A Splash of Color - My SPS Peninsula Reef

[Oldude]

Holy retina burners Batman!

 

[acrosedo]

Hi biggles,some crinoid between SSC...?

 

[biggles]

I agree lol, and that clam makes up for it also..hey Andrew will stop by and get some frags too and on the way by i will stop by at your place sahin and pick up some more beautiful looking girly acros :bounce3:

I have girly acros all over the place for you Dan

Holy retina burners Batman!

Hey Greg (Green Dragon Slayer)

Hi biggles,some crinoid between SSC...?

I have a green star thingy that lives on the acros if you mean the pic with the tangs hiding. He has 6" long arms and doesn't appear to bother the acros he clings onto.

I got this pale skin when i got those joke glass fish, it was very brown so it only had $10- on it. You can see the brown zoa being ejected in the unusual way that these acros do it. Most times you see the brown getting lighter and lighter all over a browned out acro when it's recovering from bad conditions. These ones throw the zoa off the branches first and then the corallites last.

I got this bit for the same price as it was badly bleached. It's still very fragile looking and grumpy but it has tiny PE at night much like the piece above. It's pretty much colorless atm.

If i don't kill them i can show you how the look over time.

 

[bibarassa]

Andrew, you make miracles with acros.
As regard feeding corals: how much skimmate-reef roid mix do you dose, and how many times per week?

 

[biggles]

Andrew, you make miracles with acros.
As regard feeding corals: how much skimmate-reef roid mix do you dose, and how many times per week?

Ramble time........

Hi mate, i don't want you or anyone else running out and dumping skimmate in their systems unless you fully understand a number of things behind why i do it.
The only food going into my water is flake, pellets, mysis & reef roids. A skimmer will pull a portion of just about anything you chuck in the water before it's had a chance to be absorbed by the reef system. You need to bare this in mind if you're dosing lots of other stuff like color enhancing additives etc, amino's or anything else that is concentrated or more 'potent'.
Let's say my skimmer mechanically removes 30% of the food i throw in the water each day. If i dump the skimmate back in i'm only returning a small portion of food in reality and the other stuff is water and decaying organics etc - the same stuff they are in constant contact with in the ocean.
It's almost the same as turning the skimmer off for a day, you are leaving in the tank the 'stuff' the skimmer would have removed in 24 hrs. I fully believe that acros use the sun by day and water by night as far as nutritition goes for the most part. They catch food with their polyps and they have their polyps out way more every night so that's that.
The big difference is i add that 24 hrs worth of acro food in a concentrated dose at the time when the acros have much more polyp surface area available for food absorption rather than it being available to competing organisms (algae) during the lights on period if you were to turn the skimmer off. If your acros are actually 'starved' as many threads seem to indicate then rather than turning off your skimmer and then suddenly having starving acros because the algae eats faster then the corals and gobbles all the good stuff up before the acros get it you might think about twice a week dropping a days skimmate into the water a few hours after lights out. Your skimmer will pull most of it back out within 3-4 hours from what i see in my system - running a wet skimmer is great for ripping the skimmate back out fast.

If you are adding other things to your water like the zeo guys and a portion of every days dose of additives gets grabbed by the skimmer along with the 30% food then you might be dropping back a cocktail of additives that could upset your acros. It might be no different but just bare in mind that what's in your skimmate is largely dependent upon the things you put in the water to a very large extent so think about your system before trying skimmate so you don't inadvertently overdose your system temporarily.

The reason i use skimmate rather than simply more doses of reef roids etc is acros don't eat pellets, flake and whole mysis because the fish get it fast. The acros get the by product which is fish poo but during lights on they don't have extended PE for the most part. The skimmer obviously removes poo (that's one reason why we started using them i think) and returning this liquified poo at night when the acros are feeding best in a concentrated dose makes sense to me and the acros from what i've seen.

It's easy to do and best of all it's a free color enhancing additive that everyone dumps down the drain without a second thought.

