Jaubert bowl / plenum 8.8g

[besskurz]

More proof that you didnt have it setup right.. I never stir the top layer .. it is coarse and full of old shells and coral fragments.. It is Teeming with life ..Amphipods,small shrimp , spaghetti worms, bristle worms, etc.. Not dirty and NO signs of hydrogen sulfide buildup anywhere.. Use the right grade of substrate and depth and you will NEVER have hydrogen sulfide...

I have to confess my sins because I should include myself in the group of the ones which are not following jaubert' commandments lol
Maybe I should change the thread name lol but I will test my tank today and post the results and turn off the air pump for a couple days and follow up the nitrate curve.

By the way I never stired my substrate.
I was having a look this morning in the tank and I found very interesting creatures.
I will post later today some pics and videos. I will need your help to identify them.

 

[besskurz]

Here are two baby nassarius vibex snails I found today.

I think I might have several others wandering around. Once they grow a bit, I will have to sell them. If someone is in SC let me know!

I got two adults in the tank since the beginning. Now i know they were actually a couple :)

 

[besskurz]

I found today what it seems to be the first big spot of coralline algae.

This is another spot In the back of the tank. It's there for a couple months.
Not sure what this is. Looks like a brown coralline - if this even exists.

 

[besskurz]

Here is a bit of zooplankton. I believe there is at least 5 different kinds.
Population used to be more homogeneous but some recent frag plugs brought a bit of diversify.

I will post a very nice video where you can see then moving

 

[besskurz]

Let the test begin:

current nitrate between 20 or 40.
btw I hate these colors.

Air pump is off.
I removed the lid since there's no more water popping around from the air stone.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

This is such a cool project and I’m really appreciating following along!

 

[besskurz]

Here are two baby nassarius vibex snails I found today.

I think I might have several others wandering around. Once they grow a bit, I will have to sell them. If someone is in SC let me know!

I got two adults in the tank since the beginning. Now i know they were actually a couple :)

By the way these little guys are behaving a little bad.
They crawl over zoas and it seems they actually bite them.
I saw some zoas with some damage after them walked over and they kept close for almost a day. Maybe it's just my mind. I dunno. I will keep an eye on them.

 

[besskurz]

Preliminary results after 12 days:
Jan 28 - 20 to 40ppm
Fev 08 - 10 to 20ppm

It's a decrease of 10 to 20 ppm or 0.8ppm to 1.6ppm per day.

No water changes. Phyto daily, some pellets when I see the crab messing too much with macros.

It's working @Hot2na .

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Such an impressive little tank, been fun seeing the progress of it!!

 

[besskurz]

Happy presidents day!

I did a little upgrade in lights today.

From: reef builders nano led 30w
To: noopsyche k7 mini 60w

Colors don't make much justice, because of the lens, light ramp is different and so fort.

It took me a while until I designed and printed a support for it but it looks good. Simple and efficient, assembled with tight fits. No need for bolts but.. I'm putting them just for extra safe.

Gonna test tomorrow nitrates. Corals were feed today with reef roids, levels might not be super low, but if my math was right, I should be very close to zero nitrates.

I started to see more spots of coralline algae and a lot of spiroid worms. I will let them grow as much they want, as I need filters anyway.

Without the lid I started to see high evaporation than before as expected.

 

[besskurz]

1- Jan 28 - 20 to 40ppm - day 1
2- Fev 08 - 10 to 20ppm - day 12
3- Feb 23 - 0ppm - day 27

Honestly, when turned off the air pump I was a bit uncertain, but this really works. Its fact based, check the pictures.

Thanks @Hot2na, @Subsea , @brandon429 for all recommendations so far.

I feel that I had a big accomplishment today. The goal in my mind was always to proof that this "wierd" setup was really effective and it really is.

 

[brandon429]

That is truly looking balanced and diverse, its perfect :) in 2002 nobody would have believed that was possible they’d have said it was plumbed to a secret sump

 

[Subsea]

More proof that you didnt have it setup right.. I never stir the top layer .. it is coarse and full of old shells and coral fragments.. It is Teeming with life ..Amphipods,small shrimp , spaghetti worms, bristle worms, etc.. Not dirty and NO signs of hydrogen sulfide buildup anywhere.. Use the right grade of substrate and depth and you will NEVER have hydrogen sulfide...

I don‘t agree with “more proof you didn’t have it set up right”, considering it was maintained for > 25 years.

I do agree that abundent micro fauna & fana are required to maintain statis in the system you have discribed. However what you have discribed is a dsb over a plenum, that is not how the Monaco Aquarium was maintained by Jaubert. He used denitrification bacteria to break apart the nitrate molecule; not ditrivors to consume detritus.

@Hot2na
Never say never. In Reef Aquarium Volume 3, Julian Sprung identifies that “nitrification & denitrification happen in close proximity of each other”

The reason I stirred top of gravel was to feed detrivors to sea apples in display tank. The one time that I smelled H2S in 25 years of stirring was because I stirred too deep.

 

[Subsea]

1- Jan 28 - 20 to 40ppm - day 1
2- Fev 08 - 10 to 20ppm - day 12
3- Feb 23 - 0ppm - day 27

Honestly, when turned off the air pump I was a bit uncertain, but this really works. Its fact based, check the pictures.

Thanks @Hot2na, @Subsea , @brandon429 for all recommendations so far.

I feel that I had a big accomplishment today. The goal in my mind was always to proof that this "wierd" setup was really effective and it really is.

