25 yr old Jaubert Plenum decommission

[Subsea]

So, you are dosing VSV (vodka, sugar, vinegar), which is carbon input.

A de-nitrating reactor reduces water flow, to produce reducing oxygen with an increase of facultative bacteria to reduce no3 to oxygen and free nitrogen gas.

Please tell more about your bacteria reactor. I do remember you posting to my Intelligent Design thread and I read your thread several years ago. At the time, it was over my head. Not so today. I am very interested in how you operate your bacteria reactor.

You should not be surprised that bacteria feed your corals. Google “Food for corals”.

https://www.thespruce.com/what-do-corals-eat-2924017

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/eb/index.php

 

[Subsea]

Following

Welcome aboard. Been looking at your tank of the month. Very nice.

Have you started moving? Big job with a system of your size. Good fortune to you on that transition. You should come down an visit me at AQR.

Before the cold weather sets in for Winter, I will have gone to the Coast to collect Ghost Shrimp, Sheepshead Minnows and pods in grass flats and Peppermint Shrimp at night on the jetties. My goal is to grow live food for local reef hobbiest in a 450G outside growout system consisting of three 150G Rubbermade containers buried in the ground. I used this same system 7 years ago during the coldest winter for 20 years in Austin. Trying to keep > 70 degrees was very costly and I pulled the plug. My expectation is that wild caught will be much more hardy to changes to environmental conditions. My temperature setting will be > 55 degrees. Productivity of system will be compared to electrical consumption as totaled by watt meter on that circuit.

Karin,
If you come to visit and enjoy live music, I have many eclectic music friends. While I live in the country, somewhat, I can drive the speed limit and get to the State Capital downtown in less than 20 minutes.

PS. I knew when I said "œBugs Rule", you might be interested.

 

[Subsea]

Back to my setup, I have a DIY build thread for my bacteria driven reactor. Look for Dnovan's nitrate destroyer. I believe most of my planktonic bacteria comes from this reactor. It's a carbon induced reactor, initially for nitrate control but surprisingly it provides some kind of extra foods for the whole tank as well.

I built an algae through from a 4" pvc pipe cut in half lenght wise, capped on both sides. It was plumbed directly on the return section inside the canopy, and lighted by the display main fixtures. Works wonderfully, and full with pods that goes directly into the tank.

Non lit sump is full with sponges, and detritus. Small wave makers in the sump (alternating on/off every hour) stirs all the goodness back into the display.

Live oyster has been living in the return section compartment for mire than several months. Occasionally they spawned, releasing tiny eggs all over the system (no skimmer, socks or other mechanical filters). SPS loves it very much.

As mentioned on my other post above, I witnessed a "phyto" or planktonic occurrence several times where the water column turned into greenish hue (under heavy blue light this event is clearly visible). It could be coming from the reactor as I feed the reactor with VSV.

I can't find your thread in DIY. Go ahead an post a link to it on this thread. I like what you are doing. Tell us more. Perhaps pictures.

 

[djbon]

Here it is... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2587610

Very simple design, gravity fed water will flow slowly from one chamber into another. The inlet and outlet level is slightly off, basic water flow will always find its way to the lowest point (outlet). The reactors are filled with porous media, seeded with bacteria in a bottle. A small dosing hole on the first chamber is where the VSV is introduced. I believed you know what happens in there, so I won't go into details.

Carbon dosing into an isolated chambers eliminates common issue of carbon supplement. No cyano outbreaks, easily tuned as you can control the flow and carbon quantity. Best of all, you know how good the bacteria at work as you can measure nitrate level at inlet and outlet. Very similar to sulfur denitrator, but my reactor allows higher flow. My current reactor turn over is one full day. The whole water volume is processed within 24 hours. I can strip nitrate to zero in 2 days from 5ppm nitrate (tested a few times).

 

[McPuff]

This is cool stuff. It's so easy to get carried away by some new technology. But it's really the "simple" systems that are most intriguing to me. And I'm always trying to come up with ways to simplify my system.

 

[karimwassef]

Welcome aboard. Been looking at your tank of the month. Very nice.

Have you started moving? Big job with a system of your size. Good fortune to you on that transition. You should come down an visit me at AQR.

Before the cold weather sets in for Winter, I will have gone to the Coast to collect Ghost Shrimp, Sheepshead Minnows and pods in grass flats and Peppermint Shrimp at night on the jetties. My goal is to grow live food for local reef hobbiest in a 450G outside growout system consisting of three 150G Rubbermade containers buried in the ground. I used this same system 7 years ago during the coldest winter for 20 years in Austin. Trying to keep > 70 degrees was very costly and I pulled the plug. My expectation is that wild caught will be much more hardy to changes to environmental conditions. My temperature setting will be > 55 degrees. Productivity of system will be compared to electrical consumption as totaled by watt meter on that circuit.

Karin,
If you come to visit and enjoy live music, I have many eclectic music friends. While I live in the country, somewhat, I can drive the speed limit and get to the State Capital downtown in less than 20 minutes.

