OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef
- Thread starter JohnL
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chris wright
In Memoriam
Great thread Johnathon, I've following along for a long time. Very entertaining indeed.
I've seen triple posting's, but would doing it 18 times be pushing it? :lol:
Cheers
Chris.
I've seen triple posting's, but would doing it 18 times be pushing it? :lol:
Cheers
Chris.
thekillerclownf
New member
SPLIT! SPLIT! SPLIT! DARNIT SPLIT ALREADY!!!
thought I'd just chime in and help the split.
this thread does put a smile on my face every time I read it.
thought I'd just chime in and help the split.
this thread does put a smile on my face every time I read it.
mushroom head
New member
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mushroom head
New member
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mushroom head
New member
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Hopeful Reefer
Premium Member
I hope all is well and the changes were negative...hope to hear more sometime today...
Oh yeah, you guys need to be a little less conspicuous about trying to get a thread split...geesh...post something constructive in your posts...
SPLIT DARNIT!!!!! :lol:
Oh yeah, you guys need to be a little less conspicuous about trying to get a thread split...geesh...post something constructive in your posts...
SPLIT DARNIT!!!!! :lol:
thekillerclownf
New member
SPLIT ! I SAID SPLIT YOU FILTHY BEAST!
jnarowe
New member
OK retards, I am back!
First post is to discuss recent family events. Our Aikido Dojo hosted Sensei Yamada for a weekend demonstration and seminar. I know there are several Aikido practitioners here on RC that follow this thread...It is quite interesting that the top guy in Aikido within the US came to our tiny town, followed by students from all over the country.
We hosted three participants that came in from Vancouver, BC and it was nice to have them spend the night, drink beer, and mess around with.
I have never seen so many Black Belts in one place...there were at least 50 on the mat.
My son and the other youth from our dojo participated by demonstrating some of their aikido knowledge, and then participated in the seminar today. Each Dojo represented did some demonstration of various Aikido techniques and it was fast and furious. Another interesting thing for me, was to see how many women were participatiing, were black belts, and even Senseis.
In today's session there were just a few children and virtually the rest of the participants were adult black belts, so it was a tremendous opportunity for our son to see and learn from the best.
Here is a pic of Sensei Yamada:
And I applogize for the poor quality but these were taken with a POS camera...
Video: Sensei Yamada Demonstration
Video: Training with Sensei Yamada
My son is the red belt.
Video: A Gift for Sensei Yamada
This was a real treat for us and I hope very motivating for our youth members.
First post is to discuss recent family events. Our Aikido Dojo hosted Sensei Yamada for a weekend demonstration and seminar. I know there are several Aikido practitioners here on RC that follow this thread...It is quite interesting that the top guy in Aikido within the US came to our tiny town, followed by students from all over the country.
We hosted three participants that came in from Vancouver, BC and it was nice to have them spend the night, drink beer, and mess around with.
I have never seen so many Black Belts in one place...there were at least 50 on the mat.
My son and the other youth from our dojo participated by demonstrating some of their aikido knowledge, and then participated in the seminar today. Each Dojo represented did some demonstration of various Aikido techniques and it was fast and furious. Another interesting thing for me, was to see how many women were participatiing, were black belts, and even Senseis.
In today's session there were just a few children and virtually the rest of the participants were adult black belts, so it was a tremendous opportunity for our son to see and learn from the best.
Here is a pic of Sensei Yamada:
And I applogize for the poor quality but these were taken with a POS camera...
Video: Sensei Yamada Demonstration
Video: Training with Sensei Yamada
My son is the red belt.
Video: A Gift for Sensei Yamada
This was a real treat for us and I hope very motivating for our youth members.
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
I've always enjoyed going to seminars and training. You learn so much from the sensei/guru/sifu that your head is busy for the next couple of weeks!
I also really liked training with a lot of new people and picking things up from them.
Have you guys gone to any seminars outside of your town? They can be fun too.
Nick
I also really liked training with a lot of new people and picking things up from them.
Have you guys gone to any seminars outside of your town? They can be fun too.
Nick
jnarowe
New member
So now onto tank discussion. As many already know, I had some medical issues starting back about 3 weeks ago and of course, at the same time, two pieces of equipment failed and a brown algae bloom started. Being unable to work on the tank, equipment, or even get out of bed at times, my tank water quality has suffered and so have some of my corals.
One of the items that broke was my RO/DI booster pump, so I am only making a few gallons more per day than what is required for top-off and was only able to accumulate enough water for one water change since this whole debacle started.
The other item that broke was my multi-reactor, which started to leak. It was offline for at least two weeks and therefore so was my floss, carbon, and Rowa, nevermind that I wasn't keeping up with Ca and alk.
Sooooo....a long period of grin-and-bear-it. With Sherman's help (Thank YOU SHERMAN!!!) doing the lifting and supervising, I was able to get the reactor back online last week.
I have been contemplating re-doing my RO/DI system and bought a 200g reservoir that I want to install, but in the meantime I need to get things moving forward. This has been long debated both here on RC and with my fellow reefers, and I think I have come to the conclusion that my original design is still good, but that I need to get better control of the pump and water flow by using electronic float switches and a solenoid valve for the incoming water. Of course, a new booster pump will be vital as well.
One of the items that broke was my RO/DI booster pump, so I am only making a few gallons more per day than what is required for top-off and was only able to accumulate enough water for one water change since this whole debacle started.
The other item that broke was my multi-reactor, which started to leak. It was offline for at least two weeks and therefore so was my floss, carbon, and Rowa, nevermind that I wasn't keeping up with Ca and alk.
Sooooo....a long period of grin-and-bear-it. With Sherman's help (Thank YOU SHERMAN!!!) doing the lifting and supervising, I was able to get the reactor back online last week.