Bob Goemans, curator for John Penacamp Coral Garden aquariums in Florida Keys, coined the term NNR, “Natural Nitrate Reduction”, after returning from hurricane evacuation. He found all displays with under-gravel filters (no electricity to run pumps) with near zero nitrates.

 

[Euphrate]

Honestly, when turned off the air pump I was a bit uncertain, but this really works. Its fact based, check the pictures.

I finally decided to follow the model of another member of the forum : inlandreef.
Then i've put an oase 60 with some carbon running in it. It's way clearer, i'm about to use some purigen as well.
As i'm not super experienced i prefer to help a bit my system to stabilize.
I'll post pictures as soon as i've clean the glass and did by the same time a little WC.

 

[Subsea]

1- Jan 28 - 20 to 40ppm - day 1
2- Fev 08 - 10 to 20ppm - day 12
3- Feb 23 - 0ppm - day 27

Honestly, when turned off the air pump I was a bit uncertain, but this really works. Its fact based, check the pictures.

Thanks @Hot2na, @Subsea , @brandon429 for all recommendations so far.

I feel that I had a big accomplishment today. The goal in my mind was always to proof that this "wierd" setup was really effective and it really is.

Here are some more peer reviewed facts:
Both Bob Goemans & Rob Toonen with pHd’s, came up with different conclusions.

An experimental comparison of sediment-based biological filtration designs for recirculating aquarium systems

Common sediment filtration designs for recirculating systems designed for marine ornamentals fall largely into two major categories: sandbed and plenum-based systems. To date, there has been no experimental comparison of the relative performance of

www.academia.edu

​

An_experimental_comparison_of_sediment_based_biological_filtration_designs_for_recirculating_aquarium_systems?email_work_card=titleAn experimental comparison of sediment-based biological filtration designs for recirculating aquarium systems​

Rob Toonen
2005, Aquaculture
162 Views12 Pages
1 File ▾
Marine Aquaculture,
Aquarium Science,
ToBo Lab
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Common sediment filtration designs for recirculating systems designed for marine ornamentals fall largely into two major categories: sandbed and plenum-based systems. To date, there has been no experimental comparison of the relative performance of these methods for handling nitrogenous wastes in marine aquaria. We compared nutrient levels in a factorial design of aquaria: 1) with or without a plenum; 2) with deep (9.0 cm) or shallow (2.5 cm) sediments, and 3) with coarse (2 mm) or fine (0.2 mm) mean particle sizes. None of these experimental treatments have a significant advantage in the processing of nitrogenous wastes in recirculating aquaria; final ammonia and nitrite concentrations were below detectable levels, and nitrate concentrations did not differ significantly among the experimental treatments. After an initial stabilization period, all experimental treatments responded equivalently to continuous ammonium input of up to 0.5 mg / ℓ / day. Results were qualitatively similar whether experiments were carried out in the absence of animals in a lab with nutrient input via measured dosing of ammonium chloride, or in aquaria with live animals and natural sediments. Sediment depth and particle size had significant effects on a variety of water parameter measures throughout the experiment. Overall, coarse sediments had lower buffering capacity (pH, calcium & alkalinity) and much higher final phosphate concentrations than fine sediments. Death rates in the live animal experiments containing shallow sediments were roughly twice (2.91 ± 0.46) those of the deep sediment trials (1.47 ± 0.46). Regardless, the presence or absence of a plenum had little effect on water parameters throughout the experiment. These results suggest that there is little benefit to be gained from the addition of a plenum plate beneath …View full abstract
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[besskurz]

I finally decided to follow the model of another member of the forum : inlandreef.
Then i've put an oase 60 with some carbon running in it. It's way clearer, i'm about to use some purigen as well.
As i'm not super experienced i prefer to help a bit my system to stabilize.
I'll post pictures as soon as i've clean the glass and did by the same time a little WC.

Sure post some pics here! I just did not understand the reason for carbon and purigen, are you having algae infestation for fighting against phosphate or silicate?

 

[Euphrate]

Sure post some pics here! I just did not understand the reason for carbon and purigen, are you having algae infestation for fighting against phosphate or silicate?

As i just launched it with live rock that do -unfortunately- contain a bobbit worm, i prefered to run on carbon, for now, to not face a big algae invasion. Maybe it's useless, but at least water is clear.
Actually there's nothing much to see, it's only a scape for now, with some amphipods and asterinas if they don't get eaten by the bobbit :thinking-face:

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Bob Goemans, curator for John Penacamp Coral Garden aquariums in Florida Keys, coined the term NNR, “Natural Nitrate Reduction”, after returning from hurricane evacuation. He found all displays with under-gravel filters (no electricity to run pumps) with near zero nitrates.

Sand Mail was always a good read.

 

[besskurz]

As i just launched it with live rock that do -unfortunately- contain a bobbit worm, i prefered to run on carbon, for now, to not face a big algae invasion. Maybe it's useless, but at least water is clear.
Actually there's nothing much to see, it's only a scape for now, with some amphipods and asterinas if they don't get eaten by the bobbit :thinking-face:

Carbon will definitely help to Clear water but I don't believe it will help with algae management. Carbon is a chemical filter, it will soak up whatever contaminant or medicines is in there.
Algae is normal in the begin.. I had myself some issues too. A good clean up crew once they appear is the best thing in my opinion. You should see first some diatoms.

I'm curious about this Bobbitt worm. If you have fish in future, this may be trouble.