PS. I knew when I said "œBugs Rule", you might be interested.

Yes. I moved 1000lb glass tank on my own - I had a deadline, so I engineered it. I'll start a thread about how to do that.

I'd love to come visit for a day. Just need to coordinate with the wife and kids... Holidays are especially rough.

Post a thread on the shrimp. I think they're an awesome food source for fish and corals as they multiply at critical mass!

I can maintain my outdoor rubbermaid tanks at 74F inside the greenhouse, but it costs 8A-18A of electricity. Average 13A = 1.5KW all day for my 450 gal system. It's $4 a day, but I hear you. Start an outdoor breeding thread and let's see what we can figure out. Here's the latest sunlit greenhouse tank: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2653824&page=4

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/9D01094C-19E9-4161-B620-C47D5B8E7DD2_zpsyqsdi9uf.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/9D01094C-19E9-4161-B620-C47D5B8E7DD2_zpsyqsdi9uf.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 9D01094C-19E9-4161-B620-C47D5B8E7DD2_zpsyqsdi9uf.jpg"/></a>

 

[Subsea]

Love the overhead. Is lighting 100% sunlight? How big is greenhouse? Mine is 20’ by 40’ with an arched roof.

 

[karimwassef]

Just sunlight.. get to 1700 PAR midday but the photoperiod is short.

I'm planning to supplement with UV and MH to extend the photo period.

Greenhouse is tiny ~ 9' x 9'. Plastic sheet and wood/aluminum frame.

Thread has more.

The sandbed transport was the most harrowing part of the experience. It was not trivial to move 700lbs of wet live sand in 30 degree weather into an outdoor reef.. the 3" sand bed is now a 4-5" sand bed but I'm not touching it again for a while.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg"></a>

Found new things living in the sand too

 

[Subsea]

Too funny.

As we dig into these established biofilters, mine at 25/years old, we disprove the naysayers concerning sandbeds as "œnutrient sinks" that at some point in time will regurgitate and crash a tank.

The truth of the matter is that a mature & diverse bio filter will stabilize and feed tank inhabitants. Remember Mother Nature knows best. After 5 billion years, natural systems have fine tuned back up feeding mechanisms like cynobacteria imbedded in coral biomass. When bulk water is nitrate limited, coral receive nitrate thru "œnitrogen fixation" supplied by cynobacteria. How did cynobacteria know to feed coral nitrate? Also, Randy Holmes Farley wrote on "œiron dosing" that it would be difficult to dose too much iron in a reef tank and that furthermore macro had iron storage mechanisms to be used when water column is iron limited. I always dose iron heaviest in red macro tumble culture. My first success with iron dosing was a dramatic color shift from pale orange red to dark vibrant maroon color in less than 24 hours. In the case of Gracilaria Hayi, the red blades are flat and lightly calcified and somewhat rigid. Not so when iron is stored in blade biomass. The blade thickness increased ten fold and was somewhat spongy feeling like it had numerous small air bladders. When deprived of excess iron, blade thickness goes back to original shape. It is reproducible with consistency.

 

[McPuff]

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg"></a>

Found new things living in the sand too

Karim, what are those little things anyway? I can't say I've ever seen those... and I'm a biological scientist! :0)

 

[karimwassef]

I call them cocoon sand worms:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2659233

 

[karimwassef]

I think a deeper dive into detrivores is sorely lacking in reefing today.

It's like being a farmer and not caring about earthworms or bees...

 

[Subsea]

I think a deeper dive into detrivores is sorely lacking in reefing today.

It's like being a farmer and not caring about earthworms or bees...

We should carry a banner that says that. Maybe we should have a “natural day parade” and parade “a la natural”

 

[Subsea]

We should go deeper than the deepest detrivore. I say bacteria rule. However, if the players don’t play well then things never work out.

It’s like the joke about the differrent members of the body trying to decide who was most important. Every body had their say as to who they thought was most important. Nobody asked AH who he thought was important, so he pouted by shutting it down. When everybody else got sick with the backup, they all came to AH and gave him homages. Now, the morale is not to empower *** holes and give them homage. The moral is that everybody is important on the team.

 

[karimwassef]

That is the old tale of the boss ... the a**hole

But bacteria are complicated. They're important but they can behave badly. Worms and pods really don't. Also... bacteria are limited in mechanical action- they need the larger detrivore to create water passages for exchange flow.

 

[Subsea]

That is the old tale of the boss ... the a**hole

But bacteria are complicated. They're important but they can behave badly. Worms and pods really don't. Also... bacteria are limited in mechanical action- they need the larger detrivore to create water passages for exchange flow.

Karma,
Nature is complicated, intricate and sometimes fickle. If I understood more, the fickleness would go away. I so much enjoy the thought provoking input on this thread. Thank you for that.

I just dosed bacteria from TLC into all of my tanks. I am in conversations with tech representatives from TLC. I have asked them for the list of differrent bacteria in their product. If only nitrifying & denitrifying bacteria, then I will use Rid X bacteria for septic tank instead of TLC.