d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build
- Thread starter d2mini
- Start date
d2mini
Premium Member
Post #910.
But to give the backstory...
When I initially got my starter ball of cheato from a local reefing buddy, we met at an LFS. LFS guy (a good guy, just bad luck on my part) said he'd give me some extra chaeto and it had some other macros in it.
Red flag went up, but I trust this store and figured what the heck... I wanted a variety of macros anyway.
Well next thing I know my sump has Ulva growing all over the walls and in the cheato.
Not that big a deal, it was a fast grower so it was sucking up nutrients.
This week I noticed it was making it's way to the display, showing up on the sand bed.
After my return pump would restart, more chunks would come up from the sump and float across the display.
So it had to go.
I figured the best thing was to just pull everything out, empty the sump, and scrub it out, making sure there wasn't a trace of it left down there.
Now I have to manually remove anything I still find in the display. I removed what I could last night but there's still some tiny leaves here and there.
Just temporarily, with a fresh softball sized chunk of clean cheato I picked up this evening from another local reefing buddy.
I need to go through some of my old macros, and if I can find anything that I'm 100% sure is void of any Ulva, I'll put it in. Otherwise I'll just be ordering a fresh batch.
The good thing is that getting all that detritus out of my sump dropped my p04 from .29 to .17!
danrobberg
New member
I'm sorry to ask as I'm sure this was already addressed but can you give me detail on your sand bed? It looks like very large granules or almost pebbles. I was considering adding something like this because my 2 mp 49's blows all my finer sand to o e side of the tank and I do t like the look of the bare bottom on half the tank. I was worried about detritus buildup in a sand bed like that.
d2mini
Premium Member
Sorry to hear bad luck. LOL at least you got the p04 down
Thank you.
It's the sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater, skimmed right off the ocean floor.
Has everything from super fine to large grain with broken shells and stuff.
Very natural looking.
It doesn't blow around, as in clouding the tank, but i still usually end up with a spot of bare glass somewhere from the current in the tank.
I don't understand how people do it with that sugar type sand.
dkeller_nc
New member
Dennis - Finally got a chance to get back on RC and catch up on your build. Tank's looking very, very nice for a new set-up. You noted in a PM that you didn't know that you could use GFO in a mesh bag.
Here's the more detailed explanation. The reason one is advised to run GFO in a reactor and have it "tumble" a bit is because of its tendency to precipitate calcium carbonate from the water. Tumbling helps prevent (but doesn't completely eliminate) this. And using GFO in this mode is typically for installations where the amount of adsorption capacity of GFO in the system exceeds the available PO4 in the water, so it's left in a reactor for a number of weeks until it's exhausted and then changed.
However, it's also possible to use small amounts of GFO where the total adsorption capacity is considerably less than the available PO4 in the water. In this mode, the couple of tablespoons of GFO in a mesh bag will saturate in 24 - 48 hours, and can be removed (and replaced, if that's the goal). Under these circumstances, there's really no reason to be concerned over calcium carbonate concretion and channeling in a reactor.
Here's the more detailed explanation. The reason one is advised to run GFO in a reactor and have it "tumble" a bit is because of its tendency to precipitate calcium carbonate from the water. Tumbling helps prevent (but doesn't completely eliminate) this. And using GFO in this mode is typically for installations where the amount of adsorption capacity of GFO in the system exceeds the available PO4 in the water, so it's left in a reactor for a number of weeks until it's exhausted and then changed.
However, it's also possible to use small amounts of GFO where the total adsorption capacity is considerably less than the available PO4 in the water. In this mode, the couple of tablespoons of GFO in a mesh bag will saturate in 24 - 48 hours, and can be removed (and replaced, if that's the goal). Under these circumstances, there's really no reason to be concerned over calcium carbonate concretion and channeling in a reactor.
d2mini
Premium Member
d2mini
Premium Member
So everything is back together and running good.
In the fuge i have a brand new ball of clean Chaeto and the old Codium which has really thick, smooth branches so I was able to make dang sure there was no Ulva attached to it.
