A Splash of Color

[biggles]

We have a problem Mike...... just spotted it after i posted those pics.

Look at this pic and in particular the top right container along with the one beneath it......... notice anything....... anything evil....

Now do you see.......

O........M.............G !

I ran and got the long steel tweezers to catch this one while it was above ground and dropped them as soon as i put the torch back on......... you want scientific proof that black matrix is alive......... got it moving to another container on film. :thumbsup:

You only need to miss one stone and BAM ! - black matrix infestation.

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Flo

I just ordered a few individual elements from the triton range, no idea about the core stuff etc mate.

I've been adding so much weird and wacky stuff over the last few months that i have no idea what is doing what to what tbh. Starting today i'm going to run the entire system fallow of anything but fish food and the half strength AF comp 123 daily. I will do two 50L water changes each weekend with AF sea salt because i can take that much out of the overflow without disturbing the display at all.

I am going to totally clean up the matrix and put all of it in media baskets, remove the 7-8lbs of rock still in the sump and basically try to get a lot more bacterial activity happening within the matrix alone.

I have thought long and hard the last week and come to the conclusion that i've had high phos issues my entire reefing career and it is that which has likely been behind my poor growth since i started keeping corals. I have always had to clean the glass daily pretty much and i think i have become so used to it that i've adjusted my entire reef keeping around too much phos/nitrates.

I'm going to get some AF phos absorber and run it until the glass stays clean for days - be quite a novelty lol. My very saturated pigments might just be because the acros are growing so slowly for all i know.

So that's what i'm doing this weekend, cleaning crap up and dosing nothing

Thanks Perry, be nice if i could actually see the bloody scape without the mess though mate......



I will get some AF phos minus and put it in a bag in the baffles. I've used rowaphos before for ages so i know how potent gfo is when it isn't used cautiously.
I use the Elos high res kit as the hanna annoyed the you know what out of me. I'd recommend it to anyone as a reliable and easy to use phos kit rather than being an egg head reefer.....
I use HPS magnetic ballasts - same ballasts i have always run the radiums on.
Don't have a PAR meter so i just guess - i'm a pretty good guesser after guessing for many years.
No mariculture that i know of mate, we have sustainable reefs doing real frag aquaculture and export and over time they will get bigger and better i'm sure. Right now i think they are surprised at the crazy demand for their frags lol and trying to deal with it somehow.
I think i prefer to just have a display tbh, much less stressful.



The Elos would smash your stupid photometer thingy kit mate.......... cool reefers use Elos............



I want low numbers WITH low glass cleaning. I want what the kit says now without double daily glass cleaning but every three days. I want that without lowering food input and i intend tripling my fish load in the next couple of months. About 25 more fish to be exact.
If i want to grow lettuce i'll start a veggie patch Marty....... this is acro growing mate.

Originally Posted by biggles View Post

I'm going to get some AF phos absorber and run it until the glass stays clean for days - be quite a novelty lol. My very saturated pigments might just be because the acros are growing so slowly for all i know.

So that's what i'm doing this weekend, cleaning crap up and dosing nothing


Andrew, I hear you on the dosing thing.. It's a slippery slope. You try one thing and then try another but don't want to stop the first thing in case it was helping and then you (me) try another thing but don't want to stop the previous two things in case they are helping and in and on!!
I'm getting there myself... But I'm not sure I have the guts to go cold turkey, like you are doing.. And you plan to begin po4 absorber as well.. I know you are a seasoned and extremely 'in tune' reefer, your stunning coral collection is a testament to the extreme level of connectedness you have to the animals but I have to say that you may be getting a bit cracked by the apparent lack of growth in your tank.
I know I don't have to tell you to take a second look at your plan but I see a certain 'winding up' in intensity in your reef keeping and I hope you don't do anything too rash..
I hope I'm not sounding condescending because I really don't intend to, it's just that I get the impression that you are becoming obsessed by your lack of growth even though you have a tank jam packed with stunningly coloured and amazingly healthy corals.. I guess it's sort of a 'forest for the trees' type thing.
I guess I don't really know what I'm trying to say other than I'm getting a nervous feeling lately while reading your thread..
I mean all of this with the deepest respect for your very concrete, superlative, astonishing 'coral whispering' skills...

