jda's 240g Acropora Rebuild

[jda]

All of that sludge is probably inert. If it had anything usable in it, some microfauna or bacteria would have consumed it down to nothing - you can pretty much assume that in a mature tank, nothing gets left behind. However, I do find that it gums up the works and keep things from moving around freely and stuff. I like to get it out. Keep in mind that I have sand and most of it ends up in the sand. I like the critters and bacteria to have a clean sandbed without a bunch of even inerty detrius in it... we would want the same, right? I vacuum my sumps occasionally and clean the sand every 3-4 years in small chunks so that the bacteria can develop again (oxic and anoxic) in the right areas. The worms, conchs and sand snails love the parts right after I vacuum them... they hang out there for weeks.

Any phosphate issue that you have is not from that. It is bound phosphate in the aragonite. You can get it out, but go slow and be smart. Lowering is fine... lowering too fast usually causes problems. Helped a dude locally and we started to put LC in his ATO reservoir. We want to lower his P from 1.0 to bout .10 in 9 months or a year. He is adding like 2ml raw LC to 20 gallons of RODI - no idea how this works out, but in a month, he is down to about .85... so right on track. He bought SeaKlear or whatever the stuff for swimming pools is - cheaper and LC is LC.

 

[DCR]

I have been following your comments on phosphate binding of the aragonite and they make sense to me. My question is how do you know if you are exporting an adequate amount of phosphate or if it is simply being absorbed by the aragonite and you are heading for trouble down the road. Does a low phosphate test alone tell you that your export is sufficient?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

@jda how many hours are your halides on?

 

[sgrosenb]

@jda how many hours are your halides on?

Post #42 he mentions 9-10 hours with no supplements. @jda how far above the water do you have the halides?

 

[jda]

Like 6 or 7 inches. Honestly don't know. I lower then until the spill mostly stops.

 

[jda]

Colorado Sunburst Anenomes underwent plastic surgery yesterday. These are 4x4" baskets and this is how you want them to look the day after you cut them. Basicly, wait until they are 8-10 inches and then just cut them in half. I have never had one die, but I also don't get greedy and cut them too small or too many times.

 

[jda]

Poletti Opened Up More. You can see the green and purple now with the blue mouth - all grown under 6500k T5s. Some Vampires in Drag Wandered in there with them - I probably have 1000 of these weeds... need to get rid of some.

 

[jda]

For those who don't think that acropora can get to basketball sized in a few years, here is a year from RR Pink Caddy. August 2020 to Sept 2021... so a bit more than a year. That crusty and corroded thing is a quarter that I set on there. Sometimes it can take six months to a year for a 1" frag to get to the size of the first photo, but then that second year should be really good if you keep stuff stable and keep the bone cutters off of it. ...sorry for the bad color. Still just using unedited iPhone photos.

The colony is starting to grow a few layers now. Neat tabling growth form.

 

[Scdell]

For those who don't think that acropora can get to basketball sized in a few years, here is a year from RR Pink Caddy. August 2020 to Sept 2021... so a bit more than a year. That crusty and corroded thing is a quarter that I set on there. Sometimes it can take six months to a year for a 1" frag to get to the size of the first photo, but then that second year should be really good if you keep stuff stable and keep the bone cutters off of it. ...sorry for the bad color. Still just using unedited iPhone photos.

The colony is starting to grow a few layers now. Neat tabling growth form.

Nice! Some across will grow fast and others not so fast. So much depends on the system they're growing in. You obviously have yours growing in a stable system.

 

[sgrosenb]

I vacuum my sumps occasionally and clean the sand every 3-4 years in small chunks so that the bacteria can develop again (oxic and anoxic) in the right areas.

@jda just making sure I read this correctly - you don't disturb your sand bed (manually, that is - I'm sure you have creatures disturbing it all the time) more than once every 3-4 years? I had been cleaning my sand bed with a siphon every few weeks; each time a ton of detritus would come up on every siphoning. Do you recommend against that and just letting it be for the most part?

 

[jda]

I would rather have the sand develop oxic and anoxic zones than to vacuum it more often. I believe that a good portion of what I do that is successful is having a 3 inch sandbed that functions in the tank... the rest being real live rock and as high quality of light as possible.

 

[sgrosenb]

Thanks @jda for the insight into your sand. My sand is roughly 1-2" throughout; do you think that will have the same/similar effect as a 2-3", or would your recommend I add a bit more? When adding more, do you just dump it on top or mix it with the old sand a bit? Thanks as always for sharing all of your knowledge!

 

[jda]

It depends. If that 1-2 inches is enough to keep your nitrate levels down, then it is fine. I have places that are as little as 1.5 inches thick and others around 4 - the cucumbers slowly but steadily move the sand around. If your nitrate is higher, then you might need more but it will be impossible to tell until you leave it still and let the anoxic bacteria populate and get to work.

 

[jda]

Quick and dirty new wavebox. Finally had a Tunze 6100 go bad and I am out of replacement parts. This new 6105 was too powerful for the old box, so I had to build a larger one. 1" wave. It has been on for a few hours and water is still cloudy from stuff that it is stirring up. I have hated not having one running for the few months that it took me to finally stop being lazy and make this new one.

 

[thewedge]

Your profile pic caught my eye and brought me to this thread
Your tank is awesome and I really appreciate your approach to reefing. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ying yang]

Hi and beautiful system you got,didn't read all 10 pages but skipped through it but some lovely large beautiful corals you got.
Sorry another question if I may ,I see you say can use ge t5 tubes so I looked them up and are dirt cheap so would be ideal if they do the job.

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Do you mean these tubes ? And if so which kind and what kind of look do they give ?

 

[jda]

Your profile pic caught my eye and brought me to this thread

I have that album in first, second and third state stereo. I am redoing the frames and setup to make them more presentable... 99% UV glass to preserve the album. Most people don't even know what they are...

 

[jda]

Do you mean these tubes ? And if so which kind and what kind of look do they give ?

I use some GE 6500k. They look like 6500k and hard to describe to people who have not seen them, sorry, They are daylight to the eye, but can pop some reds and blue. Most people consider them too yellow, but I don't care since they are on fuges and to grow coral. The coral that grows under them get great color, the bulbs just don't show them off very well. I usually buy them a case at at time from somewhere. Most people mix them in with other bulbs. I do like the look at 50% 6500k and 50% true actinic - both of these bulbs give spectrum that most other T5s bulbs do not have, plus what they do.

 

[thewedge]

I have that album in first, second and third state stereo. I am redoing the frames and setup to make them more presentable... 99% UV glass to preserve the album. Most people don't even know what they are...

That is amazing! I've never met anyone who owned one copy let alone three.

 

[ying yang]

I have that album in first, second and third state stereo. I am redoing the frames and setup to make them more presentable... 99% UV glass to preserve the album. Most people don't even know what they are...

Even to this day it gets talked about in my city with the beatles dressing up as butchers amd had chunks of meat and babies head under another sticker or something like that .
I live 5 streets away from where Ringo star got brought up in one of the Welsh streets