Rinsed it off really good in old saltwater and then even scrubbed it down under running tap water.
I have a couple small pieces of the red varieties sitting outside in a bucket with an air pump.
These are harder to tell if the Ulva is 100% gone so I'll let them get some sunlight for several days and see if any Ulva makes an appearance.
The display looks pretty much absent of the stuff. I manually removed what I could from the sand bed. I don't see any on the rocks.
Sometimes I'll see a tiny tiny leaf on the sand bed and remove it. Hopefully it will dissipate to zero permanently.
Meanwhile, I placed another order with Live-Plants (Gulf Coast Ecosystems) for a few extra things. They were out of the blue Hypnea which is a bummer but maybe next time.
I'll post a new fuge pic once I get that stuff.
And my p04 continues to drop... down to .14
So that's the final element that is now down to what I consider perfectly safe levels.
I'll see if it continues to drop to below .1, then probably take the GFO offline and see how it goes.
In the fuge i have a brand new ball of clean Chaeto and the old Codium which has really thick, smooth branches so I was able to make dang sure there was no Ulva attached to it.
Rinsed it off really good in old saltwater and then even scrubbed it down under running tap water.
I have a couple small pieces of the red varieties sitting outside in a bucket with an air pump.
These are harder to tell if the Ulva is 100% gone so I'll let them get some sunlight for several days and see if any Ulva makes an appearance.
The display looks pretty much absent of the stuff. I manually removed what I could from the sand bed. I don't see any on the rocks.
Sometimes I'll see a tiny tiny leaf on the sand bed and remove it. Hopefully it will dissipate to zero permanently.
Meanwhile, I placed another order with Live-Plants (Gulf Coast Ecosystems) for a few extra things. They were out of the blue Hypnea which is a bummer but maybe next time.
I'll post a new fuge pic once I get that stuff.
And my p04 continues to drop... down to .14
So that's the final element that is now down to what I consider perfectly safe levels.
I'll see if it continues to drop to below .1, then probably take the GFO offline and see how it goes.
d2mini
Premium Member
It tumbles while it's smaller but then gets too big to tumble, especially with the other stuff in there.
And yeah, been running the base elements for about a month now.
Currently at 45ml/day for each of the 4 elements.
Going to send my first Triton Test in soon.
Was waiting for everything to level out first.
2wheelsonly
Member
Dennis,
I love those red sponges...I assume they came from TBS too? Are the red ones hard to care for? Do you have to feed them daily?
I love those red sponges...I assume they came from TBS too? Are the red ones hard to care for? Do you have to feed them daily?
d2mini
Premium Member
Yes, they came from TBS and yes they are hard to keep alive long term in the typical ultra low nutrient closed system. You either enjoy them while you have them or try to find a good balance of dosing phyto and other foods for them without fouling your tank. Some seem to last longer than others, the deep reds being the first to go IME. So far so good though, but as stated earlier, I did have to temporarily stop the phyto dosing due to ultra high p04 levels.
2wheelsonly
Member
d2mini
Premium Member
I have not but it's on my list to pick up this week.
Thanks!
OMG, thanks for bringing that to my attention.
So obviously not a Superman... I don't know what I was thinking when I typed that.
It should say "Rainbow". :facepalm:
Gonna fix it now...
d2mini
Premium Member
I dunno... I think I'm going to pass on the rabbitfish this time based on the size of my tank.add rabbitfish would be beautiful
The chaeto will most likely outgrow everything else, but personally, I like things like Codium, Halimeda opuntia, Hypnea pannosa was the blue one, reds like Gracilaria hayi, Halymenia floresia, and Botryocladia are cool.
I think all of these should do ok in a fuge like mine with no substrate or rock.
If you have a substrate there are a few others that could be planted or attached to rocks.
You can browse around at www.live-plants.com, that's where I get most of mine from. Their stock is always changing though and never seem to have everything I want at once. haha
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