. I wish I could move the rocks during the video to show the other varieties but its really difficult to take a video in this place.
During this time I moved to ATI essentials too and stopped all water changes what so ever . I may have done 2 10% waterchange since June to reduce high metals like Aluminium but thats about it .
No waterchange doesn't mean I do not test
I send water samples every 2-3 months to triton to check my water parameters and necessary actions if needed . My tank ran high on nitrates in the range of 20-25 but for the last couple of months as I have witnessed the explosion of sponges in my crysptic zone , nitrates have been falling down and is holding steady in the range of 10-12 ppm . Phosphates are in the range of .1 - 0.15 and never increases despite of me trying to push the limits . The last Triton test showed PO4 as 0.05 which has made me to increase my feeding .In all my years of reefkeeping, I have never been successful as keeping Diodogorgia species for more than a couple of months. But (knock on wood) , all my 3 Diodogorgia species are alive after 8 months and thriving too and even I have seen small new growth .
Here is a pic of one of them at the worst hours . At night the PE is out of the world - so much so that you hardy can see the body .
And just to prove that I haven't killed my acros here's some shots of them
Sorry for the inhuman writing but Long story short - may be its the cryptic zone that has helped me to keep the tank in balance or may be not - who knows !!! But certainly , am thrilled to see the tank mature so fast with dry rocks and grow sponges everywhere and support both acros and Diodogorgia species . Am not saying the above method will work for anyone but it does for me .
No Water change for over 8-9 months and feeding as much as I want and able to keep both my acros and gorgs alive - that's like match made in heaven for me
I know my methods are controversial and many would argue and debate about it . Doesnt mean am gonna change it but just sharing my ways of doing reefing - Joy of this hobby is the thousand ways to skin a cat !
So do you believe in Cryptic filtration ? Do you run one ? Share your story .
Regards,
Abhishek
