sagedrake690
Community Member
Heya r2r friends! I have this 55gal saltwater tank that I have set up about a month ago. I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. No joke and I am open to suggestions and experiments! I will seriously perform experiments for you all so long as I have the ability and it's legitimate. Do research first before experimenting as I will as well!!! Do NOT spout off in this thread about how wrong something is or if its your way its better please.
That said, if you ever wondered if you can do something but didn't want to risk your established tanks, let ME perform an experiment for you in an empty tank! (If it requires me to buy an animal, you can googlepay me or just ship it to my place. I will dedicate the space to your experiments but you supply the goods.) I came to this realization after I set up the tank and looked at it.
"what the heck am I gonna do with this?!"
The reason is I have my favorite animal already! I have a tub with my horseshoe crabs but they are separate due to their need for shallow sand flats, and brackish water, not a reef tank and nor do they belong in one for anyone interested. They are my favorite marine animal and honestly the cheapest and easiest. Just a sand bed with a few rocks and .019 - .022 brackish water. Feed daily. Keep it semi clean but they can handle dirty and are quite messy animals. Make it a planted tank with cleanup crew and you have a nice tide pool ecosystem!
To give you an idea who I am, I never do water changes period. Its ***** expensive for salt water and I have been running a beta/turtle tank for over 6 months with no water changes and started from tap. My goal is to be a chemist like nature and find a way to do things as close to nature as possible. I'm also fighting to discover new methods for poor people and apartment dwellers without access to rodi water. You can pre-make treated tap water for pennies and as a bonus, tap water has tons of beneficial solids that can be useful for replenishing lost nutrients! They have special filters for 20$ that remove copper and toxic metals. There are water conditioners and activated carbon as well. First things first, lets go over the discoveries I've made so far!
I start off by testing the water and it does have a good starting amount of calcium and magnesium. (Again broke. All I got is a api dip for ammonia and nitrates and nitrates and the calc mag and all salifert kits. The alkalinity and copper are the issues though. I use fake polyester spider webbing for filter material. It rolls out if you are gentle, cuts to size and a little goes a loooooooong way. Once rolled out, fluffed and stretched, you sprinkle carbon on it and roll it up. It does great and I save tons on filters!!! I also used this toxin locker filter. It removes the copper that isn't removed by conditioner and carbon and changes color depending on the toxins in the water.
During this phase of cycling, I'm loosing plants due to a 0 reading across the board on Nitrites/ates ammonia. I tried feeding the tank but nothing. I let them rot to feed the survivors. During this time I notice my water getting smoky. Upon inspection under a microscope, I find tons of plankton but the lasting battle has been the alkalinity. Oh how poor men cannot afford a rodi unit or hook one up inside a rented apartment/house. The alkalinity from tap starts around 25-30. Yeah. Have fun with that am I right?! Woohoo.
I did a ton of research. In less than a month I dropped it down to 16. That can take years to cycle out...Its stressful for things now but not deadly to anything but coral and sponges. Snails don't like it either arm but its dropping at a decent rate. The secret? Tannic acid. Chestnut wine tannins to be exact! Be forewarned.... This will F#&k your filter. A tiny bit. Just 1/4 tsp in 60 gallons turned it tick yellow. Yep. River ocean/mangrove water.
Funny thing guys. Tannins provide beneficial UV protection to coral. Try it. Shine a black/uv light on anything inside a tannin tank. Notice how the plants don't turn that red color? It helps blocks the UV rays. It boosts fish immune system and helps control algae. It helps lower ph if you have that problem and it's natural! After a fresh new filter, I added some tannins. Alkalinity before testing 25 alkalinity after tannins removed via carbon filter 22 but it eats up the filter (turns it brown and clogs if you turn it deep brown) . It is dose dependant. The tank will only change ph for as long as the tannins are in the water and only slightly if you use a little. The darker the water the bigger the ph swing will be.
