Define insanity

CoralClasher

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Daily micro bubble scrub and turkey baster for the better part of a year every day same dust comes off the rocks!! What is this stuff? I've tried extra filters while doing this.
 

Katrina71

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Are you seeing that on the tops of rocks where it gets the most light?
 
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CoralClasher

CoralClasher

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It's on every rock. Light don't seem to make a difference. Just recently had some cyano and some diatoms, did the chemical clean and three days no light and started lights one at a time 50% for two days now no day 8 after chemiclean. Few hours later and I can't see it.
 

KrisReef

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I think that dust is your live-rock being chewed up by the infauna. It comes with the live rock and is typically identified as detritus. If your tank rock was cement blocks or granite then you probably wouldn't have this problem.

A guy at an LFS told me to blast the rock with a powerhead every time I was going to do a water change to stir this stuff up and get it into the filters or siphoned into the wastewater I would be tossing out. Removing it is supposed to help keep algae growth off the rocks.
 
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CoralClasher

CoralClasher

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I think that dust is your live-rock being chewed up by the infauna. It comes with the live rock and is typically identified as detritus. If your tank rock was cement blocks or granite then you probably wouldn't have this problem.

A guy at an LFS told me to blast the rock with a powerhead every time I was going to do a water change to stir this stuff up and get it into the filters or siphoned into the wastewater I would be tossing out. Removing it is supposed to help keep algae growth off the rocks.
Is there any thing I can do to stop the infauna?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I'm linking this thread to the sand rinse thread ironically not because of a sandbed, but as a review of natural and expected detritus production.

You have no sandbed, so you're forced to clean daily to maintain -that scape-

And in the frustration you reveal the work required to maintain real estate, to prevent clogging of pores, stagnation, pockets of algae feed, the work you feel might be a harbinger is really just the key to an infinite lifespan no old tank syndrome reef.

This isn't stated in order to start an approach battle on clean vs detritus storage/sinking into the bed which is 'out of sight, out of mind'

It's stated because you've chosen to assemble a low detritus reef that people who are reading want. Those live rocks are apartment complexes for poopers lol you are making up for the fact an aquarium doesn't have the current nor the export to match the ocean, this cleaning isn't bad, it's a sign of a person not willing to lose an awesome scape to some scum invader mat or plant...by letting it sit, awaiting twenty days for a microscope + ID thread + random prescription for N and P levels as it takes over the whole tank


No, you are willing the surfaces clean routinely, we can see, even if you didn't describe it. Live rock from anyone's tank, if set in a white paint bucket for two hours, leaves detritus pellets behind

Sandbedders sink it, claim it to be mineralized eventually, and constitute every entrant into our tank saving threads.

And then other tanks just simply never let the invasion cycle and alternating species of invasions begin, they're as clean as they need to be to force substrate (your rock) compliance

What's very possibly going on with your tank is that it's cycling through a small Invader every time we add corals from another system these things vector in

You can use better mechanical filtration to catch these particles inside of filter floss that is exported in cleaned or you can continue holding course either way your system is working great it's not in distress


This is the reason I only work with pico reefs, am not willing to expend the effort to correctly run a large tank with certainty... you are. It's the only way I know to reef that has 100% consistent outcome for attempts, at the expense of work though. I'm jealous of the lucky ones, hands off reefers who can age tanks that way but those approaches are also the sole entrants into our tank correction threads. The clean reefers apply the fix before hand, as a routine.
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Your rocks are being increased in girth, specifically due to layering calcifying organisms like serebellidae, serupulidae coralline+ others, on a cumulative slow scale, and the dusty detritus you see isn't degrading rock it's the waste of the rock builders + intervals of sustained higher work due to expected invasions of matted invaders common to reef tanks.

Since your eye commands the clean look, you're having to follow suit by tank cleaning to cause that condition. It's the number one trait an invaded tank owner isn't applying.

This is one instance where canister filters like a huge pond filter might help. It's so you have a localized place to catch detritus vs whole tank work. You're still cleaning that filter quite often so it doesn't pump nitrate, you're using it to concentrate the particles for easy flushing in one place, and it's less makeup water than siphon water changing to export the cloud off the rocks
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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The care methods and waste access shown above are the cure and prevention for:

-Invasive cyano and spirulina
-Invasive dinoflagellates any species
-Green water, any-reason cloudy water
-Any other matting invader
-Detritus accumulation, pockets of aerobic variation and pathogen locus
-eutrophication

nothing mats and takes over when it’s willed clean and never allowed to amass. The reason these organisms mass is because that’s a communal benefit in many ways, adherence, food acq, protection etc. to be a simple cleaner is to interrupt, not starve or coax, a huge portion of normal reef invaders.

He can still get anchored algae/holdfast types but it’s nice to know preventing half of what common reef threads struggle with is featured above...heck of a plan for new tanking.


Allowing a reef tank to sink wastes, not be busily exported, cycle in and out of various full-on invasions is both 1998 and not the only way. To be clean is a way that simply produces the longest living tanks across any hundred setup compared to a hundred of any other method and tracked for five years. We know what causes cyano and invader headaches... and he’s doing opposite above.


Pico reefs are ran by and large like this tank is above, so it means we have thousands of tiny systems modeling what clean reefing does vs storage reefing/in systems that don’t require 15 years of aging to display their true characteristics.

At eight years and beyond, it’s only the clean strong export / water change pico reefs that are alive in the world...the storage ones are all cyano crashed. 8-10+ year pico reefs are very hard to find, and the ones that are alive are busy systems in one way or another.


The rocks here will behave better when coralline increases, until then keep the pores open and clean as is being done.

The negative to this approach is it’s not very automated, the keeper works to ensure system compliance. So it’s a boost up from prior years that said you can’t clean, can’t do water changes, and had to be invaded at one point...but there’s room for improvement in any way that reduces keeper work.

UV burning targets should be investigated, this will remove the invasion component well because that system already selects against matted invaders... UV would be really effective in this low organic reserve system if any handy cheating was wanted. If it was my tank Id have a very costly uv plumbed into place button-ready, though not necessarily always on.
 
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CoralClasher

CoralClasher

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Thanks for all of the info. Really helps talking with others about this hobby. For the last three weeks I've been closely watching phosphate levels and noticed I was bottoming out way to much! I removed my biopellet reactor had one more phosphate spike last Tuesday and now things are really looking good. The outside temp where I live is -28 my heaters aren't keeping up. Should I be worried about a 3 degree drop in tank temperature?
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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no it w be ok, I once forgot to plug in my heater for eight hours it was about 69/horror still made it ok. failure of any coral to re open caused me to check details
 

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