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Zarathustra2

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Everything posted by Zarathustra2

  1. Just a couple more critters, some rock and some sand and I am converting to freshwater. Come and get your rock!

  2. Post to the WIKI!!! austinreefclub.com/page/FAQ

  3. So, you have some nuisance algae making your tank look like the bad part of town. Your algae blenny is absolutely stuffed to the gills. You can't keep acropora. Well, Boo-Hoo, it is your fault. You have the power to fix it. Oh you don't know how? Well, let me tell you a bit about nuisance algae. Most algae issues can be solved with the same few steps. That being said, you should first identify your particular strain of woe. I think that reefcleaner's algae ID page is the most new user friendly one out there. Please visit the ARC Links page for many more ways to ID algae if it is not there. All algae problems can be solved in 3 steps: 1. Manual Removal 2. Removal by CuC 3. Elimination of Nutrients/Light Manual Removal Get in there and take as much out as possible by hand. But wait, with some of these algae's (bubble/velonia is notorious for this) you will just end up spreading the algae more as it's spores go whizzing around your tank. Other algaes have holdfasts that will dig into your live rock and not let you get these rootlike structures out by hand. So what do you do? Get a hard bristle toothbrush and rubberband it to a length of 1/4" tubing. Move as much as you safely can by hand. Then get in there with the siphon-brush and scrub that rock clean. I have also done this with a small wire brush on an item that has a serious hold on the rock. Removal by CuC Snails, Crabs and cucumbers... Oh My!! Check the reefcleaners link above to help identify a CuC member you can add that will take care of this algae. No one CuC member eats everything!!! For instance, as far as I can tell, no snails will eat bubble algae. But, my emerald crabs will power right through it. I avoid a lot of algae problems mainly by starting out with a diverse CuC so they eat the algae before it becomes a problem. For my 90G: 5 Hermits 3 Pepp Shrimp 10 Emerald Crabs 10 Large Nassarius 25 Small Nassarius 20-30 Nerites 10 Marg's 5 Fuzzy Chitons (I just love them) Unknown number of mini ceriths 20 Florida Ceriths 15 Turbo/Turban snails 5 Mexican Turbos 1 Serpant star 1 Black Cuc 2 Algae Blennies Remember to feed your CuC if it is this large . Yes, I like my CuC members on thier own. Elimination of Nutrients/Light Once you have the algae removed/being eaten you need to stop the food that let's it grow. Generally, better husbandry techniques are what is needed here. I will avoid going over filtration methods and instead reccomend you peruse the filtration articles in this Wiki. I do want to go over what you should to help eliminate an outbreak so the better husbandry practices can take hold. 3 day Algae removal process This process is to help kick start your new dedication to your tank and the elimination of this nuisance algae. Think of it kinda like a crash diet for your tank. During these three days where you will not see your sea buddies, spend the time reading up on nutrient control and removal in marine aquariums. This wiki is a great place to start. You can also follow the links section on ARC as well. For three days you will be doing the following: 1. Set your Skimmer to "skim wet." This will help it take out as many nutrients as possible. 2. Start with a 50% water change - Yes, 50% of your total water volume, including sump. Do this water change daily for all 3 days. Yes, this means you will change out 150% of your water volume in 3 days. Yes, this is to remove as many nitrates and phosphates as possible. 3. Turn off your lights - Yes... for 3 days. In Fact, cover your tank with towels so light does not get in. (without your lights on they will need the extra warmth anyways.) 4. Run GFO and Carbon through a reactor if available, a bag if not. This is to remove any remaining DOC after the large water changes. 5. Daily, take a half hour to an hour (during water changes is good) to remove any algae you can get your hands on. Make sure to look very closely for any dead critters or such. After 3 days you should have a great start to your new animal husbandry techniques and a much reduced algae problem that will be easily fixed by lowering your feeding and making sure you run a tight ship in your tank.
  4. Hydrogen Sulphide is produced when there is insufficient nitrate but organic compounds are still available in an anoxic area of a DSB. This is one of the reasons that a fairly high flow is recommended over a DSB to ensure that enough nitrate is being produced to avoid the Hydrogen Sulphide reaction. In all DSBs a certain amount of hydrogen sulphide will be created. In most cases it is harmlessly filtered back up into the hypoxic and oxygen rich areas of the DSB and (as long as the flow is low enough) combines with iron and other atoms to reduce to various sulfphates which are non toxic. In very rare occasions you may have a situation where a pocket of hydrogen sulphide is produced and the sand bed is disturbed at that very same point. (Again, do not stir sand beds… this is one of the reasons why.) If this happens you will notice an increase in ammonium compounds (ending in a nitrate spike.) But, more worrying and more immediate you will smell rotten eggs as hydrogen sulphide is released into your aquarium. This is a highly poisonus gas that WILL KILL YOUR ANIMALS. You should immediately… 1. Turn off all flow to your main tank 2. Get a 50/50 Carbon and GFO media reactor going 3. Increase the flow to the affected areas as much as possible with as much surface agitation as you can get. Adding an airstone would not be a bad idea if you have one available 4. Perform immediate and large water changes, as large as you safely can and as quickly as you can The event should be over in an hour or so as hydrogen sulphide is very unstable in saltwater which is why you are increasing current. It combines very readily to make Iron Sulphate which is why you are running the GFO. It also is adsorbed by activated carbon. Hopefully you cut off flow before it got too your main tank. If not you can treat the main tank separately as above. An excellent article on Hydrogen Sulphide in the aquarium is available at http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php
  5. This can get really complicated really fast. I'm going to list out some of the features that you might consider in a refugium. 1. Macro Algae – Various types of non invasive algaes can be introduced and used as either food, habitat for feeder animals and/or chemical balancing. 2. Micro Algae – Usually in the form of some sort of Algae Turf Scrubber, the use of standard algae as a nutrient export. 3. Lights – If you have any sort of macro you will need lights. Luckily, macro has a lower light requirement than our main tanks. Algae's in general also prefer a redder light, lower on the Kelvin scale. For Macro's a 5100 or 6000k light is perfect. For microalgae (turf scrubber) 2700k is the most common. Generally macros need 2 watts per gallon in a standard refugium. 4. Deep Sand Bed – Deserves an article all to itself. Will go into detail in the individual build outs. A Deep Sand Bed is at least 3-4" of fine grade sand that creates a layers of increasingly lower oxygen levels as you go deeper into the bed. Water naturally flows (albeit slowly) through these layers using diffusion. The cool thing about them is that the bacteria in lower layers are able to process Nitrates into nitrogen gasses that escape harmlessly into the air. This effect also happens in the anaerobic layers of our live rock. 5. Live Rock – Not only provides the benefits of live rock in our main tank but adds some layers of biodiversity to the 'fuge. Also provides holdfast space for those macro's that need it. 6. Live Mud – An interesting type of substrate that gains popularity every few years is live mineral mud. Mud provides an anaerobic zone in only an inch or two of space while providing substrate for several types of macro and some true vascular plants that cannot take hold in sand or rock. I personally don't believe the hype around "miracle mud" but do think that mud as a substrate has a lot to offer.
  6. Zarathustra2