Turning tap brown then back to clear drops it from 25 to 18. To near black and back drops it to 15. You can make water from tap! The problem is making sure to remove all chems with the toxic lock filter and use plenty of conditioner and carbon. Now after a month. My tanks alkalinity is near stable and I can add stuff. What do I add? I am open to ideas and experiments!
To note: The wild open ocean is quite dirty...much more than inside our tanks. That's why fish are so much more susceptible to disease. If they were wild caught you really wont have any issues aside from parasites. Its the lab raised specimens that will all die out! Needless to say, I will do things like let a tiny iron nail rust in the filter to release phosphate control. Its slow, gradual and these things happens in nature. Magnesium can be added with a campfire starter bar. It will fizz in the water after a while that lets you know its working lol. Calcium? Easy!!! Egshells!!! Just grind em up very fine and dissolve in a tiny bit of vinegar. Once dissolved add it to the tank. The tiny bit of vinegar won't affect the PH. I'm broke AF and also an aspiring biologist. In school for biomedical. I can take 50/50 pee water and with some infiltration and agitation I can turn it into mineral water. You can take an eggshell, dissolve it, feed it to a coral and by the time you need to feed again, that eggshell IS PART OF that coral now. Its chemistry!
My first experiment was for making tap water usable.
Gross conclusion: with appropriate amounts of natural tannic acid, one can safely reduce the alkalinity by around 2-3a day and use light dustings to lower alkalinity without negative impact on the ph scale. Remember if it is in the filter medium, its still lowering the alkalinity! After the dosing, new filters WILL be needed.
Second experiment
Dosing 1/2cup peroxide treated urine for plant growth.
www.nature.com
Human urine is composed primarily of water (95%). The rest is urea (2%), creatinine (0.1%), uric acid (0.03%), chloride, sodium, potassium, sulphate, ammonium, phosphate and other ions and molecules in lesser amounts30
Gross conclusion at 1/2 cup a day for 2 or more days you will notice algae and plants growth return. 0 readings across ammonia/nitrite/nitrate during the process. Checked every 3 hrs for 15hrs. 5 strips used.
That said, if you ever wondered if you can do something but didn't want to risk your established tanks, let ME perform an experiment for you in an empty tank! (If it requires me to buy an animal, you can googlepay me or just ship it to my place. I will dedicate the space to your experiments but you supply the goods.) I came to this realization after I set up the tank and looked at it.
"what the heck am I gonna do with this?!"
The reason is I have my favorite animal already! I have a tub with my horseshoe crabs but they are separate due to their need for shallow sand flats, and brackish water, not a reef tank and nor do they belong in one for anyone interested. They are my favorite marine animal and honestly the cheapest and easiest. Just a sand bed with a few rocks and .019 - .022 brackish water. Feed daily. Keep it semi clean but they can handle dirty and are quite messy animals. Make it a planted tank with cleanup crew and you have a nice tide pool ecosystem!
To give you an idea who I am, I never do water changes period. Its ***** expensive for salt water and I have been running a beta/turtle tank for over 6 months with no water changes and started from tap. My goal is to be a chemist like nature and find a way to do things as close to nature as possible. I'm also fighting to discover new methods for poor people and apartment dwellers without access to rodi water. You can pre-make treated tap water for pennies and as a bonus, tap water has tons of beneficial solids that can be useful for replenishing lost nutrients! They have special filters for 20$ that remove copper and toxic metals. There are water conditioners and activated carbon as well. First things first, lets go over the discoveries I've made so far!
I start off by testing the water and it does have a good starting amount of calcium and magnesium. (Again broke. All I got is a api dip for ammonia and nitrates and nitrates and the calc mag and all salifert kits. The alkalinity and copper are the issues though. I use fake polyester spider webbing for filter material. It rolls out if you are gentle, cuts to size and a little goes a loooooooong way. Once rolled out, fluffed and stretched, you sprinkle carbon on it and roll it up. It does great and I save tons on filters!!! I also used this toxin locker filter. It removes the copper that isn't removed by conditioner and carbon and changes color depending on the toxins in the water.