 

[eg8r210]

HAHA, I crack up every time I read your posts. Thanks for the explanation, I think I will look around for something similar.

Quick question, when rinsing out brand new matrix is it ok to use tap water? It seems like I am going to use a ton of RO to clean this stuff.

 

[martinphillip03]

Andrew, That is the highest complement a person could receive. Thank you

Marty

You know Marty, if it wasn't for your ridiculous accent you could pass for an aussie mate.
:

 

[slavetonet]

The best **** to read for lunch time entertainment.
Thanks Andrew.

 

[martinphillip03]

Andrew, Sorry it won't happen again. I tend to blame this on Dom's thread and a few others i follow. (Like some British chaps) I think the fluff took over my brain. You saw what was happenning and you threw your wrasse under the bus.
Stuff like, "Oh, my girlfriend got me this reef certificate."Let me go out and buy some wrasses and a clam. Oh look at my Madonna and Einstein ZOA's. My softy's are going nuts. Look at my clams. Oh look how expensive and beautiful my stainless steel magnetic stirrer is. Oh I just bought a new 10 valve doser. It just goes on.

I need to stay focused on this SPS page. Where I learned that NASA helps develop instruments for SPS tanks. The Biggles fish quotient. The Biggle box method on determine how much matrix the tank needs. Biggles juice. And now the high tech matrix holders, looks like they were made from a 3D printer. And the Acro Porn that makes me blush.
I need to get away from the fluff and back to your SPS science. Your the Shaolin Master of SPS.

Marty

I want low numbers WITH low glass cleaning. I want what the kit says now without double daily glass cleaning but every three days. I want that without lowering food input and i intend tripling my fish load in the next couple of months. About 25 more fish to be exact.
If i want to grow lettuce i'll start a veggie patch Marty....... this is acro growing mate.
I have thought about the nutritional value of blended seahorses fed to the acros after lights out but i think it would be cost prohibitive. I hadn't thought of pipefish however so i'll look into those :thumbsup:

In future Marty i think it's best to PM me about blitzing up seahorses etc mate - some of these guys and gals will get the wrong idea about you otherwise buddy :beer:

 

[joshky]

I just put 4L of matrix in my sump today! I guess I'll have to keep an eye for living black matrix. :hmm4: hahah

Sump looks good Andrew, I like the baskets you used. I used some black gutter guard stuff I had on hand and made a DIY basket with black zip ties, might go buy something locally instead though.

 

[FloformAustria]

We have a problem Mike...... just spotted it after i posted those pics.

Look at this pic and in particular the top right container along with the one beneath it......... notice anything....... anything evil....

Now do you see.......

O........M.............G !

I ran and got the long steel tweezers to catch this one while it was above ground and dropped them as soon as i put the torch back on......... you want scientific proof that black matrix is alive......... got it moving to another container on film. :thumbsup:

You only need to miss one stone and BAM ! - black matrix infestation.

the are among us, especially your tank ^^

anyway nicely organised Andrew! looks so clean and you didn´t use the heater as decoration like some redhead we both know :lolspin:

Cheers

 

[biggles]

Andrew, I hear you on the dosing thing.. It's a slippery slope. You try one thing and then try another but don't want to stop the first thing in case it was helping and then you (me) try another thing but don't want to stop the previous two things in case they are helping and in and on!!
I'm getting there myself... But I'm not sure I have the guts to go cold turkey, like you are doing.. And you plan to begin po4 absorber as well.. I know you are a seasoned and extremely 'in tune' reefer, your stunning coral collection is a testament to the extreme level of connectedness you have to the animals but I have to say that you may be getting a bit cracked by the apparent lack of growth in your tank.
I know I don't have to tell you to take a second look at your plan but I see a certain 'winding up' in intensity in your reef keeping and I hope you don't do anything too rash..
I hope I'm not sounding condescending because I really don't intend to, it's just that I get the impression that you are becoming obsessed by your lack of growth even though you have a tank jam packed with stunningly coloured and amazingly healthy corals.. I guess it's sort of a 'forest for the trees' type thing.
I guess I don't really know what I'm trying to say other than I'm getting a nervous feeling lately while reading your thread..
I mean all of this with the deepest respect for your very concrete, superlative, astonishing 'coral whispering' skills...