    Refugium

    A refugium is a portion of the water system that is connected but protected from the main display tank to allow macro algae and other macro filters to grow and develop, to allow planktonic and other feeder animals a place to repopulate and to provide space for biological filters, both macro and micro. Primarily you will run a refugium for a few reasons 1. Micro-Biological filtration – The addition of extra live rock and sand into your refugium can add more capacity for the bacteria needed to convert ammonia into nitrate and if set up correctly, nitrate reduction. 2. Micro-Biological Natural Nitrate Reduction(NNR) – the addition of a Deep Sand Bed (DSB) and Live Rock can greatly reduce the amount of nitrates in your water column if managed properly 3. Macro Biological Filtration – Most notably Macro Algae vegetative filters (a big ball o' chaeto) will take nutrients out of the water column so nuisance algae are unable to use it. Sponges in a cryptic zone also would perform this function. As would several types of sessile animals. Once it grows to an unreasonable size you just pull some of it out and use it for fertilizer or trade with a friend, or roll it around a penny and give it to your enemies. a. This is the most common use for a refugium. Nutrient export. You grow something and it uses nutrients to grow. Then you harshly yank it out or cut it off at the knees. Such is the cycle of life. b. Remember that the nutrients are sequestered in macro until actually removed. They are just sitting there, waiting. For instance, if you grow ulva (one of my favorite macros) and feed it to a tang all the nutrients are back in your system. This isn't a bad thing but just something to consider. 4. Growing Food – Not only can you grow tasty macro's for your herbivorous fish friends but a refugium can provide a perfect environment to grow out various types of phyto and zooplankton. a. This use of a refugium is one of the best in my opinion. There is currently a lot of research in this area but it is turning out that our corals really like to constantly eat. Not get a blast of food 3x a day or once every other day or what have you. A refugium can take the excess nutrients from your feedings and store them in the form of plankton that your corals, other invertebrates and fish can eat at their leisure. I also personally like the idea of a complete food chain within my tank and a refugium is really the only way to get close to that ideal.
  7. I'm horrible at pictures but here is the FTS for my system. 6th of July Today 12-Aug Also New tank...
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