Sand/tank RIP clean - During - After - Updates

brandon429

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sure, the non cycling ones are certainly ok to try. not chemi clean tho, the bac like mb7 not harmful to try. might work too
 
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Cwentz758

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Today’s update. Corals look good GSP might be making a comeback. The hammers look good. My birdsnest and acro look to maybe be growing. My cry baby zoa is splitting. Fish are well.
Parameters are all in range with PO4 at .06 and NO3 around 2 ppm (that’s my only concern as it could be lower that the Red Sea chart)

did a 5 gal water change today sucked the sand where it was becoming brown again. Also seems like certain rocks get the brown dusting on them.... hmmm
 

brandon429

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We'd be at twice the accumulation level here and maybe 3x were it not for decisiveness on your part

but now we get the shiny willed condition- a tune unique to your tank will be found one day



all tank invasions are a matter of psychology not biology primarily; we will ourselves into or out of an invasion. Understanding the actual invader isn't as important as just taking action as a habit. the hobby has told us that primary inaction is the right move, patience is a virtue. ID, take tests, respond while the invasion is in place. As it adds mass

and the masses would be 100% wrong in that advice. people hate the uglies, we need to quit entertaining them. figure out prevention later, in the meantime keep ur house all sharp.

Hey can you update pic
 
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Cwentz758

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Here’s a short video from a few days ago along with a top down. F254D56D-6376-4E51-A5A7-9F6DB138D394.jpeg
 

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brandon429

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thats a very very sharp home. only you can see its flaws, to us its the visual difference of zirconium vs diamond, darn hard to tell apart

I wish we had more invasion threads where spotting the actual offender is elusive; it means our trending acceptance of uglies is way down into the totally acceptable awesome zone. now if we can just engineer a totally hands off system right from month 2 we'd be set for a world where downloads take 2 seconds

in the meantime

slog on!
 

Tahoe61

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Sorry if I missed this in a previous post or thread but did you try UV at some point?
 
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Cwentz758

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I’m currently waiting on some MB7 gonna dose that some see if the good bacteria takes over. The only drastic change for this tank was we went from using Well water to city water when we moved... which makes me also wonder
 

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hey I like how the biosystem is responding to those potential changes, a new lifeblood source for the system is indeed a marked change although probably not anything the system wont rise to in time. Im all go for trying mb7 it hasnt harmed any tanks that tried it I can see in patterns.
 

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Personally I think they are an excellent tool in resolving these types of issues. Sure beats riping a 55 gallon apart.
 
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Cwentz758

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Update. Another water change, did some rock scrubbing and blowing off of rock work. Sand is still being brown, dosed my second dose of MB7 also. So far just dosing the “low nutrient” system dose since my nitrates are always notoriously low. Looking into UV’s if this doesn’t work. Do I need to pump water through or can I plumb it to my overflow drain and have it go through gravity fed? I run a single 3/4” drain.
Also so pics attached. I think there’s some growth. The hammers are always full and the crybaby zoas are up to 7 heads. GSP still struggling, Xenia growing on its back island. The SPS are coming along slowly.

ADC7242D-334D-44F4-A83A-E051D665E224.jpeg 4831C0B6-2D6E-44BE-9F53-502421F5C2F8.jpeg 6E69C8E6-345C-495E-B9F8-58F0CC4BC874.jpeg 656D7F48-A424-44CE-9844-16539B90653C.jpeg 5F801051-295C-4284-B38B-4F91C23C00FA.jpeg
 

brandon429

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it really looks just great, its producing in the amounts we want to see in an active reef/ viewers of the earned clean condition pics get spoiled in this way seeing it all perfect like that... though its taking some gardening to maintain it until we find that tune.


so glad to have your updates. most sand rinse updates are done long ago, Im glad to get to watch the work/balance/efficiency assessment long term here. sharp pics sharp corals

*the fact you must still address it physically means we haven't been shown a true preventative yet.

Hand guiding and taking the reef apart wasn't 'unneeded' moves, it has saved your tank from looking horrible in progression. your willingness saved your tank using a work-intense method, since nothing else has allowed us to back off yet/looks like you chose well and implemented even better.
 
