My Nano Mangrove Lagoon
- Thread starter Eastone
- Start date
You mentioned you dose creatine monohydrate. First time I have heard of this. What is the theory behind it? You want your SPS to be bulky and full of water like I was in the 90s?
Yes! I also want them to wear wifebeaters but I'm having trouble getting the right size in. I actually have no concrete knowledge about the mechanism of action, only theories, but what feeding achieves is a noticeable explosion in amount and volume of filter feeders, which result in improvements in water quality.
I absolutely love them! Having grown the largest one from a tiny seed-pod over the last two and a half years feels like one hell of an achievement
Thanks!
Unfortunately the spike in PO4 recently has meant that I have lost two corals due to bleaching. One of the aquaforest food supplements contains amounts of copper and I didn't manage to stop dosing in time to prevent stress. I only noticed it was a PO4 issue after I had enough water test data to notice a decline in growth (I don't test for nutrients in my tank)
I believe it was from switching out my skimmer and biopellet reactor on the same day and subsequent dial in period meaning the pellets weren't fluidised optimally along with the skimmer barely skimming for a few days.
It hurts more because both corals had been grown from frags in my original 1 gallon reef.
Yeah, the issue isn't so much the stability but once the fine tether that holds everything together snaps, everything goes south really fast, especially with SPS
Unfortunately, this week has seen a total crash on the tank, I suspect it may be from organics and the skimmer needing time to break in, but all of my SPS bleached and STN'd over about 3 days. I had the 'dry' look I've seen Leonardo mention before, I think this is a full expulsion of zooxanthellae coupled with the coral trying to consume it's polyp tissue to survive, I wasn't able to bring any back.
I managed to save a few which I traded to my LFS. It's sickening, some of them I've grown from the tiny 1.5 gallon reef over the last year into the mini colonies, and I've finally been able to get good coloration and growth consistently with this upgrade. I believe the increase in organics and reduced nutrient removal coupled with the copper in the Aquaforest food system I use pushed them over the edge.
I was tempted to quit, but I'm using this opportunity to start fresh, when I started my tank back a year ago, I wanted to have a patch reef-esq natural looking display with many little rocks proturding from a varied sandbed and some nice gorgonians. I feel that I got too entrenched in keeping SPS and wasn't able to keep my vision, so I'm going to move toward a far more even spread of LPS/ SPS / Soft Coral as the tank moves forward.
I'm excited for possibilities, but still heartbroken
Unfortunately, this week has seen a total crash on the tank, I suspect it may be from organics and the skimmer needing time to break in, but all of my SPS bleached and STN'd over about 3 days. I had the 'dry' look I've seen Leonardo mention before, I think this is a full expulsion of zooxanthellae coupled with the coral trying to consume it's polyp tissue to survive, I wasn't able to bring any back.
I managed to save a few which I traded to my LFS. It's sickening, some of them I've grown from the tiny 1.5 gallon reef over the last year into the mini colonies, and I've finally been able to get good coloration and growth consistently with this upgrade. I believe the increase in organics and reduced nutrient removal coupled with the copper in the Aquaforest food system I use pushed them over the edge.
I was tempted to quit, but I'm using this opportunity to start fresh, when I started my tank back a year ago, I wanted to have a patch reef-esq natural looking display with many little rocks proturding from a varied sandbed and some nice gorgonians. I feel that I got too entrenched in keeping SPS and wasn't able to keep my vision, so I'm going to move toward a far more even spread of LPS/ SPS / Soft Coral as the tank moves forward.
I'm excited for possibilities, but still heartbroken
Aquaforest
.Registered Member
Hello,
This product contains copper in very safe quantity. Normal dose could not kill any corals...
Aquaforest
Yeah, I don't think your product did anything negative at all, I think the stress of my skimmer not functioning while dosing a trace-copper product to already extremely stressed corals just sped the crash. I still use your full food system
Great tank, nice to see something different and more natural!
You mentioned the size of the mangrove roots, and upgrading tanks. My understanding was that mangroves would die if you so much as looked at their roots wrong - how do you transplant them? Do you do anything special to protect the roots?
You mentioned the size of the mangrove roots, and upgrading tanks. My understanding was that mangroves would die if you so much as looked at their roots wrong - how do you transplant them? Do you do anything special to protect the roots?
Thanks!
Hopefully the coming iteration will be even better
Thanks!
Nothing like a devastating tank crash to bring new appreciation for the things that survived, I guess.
Not really, all I did when moving them was pull at the base of the trunk - where the roots start - after draining the tank. When you do this, the roots move as one and you can see where the root mass ends, then I just dug my hands underneath this area gently and lifted them out as one mass of sand and root and whatever-else and placed it into the new tank. I didn't cover it with sand, I just left them to root further.
I had a few leaves drop from what little damage happened on the largest tree, but a few extra fresh-water sprayings and they pulled through fine.
Sorry to hear about the tank crash. I love the mangrove tank though, I've always loved more natural beach-ey looking tanks.
How were you able to keep your sand at an angle like that? I've mulled it over with some friends and we always thought about doing ramping grades of glass or plastic partitions at the height you want the sand to stay, but I just couldn't imagine with the flow from good powerheads the sand staying at an angle like that. Or it's all just spray foam with sand glued over it
Care to share your secret?
How were you able to keep your sand at an angle like that? I've mulled it over with some friends and we always thought about doing ramping grades of glass or plastic partitions at the height you want the sand to stay, but I just couldn't imagine with the flow from good powerheads the sand staying at an angle like that. Or it's all just spray foam with sand glued over it
Care to share your secret?
Submerged rock! The bit of liverock you can see is actually about half of the actual rock, you can use a staggered formation to create a pseudo-retaining wall that looks natural. Another thing, is to use really fine sand, it falls less because the sandbed will have a greater natural angle of slope, and a finer sand will compress and compact itself more, 'cementing' itself in place with time due to natural settlement and the nature of voids in soils.
I use a mix of almost dust-like sand with a 0.1-0.25mm gradient, along with a 0.5-1mm sand. This allows for the sandbed to behave in a way similar to a carbon steel and maintain it's shape. If you use rocks to retain the sandbed, the ideal is to have the sand that's not got a rock infront of it to form a zig-zag shape between rocks, this ensures that the net force downward is resisted by a series of rocks and not just the one rock, and as sand starts to slip down the slope, it will eventually compress against the next rock down in the arrangement.
I use a standing wave in this tank so I think it might help maintain the sandbed with the rocking motion, if it works as I theorise it should compact the sand more with the motion from the water body
I use a mix of almost dust-like sand with a 0.1-0.25mm gradient, along with a 0.5-1mm sand. This allows for the sandbed to behave in a way similar to a carbon steel and maintain it's shape. If you use rocks to retain the sandbed, the ideal is to have the sand that's not got a rock infront of it to form a zig-zag shape between rocks, this ensures that the net force downward is resisted by a series of rocks and not just the one rock, and as sand starts to slip down the slope, it will eventually compress against the next rock down in the arrangement.
I use a standing wave in this tank so I think it might help maintain the sandbed with the rocking motion, if it works as I theorise it should compact the sand more with the motion from the water body
Last edited:
sde1500
Active member
Woah, what? 15 fish at the same time in that tank? What kind of fish?
Awesome looking tank, just caught off guard by the fish number.