I would never take your advice the wrong way Matt so in future just spit it out buddy

I don't think i was clear about my plans. All i am doing is old fashioned water changes and feeding the fish with plain alk etc dosed daily. I wasn't dosing much anyway so there's no harm in reefing without additives for a few months. At worst i might see some color changes but that's about it.
I intend to then begin using the AF strong DIY comp 123 stuff daily and watch for changes. For all i know that will be enough for me and my system to be happy and if so i'll leave it at that. If not i can try individual elements or the AF vitamins etc.

I don't intend to do anything at all risky and having clean glass for a few days between cleans would be nice so i want to see if the phos is the real culprit i think it might be.

All is chilled out on biggles reef Matt, Dom inspected it today and gave it the :thumbsup:

HAHA, I crack up every time I read your posts. Thanks for the explanation, I think I will look around for something similar.

Quick question, when rinsing out brand new matrix is it ok to use tap water? It seems like I am going to use a ton of RO to clean this stuff.

I use tap water in a bucket and rinse it 3 or 4 times. I then soak it in RO for 5 mins and then it goes into the system water.
The RO dip makes me feel better about things so i do it, if you omit the RO dip i'm sure nothing bad will happen......... not that i will ever find out because i ALWAYS do the RO dip........... always...... RO is magic water...

I want all the black stones removed and a picture to prove you did - if you say there were none we will all know you're lying so just take whatever precautions you feel are necessary given the objects you're dealing with and get it done !
Don't let them dry out btw, they make a very faint humming noise when dry which can't be good imo - put one on the kitchen bench - ONE, and let it dry overnight. In the morning put your ear up to it and listen hard........

If the stone is not where you left on the bench when you went to bed i would get your family and any weiner dogs the #$@# out of the house :reading:

Andrew, That is the highest complement a person could receive. Thank you

Marty

Obviously it is Marty.

The best **** to read for lunch time entertainment.
Thanks Andrew.

No probs mate

Andrew, Sorry it won't happen again. I tend to blame this on Dom's thread and a few others i follow. (Like some British chaps) I think the fluff took over my brain. You saw what was happenning and you threw your wrasse under the bus.
Stuff like, "Oh, my girlfriend got me this reef certificate."Let me go out and buy some wrasses and a clam. Oh look at my Madonna and Einstein ZOA's. My softy's are going nuts. Look at my clams. Oh look how expensive and beautiful my stainless steel magnetic stirrer is. Oh I just bought a new 10 valve doser. It just goes on.

I need to stay focused on this SPS page. Where I learned that NASA helps develop instruments for SPS tanks. The Biggles fish quotient. The Biggle box method on determine how much matrix the tank needs. Biggles juice. And now the high tech matrix holders, looks like they were made from a 3D printer. And the Acro Porn that makes me blush.
I need to get away from the fluff and back to your SPS science. Your the Shaolin Master of SPS.

Marty

Just relax Marty, you need to be at one with your acros........

I just put 4L of matrix in my sump today! I guess I'll have to keep an eye for living black matrix. :hmm4: hahah

Sump looks good Andrew, I like the baskets you used. I used some black gutter guard stuff I had on hand and made a DIY basket with black zip ties, might go buy something locally instead though.

Hey Josh, as long as you have them in some type of meshy vessel (we call them meshels in scientific circles ) and there is flow through i don't think it matters tbh mate.

Having said that i would point out that the conical inward sloping tangent biased prototypes i showed you all are patented now so i'll go after anyone that tries to steal my idea - vertical sides are ok Josh

the are among us, especially your tank ^^

anyway nicely organised Andrew! looks so clean and you didn´t use the heater as decoration like some redhead we both know :lolspin:

Cheers

Hey Flo, that redhead was over today slagging my acros off........

After he'd left i noticed the spare bag of 3mm sand i had left over was missing........ :twitch:

 

[FloformAustria]

Hey Flo, that redhead was over today slagging my acros off........

