My 400 liters. An unusual method.

[Andrey Grodno]

Hello friends, I'd like to tell you about my idea-system for 400 liters, the way of keeping it will be completely different from the usual. I have to translate my messages with a translator and then ask English-speaking friends to check it, because the translator can translate so that only he can understand what is written. ) So, back in 2009 I started my first saltwater aquarium. The difficulty of keeping a marine aquarium in our country is its cost. My income per month-500 dollars, and even the electricity bill for me a significant expenditure. Allow yourself a standard set of equipment for an aquarium of 400 liters, I just can not. So I have to think of different ways to make everything cheaper. This I can help many people in our country also have a marine aquarium at home. And for the sake of it is worth the effort. And it's just very interesting to come up with something new. ) So, once I already had an aquarium of 500 liters and from it remained a stand and glass. Glass was 12mm, but unfortunately I broke the front glass, and glass of this thickness costs about $100 per square meter. I can't afford to buy such glass right now, so I used the lower remaining 12mm glass, and bought 8mm thick side and front glass. The height is reduced to 45cm and the resulting aquarium 1700x550x450 mm. That's about 400 liters.Some of the rocks are live rocks and some are DIY rocks. I made them according to my own technology, here on the forum in the theme of the rocks I have already posted a video. Mix-cement, dolomite, chalk, toilet paper. ))) Toilet paper is needed in the mixture because it contains cellulose, which then will eat bacteria and the rocks will be formed additional pores. I'll post this part of the story for now, translate it, check it out, and then I'll tell it further.

 

[ying yang]

Hello Andrey, nice big tank,good luck with it and seems like you good with your hands so can do alot jobs yourself to cut down on the cost ^_^

 

[Dburr1014]

I would love to see the rock!

 

[Andrey Grodno]

It seems to have worked. ) So, now a little bit about the system. Did you know that almost half of the planet's oxygen is produced by...diatoms?Did you know that a quarter of the planet's biomass is .... diatoms? Do you keep diatoms in your tanks? No?...Diatoms are bad, they spoil the appearance of the aquarium, they grow on rocks, glasses.... but plankton loves to eat them. And corals, clams and many others.This is the beginning of the food chain and without these algae will not be plankton. Almost. And the diatoms consume nitrates and phosphates, the things we are trying to get rid of. Diatoms are autotrophs, they consume inorganic substances and produce organic substances. They're very useful guys, but...they're not pretty.

Look at these worms. There are lots of them, they are very small and they are good food. But you don't have them in your aquariums. Or there are very few of them. In my tank there are a lot of them. Because they eat diatoms. And I have a lot of diatoms.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

And this is the gammarus. There are a lot of them in my aquarium. I also have oysters living in my tank. In 60 liters live 8 oysters. Live for several months and in the beginning they were 13. None died, I just gave away a few pieces. I do not feed the oysters, they eat diatoms.

 

[Adrift]

Love it.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

In order to have diatoms living in my aquarium, I made a special device-silicate scrubber. This is an ordinary scrubber, which has a compartment for silicates. I put silicate stones in it. Everyone always tries to remove silicates from the aquarium, I add. How much silicate is in seawater? Do you think it's not there? 2-3 milligrams per liter of water. Without silicate, there would be no life in the sea. I tried adding silicate glue to the water, but it doesn't dissolve in salt water. And it has sodium in it. But it worked well with silica rocks. I have a lot of different plankton in my aquarium, but little floating plankton. But now I've managed to get a culture of floating plankton. And phytoplankton of several species.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[Dburr1014]

Very interesting read

 

[Andrey Grodno]

Very interesting read

Thank you! There's a lot to tell, but I have to translate. It's getting slow. Sometimes a sentence doesn't translate correctly and I have to rewrite it.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

In my aquarium of 60 liters live several species of corals, I do not know how to translate their name.There are frags 5 species of acropora. While there are not many corals, I am testing the system.In this aquarium, except for silicate scrubber and one pump, there is no more equipment. The flow is very low. But 8 oysters is a lot for such a small volume and they have enough to eat. The flow in my system is intentionally made very small, because plankton will die in the pump. This is one problem that has yet to be solved. м I have two microscopes. And I made an eyepiece out of a webcam. That way I can see what plankton is growing in my tank and I can record video.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

This is one of the oysters. And the coral, a month ago put a small coral the size of a dime. This is what it became. Soon it will swallow the oyster. )

 

[Snoopy 67]

Looks like Zenia, it can become overwhelming if you're not careful.
Nice job.

 

[Dburr1014]

Maybe you need a surge device.
People used to pump up to a bucket, the bucket filled, got to heavy and dumped in the tank forming a surge wave.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

I would love to see the rock!

 

[Andrey Grodno]

When you put silicate in the system, you expect diatoms to start growing. I took a sample from the aquarium glass and looked at it under a microscope. And I saw diatoms. Photo 1. Then I took a sample from the scrubber. The same brown growths. And I saw...dinoflaggelates. Dinoflaggelates scare all reefers. But not me! Because it's also good coral food. The main thing is that they do not grow in the aquarium, but in the scrubber. The water flow washes some of the dinoflaggelate into the aquarium and the corals eat it. This is very good.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

I'm transferring everything to the new system.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

Tell me friends, what could it be? I had 13 oysters living in my aquarium, now there are 6 of them left in this aquarium. I have no other bivalves. And this is what I saw under the microscope. Is that an oyster?

 

[Andrey Grodno]

Oh...couldn't add a video. Just a minute, let me try to figure this out.

 

[Andrey Grodno]

I don't understand, I'm trying to add a file avi size 600Kb and nothing works. What am I doing wrong? I get it. I'll try to fix it now.

 

[ying yang]

I don't understand, I'm trying to add a file avi size 600Kb and nothing works. What am I doing wrong? I get it. I'll try to fix it now.

Not sure what it is but my advice if not already done would be start a new thread with a video of the suspected oyster but show fully the object first then zoom in on it or take few pictures and add them.
Good luck ^_^