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sixty_reefer

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Update. Another water change, did some rock scrubbing and blowing off of rock work. Sand is still being brown, dosed my second dose of MB7 also. So far just dosing the “low nutrient” system dose since my nitrates are always notoriously low. Looking into UV’s if this doesn’t work. Do I need to pump water through or can I plumb it to my overflow drain and have it go through gravity fed? I run a single 3/4” drain.
Also so pics attached. I think there’s some growth. The hammers are always full and the crybaby zoas are up to 7 heads. GSP still struggling, Xenia growing on its back island. The SPS are coming along slowly.

ADC7242D-334D-44F4-A83A-E051D665E224.jpeg 4831C0B6-2D6E-44BE-9F53-502421F5C2F8.jpeg 6E69C8E6-345C-495E-B9F8-58F0CC4BC874.jpeg 656D7F48-A424-44CE-9844-16539B90653C.jpeg 5F801051-295C-4284-B38B-4F91C23C00FA.jpeg
Can you post a picture under white light?
 
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Cwentz758

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Update from today. Sand is wicked brown and it’s now on the glass worse than before. Water clarity and corals look good. Ordered a UV sterilizer from BRS should have been here today but UPS transferred to to the post office, so I’ll get it tomorrow... when I get it running tomorrow I plan to wipe the glass and do a water change to suck the sand and hopefully the UV will start to do its thing with the stuff suspended in the water.

still dosing MB7 weekly at the “low nutrient” dosage.
 
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Cwentz758

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42923D31-9629-4C7A-ABE7-CE50C08EDB7D.jpeg
UV is in. Please note if you buy the HOB one from aqua illumination the fountain back into the tank will be loud if your water level isn’t high, hence the funnel I have in there to disperse the water some and help the noise. Did a water change after starting the UV to stir up the sand and particles. Let’s see it work!
 

brandon429

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how are we

very important thread you have, I link to your resolve here constantly. sometimes in work threads we don't get to see easy birdies. Sometimes you have to resolve it from the rough right to the bullseye

the tank sure looks sharp to me above, how is it doing to your standards C
B
 
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Cwentz758

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Well few days ago the brown was returning a lot more and annoyed me so I shut the lights off for about 3 days in total. Didn’t black the tank out just shut the room curtains and left the tank lights off as most of the brown is not seen at night. So I did that stirred the sand thinking kick up the Algae spores and have the UV burn them up. With the lights on today some of the brown is coming back (worst in the back of the tank which is normal but still odd) been dosing MB7 two caps once a week (I’m 3 doses in).
The tank itself looks great water is clear the corals look good. (Except my GSP) I think something ate the bottom of the GSP because it just loses the purple crust and blows off the rock. There’s some worm in it’s rock I haven’t been able to get.
As of last weeks testing all parameters were normal. N03 was 2ppm or less based on the Red Sea test kit. I do wonder if maybe my nitrates are bottomed out and that’s what’s causing this town sand issue. P04 was at .33 based on the Hanna checker. I haven’t run GFO but if the phosphate gets above .5 I’ll probably turn it on in the reactor for 12 hours to knock it down just a little.
I’ll do some testing tomorrow and see where the rest is at!
Hoping this fixes soon as I’m tired of seeing the extra pump in my DT for the UV lol

A79CC678-FCC7-4517-B1E5-702880AC3A2A.jpeg 071B0BD5-71AD-4E7D-A834-52B85CF30E4D.jpeg AF1A5810-60AC-4244-99D6-CEDB4D56EC44.jpeg 2A2AE6DC-1FC7-4EC3-B266-7F44BA805720.jpeg
 

brandon429

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well its beautiful still. When I was diving I saw reefs that looked about 10 x worse than that, and this was in 90s cayman islands when water was perfect and corals were perfectly awesome. I literally saw GHA abutting corals (something has to feed a million tang fish) and I saw patches of cyano, and valonia algae the size of ping pong balls. your tank looks cleaner than that; and we dont even have matched grazers here, so this reef looks outstanding to me considering its age.

well done.

one of these days you'll look back and this will be beaten. that may be page 110 but it w arrive one day
 

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