After he'd left i noticed the spare bag of 3mm sand i had left over was missing........ :twitch:

why didn´t he take the black matrix with him? :wildone:

 

[biggles]

why didn´t he take the black matrix with him? :wildone:

He did Flo........... it's in the bag of sand..........

 

[FloformAustria]

He did Flo........... it's in the bag of sand..........

:lol2:

the dark side is strong in you master!!

 

[Wrangy]

:lolspin::lolspin::lolspin:
Good thing I only used half the bag then Can't wait to sneak out some real goodies next time :lol:

 

[nemodan]

2-3 days without reading this thread and it is amazing all that happened.

Andrew, I am setting up now a DISCUS tank with my wife. Yes, I know, it is freshwater and here we are all salty. LOL.

My point is that I used a reef 50 G tank with a 10 G sump and added 4 L of Matrix in media bags, in the sump, to make is easy for cleaning. Plus I added a media reactor with 2 L of siporax . I hope these Discus get a clean low nutrient water. For what I have been reading these guys look as complicated as Acro concerning water quality.

 

[markalot]

Just read through 4 pages I missed, great stuff Andrew.

So with the Matrix, mine is in a reactor and in my return chamber. Filthy dirty and full of detritus and no matter what I do I cannot raise nitrates in my tank. I've always had a nitrate issue prior to adding Matrix so I have to believe it's the Matrix doing the magic. I don't want to clean it but I suppose at some point the dirt and crap will outweigh any benefits.

Love the gutter baskets used to hold the rocks.

 

[biggles]

:lol2:

the dark side is strong in you master!!

Thanks Flo

Good thing I only used half the bag then Can't wait to sneak out some real goodies next time :lol:

Thanks for the glue mate, i loooooove BSI super glue gel so it was a good reef trade......

About two hours after Dom left i got pics of his display with the new sand in it lol........ Dom does not muck around when he gets his hands on reef goodies. Looks ten times better already btw buddy :thumbsup:

2-3 days without reading this thread and it is amazing all that happened.

Andrew, I am setting up now a DISCUS tank with my wife. Yes, I know, it is freshwater and here we are all salty. LOL.

My point is that I used a reef 50 G tank with a 10 G sump and added 4 L of Matrix in media bags, in the sump, to make is easy for cleaning. Plus I added a media reactor with 2 L of siporax . I hope these Discus get a clean low nutrient water. For what I have been reading these guys look as complicated as Acro concerning water quality.

I tried keeping discus once Daniel......... once......... acros are way easier mate lol........... i wish you the best of luck not killing the fish your wife loves......

Just read through 4 pages I missed, great stuff Andrew.

So with the Matrix, mine is in a reactor and in my return chamber. Filthy dirty and full of detritus and no matter what I do I cannot raise nitrates in my tank. I've always had a nitrate issue prior to adding Matrix so I have to believe it's the Matrix doing the magic. I don't want to clean it but I suppose at some point the dirt and crap will outweigh any benefits.

Love the gutter baskets used to hold the rocks.

Hey Mark, matrix/siporax type media is extremely effective at dealing with nitrates - extremely, as in if you have high nitrates and trouble keeping them down stick about 1L media for every 100L of system water in your system and after it seeds with bacteria you will see the nitrates go in about a week. When it kicks in it really kicks in, mine woke up around 10 weeks after adding i think so the sooner you get it in the better.
Dosing bacteria etc might help speed it up but i didn't bother. The main point is, it actually works great and i would highly recommend such media as a bio filtration workhorse that you'll find very easy to use no matter how you run it.

That wasn't directed at you Mark, i went on a ramble mid sentence........

Just give your matrix a good blast once a week with a turkey baster in the return chamber and jiggle the reactor a couple of times a week. Don't mess with what's working mate, leave the matrix alone and if you don't change much else and nitrates start showing up in a month or two you might think the media is too dirty. If that happened i woul remove the overflow media entirely and clean the reactor media every month with a salt water rinse at water change time to keep it operating at a reliable level rather than seesawing the nitrates to zero every time you wash out the filthy media.
Hope you get what i mean mate, if dirty media works then you can run less clean media to accomplish the same thing AND keep stable phos and nitrates - phos rapidly changing is as bad as an alk spike -' trap for young players ' as my father used to say every time i was hurt helping him strip down the lawn mower or other device he decided to overhaul.......
I remember being about 12 and dad had me washing the mower bits in an ice cream container half full with petrol - from the mower prior to stripping.
' Up top for thinking son ' - that's what he said when i asked why i was holding the ice cream container under the mower being turned upside down..... he didn't like to waste much....