Today during a feed i noticed the yellow tang was missing. This never, ever happens with any fish at feeding time so i immediately freaked out after a quick run around all sides of the tank revealed no sign of the yellow tang whilst all the fish were going nuts chasing food in the current. I quite literally began feeling sick as i started looking on the floor etc for my poor fish
Nothing ! No fish anywhere and now i'm really losing it can i tell you. I then noticed the royal gramma acting weird and darting in and out of under the arch just like he does when he's defending his hangout from a fish who's passing through. I go around the back and look under the arch rockscape and see the yellow tang on his side jammed between the rock and the glass bottom. His nose was sticking out the other side of a jagged rock that he somehow got his gill cover hung up in. I watched him flapping madly in spurts but then he just panted rapidly. He'd obviously been stuck for a while and was getting very stressed.
I smashed lots of acro tips and snapped a stag branch in half when i quickly reached in and lifted one end of the whole arch rock off the bottom. A yellow lightning bolt flashed up to the other end of the tank and i dropped the rock back down and went to check on him. Now get this ! He's sitting quietly near the tank bottom panting a bit and looking right at me with that angry look yellow tang's get when you annoy them messing with the tank. I actually said out aloud ' wth you idiot, i saved you ! '
My ex wife used to comment on the way i spoke to the fish like they could hear me lol.

He's good as new and stuffed full of nori. The royal gramma goes to bed late when many of the fish are in their sleeping spots during the twilight lighting period so i fed two cubes of mysis 10 minutes before lights out and by the time the sleepy heads got going the royal gramma had eaten about twenty. The royal gramma is the tank hero ! :thumbsup:

I have placed a rock in the crevice to prevent a certain useless idiot fish from getting himself stuck again chasing algae treats.

 

[ryanrid]

Impressive updates since my last visit

 

[bibarassa]

Thanks Andrew, very exhaustive explanation.
So this "method" can works only if we dose only fish food, without other additives (coral color, aminos..etc, etc…) and then, an other important thing, is dosing a 1 day skimmate when lights are off when corals have the best PE. Andrew do you dose this stuff every night? And do you run your skimmer wet only in the night period (when you "dose" skimmate)?

 

[biggles]

Impressive updates since my last visit

Thanks Ryan

Thanks Andrew, very exhaustive explanation.
So this "method" can works only if we dose only fish food, without other additives (coral color, aminos..etc, etc"¦) and then, an other important thing, is dosing a 1 day skimmate when lights are off when corals have the best PE. Andrew do you dose this stuff every night? And do you run your skimmer wet only in the night period (when you "dose" skimmate)?

You can do it regardless of other additives mate, i just mean to be aware that i have no experience with all these other additives and what not so i just wanted to raise the point for you to consider what you will be tipping back with the skimmate - that's all

I do it every three nights pretty regularly. The skimmer runs the same 24/7 and has a drain hose on the cup with a tap so i just turn the knob and point the hose at the return pump. The skimmer gets cleaned every 3-4 months, the cup once a month and just before i drain some skimmate into the tank i use an old toothbrush to wipe the scum off the OUTSIDE only of the neck. I swirl this into the skimmate so it's really gunky and then dose that mixture. I put it through the return so it gets pulverized. I don't disturb the inside of the neck EVER because i want the skimmer to be working 100% so it removes most of the stuff by lights on the next day - remember i'm trying to not leave too much in the water for algae to use when the lights come on.

 

[bibarassa]

so all your "skimmate production" gets back in the tank ……………….up to the last drop……and then once a month you mix skimmate and the "paste" outside the neck to feed corals….incredible!!!

 

[Cyberdude]

Thinking of setting up my doser to move skimmate to the return pump. Hummmmm

 

[sahin]

Nice update Andrew.

How long have you been doing this "skimmate throw back in the tank" procedure?

 

[Oldude]

Interesting stuff Andrew. I have never thought to do the skim mate but I have been doing the detritus stir from the sump for years. It all makes perfect sense to me.

 

[biggles]

so all your "skimmate production" gets back in the tank "¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦.up to the last drop"¦"¦and then once a month you mix skimmate and the "paste" outside the neck to feed corals"¦.incredible!!!

No mate not at all. I put 24 hrs of skimmate production into the water every third night.

