Did you use a leafblower outside today?

neuroslicer

neuroslicer

Old School Reefer
Now do the same for your reef! If you left all your yard leaves on the ground, they would decay into organic waste and probably do your yard a load of good... but fertilizer on your live rock is not something you want. All the animal waste, uneaten food, and other detritus collects in the nooks and crannies of your live rock where it decays and eventually produces nitrogenous waste and phosphates too... it's no wonder you're having trouble with hair algae! Or if it settles on your SPS that can stifle growth at least and suffocate and kill tissue at most. So at least a couple times a month you should be "leaf-blowing" your reef! Stir up that organic matter into the water column where it can pass through your filter media and/or skimmer, helping you get your nitrates and phosphates down to zero! How to do it? You can either get a turkey baster, but that is a lot of squeezing in a big tank. I use a little powerhead pump (mine is the Eheim 300 for $15) and just go around your tank kicking up the debris. If it settles down on the coral just blow it off again. A little extra routine care in your tank to keep it healthy and you'll not need a lot of the products now on the market that are designed to cure a not so healthy tank.

Best fishes,
Neuro
 
Thats one thing that I love about the Vortechs, I never have to do that. Nothing settles. I once used a baster to blow the rocks, and nothing came off. Yay Vortech....ha
 
He is correct. I turn mine down at night and sometimes I forget to crank it back up. When I do turn it back up stuff blows everywhere for a few seconds.

Plus 1 on MP40 they are awesome and well worth the investment.
 
I've got loads of flow with two Koralia 4's, and my main pump moves water around via two Sea Swirls... but there are a lot of nooks and crannies in the live rock where deposits easily accumulate. I'd be surprised even in tsunami conditions if debris didn't accumulate there.
 
I agree with JP, I have a Vortech MP10 on my 40 breeder and when I crank it up (especially on nutrient transport mode), I see a ton of the debris anf waste get pulled out of the rock and sand bed and get taken out by the overflow.
 
I agree with you too, there are always a few nooks and crannies but these Vortechs are awesome. I didnt believe it until I got mine. I have to run mine about 75% or water goes over the top of my rimless.
 
JB: Sounds like the lines have been drawn in the sand (forgive the pun) and the MP40 boys are not going to budge. If I was a betting man, I would put money that you could find at least a small pocket (or two) that would have a bit of detritus, but I would imagine the MP40's would certainly do a great job of minimizing it!

Some math major could take the two pumps and apply some trig angle calculations or something and determine that the angles of the pump and on the LR would lead to the possibility of accumulating detritus or something of sorts....but I am not sure if our club has the money to fund the study...lol

So....how about Jay B restating that, other than those with MP40's, a good suggestion is to periodically take a small pump or turkey baster and free up any trapped detritus...probably right before a water change.....:clown:
 
...well I guess I am a diplomatic clown...

...and this might be a good time to refile my complaint that this group (as noted at our website) is for those from Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansaw......I don't think I see Missouri in there anywhere.....
 
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For $465 each, the mp40's should come with a little dude that cleans the nooks and crannies...just sayin...:p
 
neuroslicer said:
I've got loads of flow with two Koralia 4's, and my main pump moves water around via two Sea Swirls... but there are a lot of nooks and crannies in the live rock where deposits easily accumulate. I'd be surprised even in tsunami conditions if debris didn't accumulate there.
Click to expand...

I had two Koralia 4's and sea swirls on my old 75g, so I can make a direct comparison. The MP-40s more more water in a more random and varying current. I'm not just saying this because they are expensive, I am saying it because I have experience using both. My tank stays cleaner and I have better growth with the vortechs.
 
I'll stick with my Eheim 300 and turkey baster! And DIY chemicals. SPS looks great. ;.) The extra cash goes into my Kawasaki instead! While the bike holds only 5 gallons (does that make my motorcycle a nano?) and my reef aquarium holds 125 gallons, I never had much luck riding my aquarium to Canada and back. LOL!

I'm not trying to be argumentative, really I'm not. One of the reasons I post so much about do it yourself projects or cost-cutting measures is to help bring the hobby to many of those (us!) who don't want to spend top dollar.... sure, it might take a bit more work, a bit more care. But those efforts will still get you great results.
 
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Mp-40s can be found used for as cheap as 2 koralis and sea swirls. One mp-40 moves 3200 gph, two koralis 4 only push 2400 gph total. The mp-40 has varying wave patterns and the koralias are set. Mp40 uses less wattage and much less tank space than 2 koralias and seaswirls. Not being argumentative either, just presenting facts. There are no cost savings between your comparision.
 
Thanks Jay P, interesting. I definitely want to see one of these puppies running. It is certainly making people reconsider adding closed loop pumps for added flow. I like Vortech's wireless factor and the fact you can program it. How many of the MP40's do you have on your 120 tank? I keep hearing good things about them. Since the motor is on the outside, how's the noise level?

Since I've redone the plumbing on my system so that that I've increased the water volume through my Sea Swirls, I'm not using any Koralias. I used to push some of the water flow from my main pump through a UV sterilizer and a phosban reactor, and needed the Koralias to supplement overall tank water movement... now I'm using separate smaller pumps for UV and phosban and devoting the flow from my Poseidon PS4 entirely to the two sea swirls. Adding to the water flow is a Rio Aqua 3100 which moves water from the sump, through my chiller, and up into the tank where it splits into two directions.

I've got the acros positioned higher where there's more light and flow, and the montiporas and bird's nesst in lower flow/light areas... everybody's happy. I still may add my two Koralia 4's back this weekend, just to see how the corals react.

I bet a meeting to discuss water movement and light requirements, how much different corals need and how that affects coral placement... would be a welcome topic. Hopefully we can work on a long range list of topics/presenters/hosts/locations for meetings in the upcoming meetings to give people an idea of what to expect throughout 2012. I'm excited about the club's future, for sure... can you tell?
 
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I agree, lots of good topics for meetings. Should be a good year. I have a mp-40 and a mp-10 on my 120, that I picked up both for a few hundred $ used. On my old 150g six foot tank, I had two mp-40s. On my old 75g, I had two koralis 4's and a 3/4" sea swirl. There are so many upcoming topics for us to discuss: bio pellets vs. phosban/carbon/fuge, led vs halide/t5, water movement, water quality, SPS keeping, sand bed depth, pest control, QT tanks, skimmer quality, parameter stability, ect, ect. I hate to miss this weeks meeting but I am having epidural injections in my neck thurs morning. I'll be ready to debate in December though.... Ha
 
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