During this phase of cycling, I'm loosing plants due to a 0 reading across the board on Nitrites/ates ammonia. I tried feeding the tank but nothing. I let them rot to feed the survivors. During this time I notice my water getting smoky. Upon inspection under a microscope, I find tons of plankton but the lasting battle has been the alkalinity. Oh how poor men cannot afford a rodi unit or hook one up inside a rented apartment/house. The alkalinity from tap starts around 25-30. Yeah. Have fun with that am I right?! Woohoo.
I did a ton of research. In less than a month I dropped it down to 16. That can take years to cycle out...Its stressful for things now but not deadly to anything but coral and sponges. Snails don't like it either arm but its dropping at a decent rate. The secret? Tannic acid. Chestnut wine tannins to be exact! Be forewarned.... This will F#&k your filter. A tiny bit. Just 1/4 tsp in 60 gallons turned it tick yellow. Yep. River ocean/mangrove water.
Funny thing guys. Tannins provide beneficial UV protection to coral. Try it. Shine a black/uv light on anything inside a tannin tank. Notice how the plants don't turn that red color? It helps blocks the UV rays. It boosts fish immune system and helps control algae. It helps lower ph if you have that problem and it's natural! After a fresh new filter, I added some tannins. Alkalinity before testing 25 alkalinity after tannins removed via carbon filter 22 but it eats up the filter (turns it brown and clogs if you turn it deep brown) . It is dose dependant. The tank will only change ph for as long as the tannins are in the water and only slightly if you use a little. The darker the water the bigger the ph swing will be.
Turning tap brown then back to clear drops it from 25 to 18. To near black and back drops it to 15. You can make water from tap! The problem is making sure to remove all chems with the toxic lock filter and use plenty of conditioner and carbon. Now after a month. My tanks alkalinity is near stable and I can add stuff. What do I add? I am open to ideas and experiments!
To note: The wild open ocean is quite dirty...much more than inside our tanks. That's why fish are so much more susceptible to disease. If they were wild caught you really wont have any issues aside from parasites. Its the lab raised specimens that will all die out! Needless to say, I will do things like let a tiny iron nail rust in the filter to release phosphate control. Its slow, gradual and these things happens in nature. Magnesium can be added with a campfire starter bar. It will fizz in the water after a while that lets you know its working lol. Calcium? Easy!!! Egshells!!! Just grind em up very fine and dissolve in a tiny bit of vinegar. Once dissolved add it to the tank. The tiny bit of vinegar won't affect the PH. I'm broke AF and also an aspiring biologist. In school for biomedical. I can take 50/50 pee water and with some infiltration and agitation I can turn it into mineral water. You can take an eggshell, dissolve it, feed it to a coral and by the time you need to feed again, that eggshell IS PART OF that coral now. Its chemistry!
My first experiment was for making tap water usable.
Gross conclusion: with appropriate amounts of natural tannic acid, one can safely reduce the alkalinity by around 2-3a day and use light dustings to lower alkalinity without negative impact on the ph scale. Remember if it is in the filter medium, its still lowering the alkalinity! After the dosing, new filters WILL be needed.
Second experiment
Dosing 1/2cup peroxide treated urine for plant growth.
A New Artificial Urine Protocol to Better Imitate Human Urine - Scientific Reports
Artificial urine has many advantages over human urine for research and educational purposes. By closely mimicking healthy individuals’ urine, it may also be important in discovering novel biomarkers. However, up until now, there has not been any specific protocol to prove the similarity in terms...
www.nature.com
Human urine is composed primarily of water (95%). The rest is urea (2%), creatinine (0.1%), uric acid (0.03%), chloride, sodium, potassium, sulphate, ammonium, phosphate and other ions and molecules in lesser amounts30
Gross conclusion at 1/2 cup a day for 2 or more days you will notice algae and plants growth return. 0 readings across ammonia/nitrite/nitrate during the process. Checked every 3 hrs for 15hrs. 5 strips used.