Thinking of setting up my doser to move skimmate to the return pump. Hummmmm

That would work well as long as the tubes didn't get blocked up with skimmer goop. :thumbsup:

Nice update Andrew.

How long have you been doing this "skimmate throw back in the tank" procedure?

I've always done it one night a week or so in all my tanks. Without sand to stir in the display at night i have increased the frequency that's all. It's nothing special, just an easy way to feed the acros when they want to be fed with a product that i know i can remove before the lights come on.

The skimmer doesn't really remove bad stuff from your water, it removes lots of good stuff that's only bad for your system if present when algae can monopolize it - when the lights are on. During darkness the corals have the upper hand in nutrient absorption.

Interesting stuff Andrew. I have never thought to do the skim mate but I have been doing the detritus stir from the sump for years. It all makes perfect sense to me.

Hi Greg, i knew you'd see it for what it is mate

 

[bibarassa]

thanks Andrew……..and as regard the mix skimmate-paste is what I wrote right?

 

[biggles]

I clean the outside of the neck every time i dose the tank, takes about 10 secs and you aren't trying to clean it completely just knock any obvious stuff into the bottom of the cup and give it a quick swish to mix it in a bit prior to adding the skimmate into the water.

 

[sahin]

Kevin Impossible...

Kevin Impossible...

I've always done it one night a week or so in all my tanks. Without sand to stir in the display at night i have increased the frequency that's all. It's nothing special, just an easy way to feed the acros when they want to be fed with a product that i know i can remove before the lights come on.

The skimmer doesn't really remove bad stuff from your water, it removes lots of good stuff that's only bad for your system if present when algae can monopolize it - when the lights are on. During darkness the corals have the upper hand in nutrient absorption.

So basically mate, what're saying is that you sent Kevin on an espionage mission to the H2Ocean D&D laboratory (ie the owners home). Whereby the next batch of D&D Reef Paste was extracted using a highly efficient process (Mr H2Ocean scoops out the skimmate nog from the skimmer on his massive tank using a very scientific piece of equipment (the teaspoon he just made his afternoon tea with)). The stuff is left out to dry on the window sill, and then potted up and sold for $20 per little pot.

http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/h2ocean-pro-reef-paste

Kevin in spying action: he precariously held on during the whole Reef Paste extraction process.

Thanks for letting us know about not only how to make our own reef paste, but how to automate dosing. :lol2:

 

[westreef]

Before, I thought there must be something special in Aussie water. I was almost right!
Now the truth came out. It must be Kevin's idea!
Thanks for sharing his idea.:thumbsup:

 

[Myka]

i don't want you or anyone else running out and dumping skimmate in their systems unless you fully understand a number of things behind why i do it. [...] Your skimmer will pull most of it back out within 3-4 hours from what i see in my system - running a wet skimmer is great for ripping the skimmate back out fast.

So why don't you either turn the skimmer off at night after you feed (or have it on a timer to shut down for part of the night), or if concerned about CO2 buildup with the skimmer off, you could just take the collection cup off and let it overflow. Wouldn't that achieve the same thing easier?

 

[mhucasey]

Hoo boy Biggles, get ready for someone to add back skimmate and nuke their tank:spin2: Lot of us reefers on this board are in the US, and if there is one thing we are good at, it is going overboard with a concept- "if one is good, ten is better!" Likely someone will dump a whole bunch of skimmer gunk into their tank thinking to out-do you, and the meltdown will begin

And the whole time you will be laughing to yourself...."I got those bloody Americans to feed their corals their own poo":jester:

 

[biggles]

So why don't you either turn the skimmer off at night after you feed (or have it on a timer to shut down for part of the night), or if concerned about CO2 buildup with the skimmer off, you could just take the collection cup off and let it overflow. Wouldn't that achieve the same thing easier?

I don't shut the skimmer off at night because i'm happy for the skimmer to remove the skimmate in 3-4 hours. I take the take the lid off the cup and quickly give the inside a swish with a toothbrush before opening the drain tap for a couple of seconds. Then i put the lid back on. I'm not following how removing the entire cup and letting the skimmer overflow would be an easier alternative.