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If I may ask, what is “waste casting”? Does it refer to stirring up all the detritus in the sand bed?Although this seems trivial you just applied some of the newest approaches to cycling the hobby will see for the next decade, it has to do with what bacteria do and do not do on submerged surfaces.
if your whole tank is dead today when the lights come on then we have bombed, but if not, then new science is proven again because your reef tank cannot last a full day with bioload and not enough surface area.
your thread proves that when we remove accessory surface area, anything to the side or periphery of live rocks, that does not leave the tank lacking bacteria. Most important, live rocks do NOT take on extra bacteria to make up for accessory removal as they have no free spaces to add new bacteria even if given time.
This is for sure the longest standing misnomer in reefing, there isn’t a book, peer reviewed article (though we’ve got peer reviewed work threads ) that says this information...in fact all writing on the matter comes from web posts (article writers won’t touch the info, surface area mechanics is an unspoken science for us) and those posts say that we must remove accessory surface area slowly to allow bacteria to build up elsewhere.
that has never been true, what’s happened though everyone does remove in sections is they slowly removed the accessory, the live rock stayed the same, and on the last portioned removal they felt better about the process but still nothing changed with the live rock
display tank live rock is simply so powerful as a filter it will stand alone without any accessory, thats real surface area mechanics.
your post in going in the sand rinse thread because that’s where we study instant vs portioned sandbed removal, you’re on page forty one (that’s a lot of work examples showing the science)
removing accessory filter zones in sections is dangerous because it risks waste casting, and removing them all at once is safest because it prevents this and because of what bacteria truly do on submerged surfaces.
Good point and still have my nitrate test kit and my Hanna UL phosphate and will measure once per week just to check. My expectation is that my chaeto will grow nicely.Only the top surface of a DSB hosts nitrifying bacteria because of its density. Removal of it doesn't do much to the biological filter. If it were a wet / dry full of gravel its another issue entirely.
I would watch nitrate levels closely. If there's going to be an issue it would be there and will take a week or two to manifest.
Thanks. I love bright or even odd colors and there is nothing like a fluorescent orange setosa or teal Oregon tort that sorta thing. I have a couple small rainbow torts I hope grow out. The growth and coral color really took off once I got my salinity and alk under control. Otherwise I imagine the coral spends most of its energy contstany adjusting to the tank water chemistry conditions.That color palette is my ideal sps goal, bright orange setosa it appears wow