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Bluemoon

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Posts posted by Bluemoon

    My First Skimmerless System

    in Tank Builds

    Posted

    In my maintenance business I have several combinations.  This system does not have any place to grow macro algae or an algae scrubber and after what I have read about the different roles played by DOC released by algae and by corals I would not reccomend trying to use macro algae or algae scrubbers.  But if you set on doing so cheato produces far less harmfull DOC than most other algae.  I definitely would not use any form of carbon dosing, you're selectively manipulating the microbial populations and you cannot test what you are doing, same reason for not using skimmers.   Regarding PO4 there has been a misconception for a long time, unfortunately endorsed by some prominant "Gurus", that just small amounts cause "poisoning" of the coral skeleton when in reality research shows coral growth is increased wiht increased PO4 levels.  What is also rarely passed on is the average on reefs is .13 mg/l and upwellinf will expose reefs to as much as 2.0 mg/ and that phosphate is a limiting nutrient for corals to utilize ammonia and nitrate as a food source for their zooxanthellae.  In my experienece I don't see any deaths I can attribute to PO4 until levels are at 7 or 8 mg/l.  As far as nitrate, forget about it, you need really high levels, way in excess of 100 mg/l to cause potential problems.    Corals are competing with algae for ALL forms of nitrogen, organic (amino acids and urea) and inorganic (ammonia and nitrate).  So you can see there's a whole lot going on with nitrogen and phosphate we can't test for.  Focusing just on one form of each often doesn't help solve any problems.  Helping MFrame with hair algae, th PO4 and nitrate levels increased after we got rid of the algae.  Trying to get rid of the hiar algae by reducing the PO4 and Nitrate only would have impacted the corals ability to compete and aggrevated the problem.

       

    I have to hop in with respectful disagreement on this one. Although many methodologies are applicable, and even independently validated in the extremely complex cycle of invertebrate growth - algae will uptake phosphates, and grow at a much faster rate than any coral skeletal structure that utilizes PO4. Which will deplete the valuable resources corals need. Just as there are different ideologies in plant growth, there are many in reef systems as well, and an aspiring reef keeper must take these into account when planning which livestock they intend to keep.

     

    By your reasoning, removing the algae from Mikes tank should have freed up more nutrients for corals to uptake, but in my experience only more of the rapid, more efficient algae strains are able uptake the high nutrient load, and again out compete the corals. Creating a cycle that will not end until the source of nutrients is diminished.

     

    While I agree that many of the crucial nutrients for our closed systems cannot be measured successfully - I do believe phosphates are one that can be quite useful. If you can selectively control these levels, as is done naturally through diffusion in sea water. Then you can effectively limit the amount of available nutrients for the much faster growing algae, and you can avoid the DOCs that you explained. Yes, you will most certainly not have the rapid growth that the gurus point out as terms of success, and may suffer short term effects of nutrient spikes - but you will have controlled stability by eliminating unwanted algae growth. Which I strongly believe is the only way to sustainably grow, and KEEP a large variety of small polyp stony corals. Although I have no where near the amount time Tim has put into these endeavors. I'm a firm believer in starting from zero , and getting to what your system needs will end up proving for a much more sustainable ecosystem then riding the rollercoaster of unwanted algae growths effect on available nutrients.

     

    It really depends on what you want to keep, and how. Keeping the systems nutrient levels sustainably low, without depleting them is much more time consuming and difficult, but that's why they're referred to as gurus. They have seemingly limitless time, resources and probably some magic fairy dust too.

    • Like 1

    80 well maybe 120  Gallon Custom Rimless Shallow Reef

    in Tank Builds

    Posted

    Hopping on board for this one. I have the 80g deep blue rimless and am pretty satisfied with it so far. It's not so easy to find in TX but can still be had for a decent price through fishtanksdirect.com I have nothing but good things to say about the staff and the shipping process.

    Pros: The glass is clear, black silicone is great, and for the exact dimensions I wanted - the cost was significantly less then the quotes I got from SCA and Planet aquariums.

    Cons - the deep blue stands are junk, from what I read and the quality of the ones I've seen in person, it's a wise choice to build your own. More than happy to discuss mine if you're interested.

    - While the Silicone is well applied, the corner seems aren't perfect by any means.

    - The overflow only has 2 holes drilled.

    Looking back, I wish I have would been a little bolder; bought the untempered deepblue 80g and drilled for a ghost overflow myself. It would have cost a little more but in the long run it would have been the best middle ground between the pre-builts and a custom.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 1

    Where I work

    in Off Topic Discussion

    Posted

    An AWC architect associate is one of the most sought after certs this year. If you're interested in taking a crash course - there's actually some really good, and relatively cheap options. I'd recommend acloud.guru or Linux academy. Acloud is one of the better training courses(regardless of cert) that I've seen. Linux academy had a free week of access though last week as well.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    FarmerTy's 215 build

    in Tank Builds

    Posted · Edited by Bluemoon

    It's moved on to another plane of existence... nobody really looks at it as a build thread anymore.

    This was a build thread?...lol
    This is still widely debated amongst modern scholars! There's legends of a build thread long ago. One that harnessesed the power of the sun...and lots of fans, but the records were lost in the era of madscientistTy... a radically progressive era in the time of Ty's.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 3

    Dual Personality Frag Tank

    in Tank Builds

    Posted · Edited by Bluemoon

    Oh man. the frag tanks growing up fast. I remember when it was just a gleam in its fathers eye! You'll be breaking racks to make frags in no time.

    My photo taking skills is about a 4. Didn't finish taking pictures before the halides turned off but I got close. Sorry I'll work on the picture taking eventually :)

    Looks more like a strong 6 to me... It's pretty hard to take them in shallow tanks, with the overhead glare from the lights...my plague.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    FarmerTy's 215 build

    in Tank Builds

    Posted

    Does the Cerebra not have email/text alerts?

    It will once the cloud is up and running. They underestimated the issues that they encountered transferring it from their in-house servers to the Amazon servers. While a little annoying, I have to keep in mind that the controller is still beta and that they completely took fault for the underestimation of the issues they would encounter migrating the cloud service to Amazon servers. It's refreshing to have a company straight out just say, my bad, we underestimated how difficult something would be and work their tails off to make it right.

    There's a time to jump off the band wagon! Great customer support is one thing, but not having the dev staff to make the hop to AWS is concerning!

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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