At some point after a few hours mom came into the garage and i don't actually remember this but apparently i was off my face so she abused dad and dragged me into the house and put me to bed.

Dad came and saw me when i woke and tussled my hair like iin the movies and said ' you're not supposed to breathe the fumes in you duffer ' and smiled at me. That's as close to an apology as you ever got from dad but i knew he felt bad so he was still awesome in my eyes

I wish he was still here so we could strip down the skimmer and wash it in petrol together - don't take your parents for granted kiddies ! :beer:

Happened again, went from matix to dad stories lol.

It's this one in case you wondered.......

The other one is a frag from Ken he gave me a few months back - it's a gorgeous piece mate, thanks heaps

 

[wheelman76]

Great story about your childhood Andrew , I always enjoy your stories. That last pastel looking piece is sure a beauty.

 

[biggles]

Great story about your childhood Andrew , I always enjoy your stories. That last pastel looking piece is sure a beauty.

Thanks Jess

Now........

Sunday i removed the live rock from the sump and all the matrix was on the floor of the sump. I placed a 100 micron felt bag under the overflow pipe and have run the filter socks changed daily ever since - they are pretty filthy every day and blocked enough to raise the water level in the 8" sock 3/4" above the sump water level. The glass needed cleaning twice daily up until this point and had been at that level for weeks. Nitrates were at 10.
I was feeding 4 mysis cubes and two feeds of mini pellets along with an envelope sized piece of nori a day, the anti ich over feeding level i had been doing since the fish got sick. All fat and healthy now, BJ looks awesome again and has a fat tummy.

Monday i did the big media clean up which you know about. I meant to say that i also removed the mesh bag of 1.5 cups of carbon and added the two chemipure blue bags Dave gave me. Each one is recommended for 75gal so two were perfect. I had asked Dave for something that would clean up the copper etc a bit and i also wanted some phos absorber. That's why he took the AF phos minus off me and gave me the chemipure. :beer:

Tuesday everything looked a bit poopy and glass was the same

Wednesday after Dom visited i cleaned the glass just before lights out after cleaning it at lunch time also. Acros looked a bit brighter.

Today the glass was still clean enough when i turned the radiums off - 9 hours into the acros 11 hour day to take pics through without a problem. It 'just' needed cleaning. If you had a friend visiting you would clean it but if it was just you it was fine. I didn't clean the glass at all today for the first time in 6 months...............

I didn't need to test but i knew it would be of interest - nitrates were between 2-5 on salifert when the radiums went off today.
I removed one of the chemipure bags when i turned the T5's off as to me that is too fast a drop in algae growth in too short a period. I will clean the glass first thing tomorrow and see how it is at lights off before deciding whether to remove the other bag.
The cleaned and much better exposed to water matrix might be more than enough turbo charge in bio filtration for my system. Or it might be the phos absorber in the chemipure. I'll find out soon enough.

I seriously think that running filtered water through a matrix reactor at a slow flow would be the most efficient way to use the stuff - best space tidy and bang for bio buck per liter of media.

 

[reefmutt]

Dad came and saw me when i woke and tussled my hair like iin the movies and said ' you're not supposed to breathe the fumes in you duffer ' and smiled at me. That's as close to an apology as you ever got from dad but i knew he felt bad so he was still awesome in my eyes

The other one is a frag from Ken he gave me a few months back - it's a gorgeous piece mate, thanks heaps

The crazy robins egg blue section on this coral looks like pretty serious growth. It's beautiful.
Andrew, any dad that gets high with you in the garage is a good dad as far as I'm concerned!

 

[glaukos]

Great info there andrew,thanks for sharing:beer:
+1 on what matt said and great dad story you shared also.Lost mine too when i was fairly young(7 years old) so i totally get the not take them for granted part:thumbsup:

Ken's frag looks great too