I have been contemplating re-doing my RO/DI system and bought a 200g reservoir that I want to install, but in the meantime I need to get things moving forward. This has been long debated both here on RC and with my fellow reefers, and I think I have come to the conclusion that my original design is still good, but that I need to get better control of the pump and water flow by using electronic float switches and a solenoid valve for the incoming water. Of course, a new booster pump will be vital as well.
Hopeful Reefer
Premium Member
I've always wanted to learn martial arts of some sort...just never had the time...
Not to sound stupid, but what is different between regular karate, aikido, kung fu, etc...
Not to sound stupid, but what is different between regular karate, aikido, kung fu, etc...
jnarowe
New member
Nick...Nope, not yet, but we plan to!
OK...so now I get to the meat of the issue. I don't intend to cause a rash of flames/etc. over sandbeds, but only wish to share what I have learned thus far.
When I built this system I was emulating other well established systems and taking the best pieces of those approaches and combining them into my system. One aspect was the use of a very small amount of sand in the display, just to cover the tank bottom where it could be seen. This would give me a sand-bed look, but without the maintainance of one in a 35" deep tank.
I truly wanted to emulate Steve Weast's method in vacuuming the tank on a regular basis, and then when the sand volume was reduced, I would replenish it in the manner he does, which is to lower fresh sand in a filter bag and spread it out gently.
This really seemed like a great approach to display sand management but unfortunately, it's not easy to actually do in my installation. There is not much headroom, and trying to overcome 35" of water height with a syphon and actually pull anything out of the tank, was not working. So I did the natural thing and ignored it for a long time.
And before I get a bunch of posts about sand-sifting creatures, I don't believe that is a good method of husbandry. I know the hobby is full of cleaner re-fresh packs, sand sifting stars, cukes, gobies, etc...but IMO while these animals do keep the sand "clean" they also consume the benthic creatures that actually aide in processing nitrogenous waste. They are killing off part of the sandbed's value while supposedly keeping it clean. And they aren't exporting the nutrients, just consuming them, and pooping them out the other end.
So my tank is now overloaded with detritus and I need to fix that. The current plan is to tackle 1/3 of the tank at a time, moving the rocks, using a pump and vacuum combo to vacuum out all the sand and detritus, and then replace the rocks but on top of 1 - 2" slices of PVC pipe to get them off the bottom. Once this task is completed, I will lower the Vortech pumps down to within a few inches of the bottom to provide massive flow throughout the rock structure and keep detritus suspended so that it can be skimmed out.
Then, I am going to encourage zoas to populate the bottom of the tank, creating a multi-colored carnivorous carpet of polyps.
That's the display tank plan...
OK...so now I get to the meat of the issue. I don't intend to cause a rash of flames/etc. over sandbeds, but only wish to share what I have learned thus far.
When I built this system I was emulating other well established systems and taking the best pieces of those approaches and combining them into my system. One aspect was the use of a very small amount of sand in the display, just to cover the tank bottom where it could be seen. This would give me a sand-bed look, but without the maintainance of one in a 35" deep tank.
I truly wanted to emulate Steve Weast's method in vacuuming the tank on a regular basis, and then when the sand volume was reduced, I would replenish it in the manner he does, which is to lower fresh sand in a filter bag and spread it out gently.
This really seemed like a great approach to display sand management but unfortunately, it's not easy to actually do in my installation. There is not much headroom, and trying to overcome 35" of water height with a syphon and actually pull anything out of the tank, was not working. So I did the natural thing and ignored it for a long time.
And before I get a bunch of posts about sand-sifting creatures, I don't believe that is a good method of husbandry. I know the hobby is full of cleaner re-fresh packs, sand sifting stars, cukes, gobies, etc...but IMO while these animals do keep the sand "clean" they also consume the benthic creatures that actually aide in processing nitrogenous waste. They are killing off part of the sandbed's value while supposedly keeping it clean. And they aren't exporting the nutrients, just consuming them, and pooping them out the other end.
So my tank is now overloaded with detritus and I need to fix that. The current plan is to tackle 1/3 of the tank at a time, moving the rocks, using a pump and vacuum combo to vacuum out all the sand and detritus, and then replace the rocks but on top of 1 - 2" slices of PVC pipe to get them off the bottom. Once this task is completed, I will lower the Vortech pumps down to within a few inches of the bottom to provide massive flow throughout the rock structure and keep detritus suspended so that it can be skimmed out.
Then, I am going to encourage zoas to populate the bottom of the tank, creating a multi-colored carnivorous carpet of polyps.
That's the display tank plan...
jnarowe
New member
Also part of this sytem design was a remote deep sand bed (RDSB)/refugium mounted above the tank so that pods could overflow into the display and feed the tank, while the sand acted as filtration media.
And I want to be very specific here, I fully believe that a well maintained RDSB has great value in processing nutrients in a mixed reef system. I am a true believer, but reality has set in.
It's not easy to do. I had planned to swap out about 1/3 of the sand every 6 months so that there would always be fresh sand for phosphate etc. to bind to. And the issue again is a mixture of difficulty and laziness. Because that tank is mounted up high, it is difficult to work in, and because I let it go longer and longer, I increased the risk of releasing poisoness compounds by stirring it up.
Sherman and I debated for more than a week what my approach should be, whether to remove and replace the sand, lightening the load on the system and giving it more nutrient sink, or to just completely remove the sand entirely and there were strong arguements on both sides.
We were still debating the issue while pulling the sand out in fact, but I ultimately decided that I would rather gain control of the nurtient issue and not have the risk of the sandbed, nor the work maintaining it, and so my fuge is now BB.
Also a note about the fuge: It is way too small to have any impact on nutrient export in a system of this size. It really is just a point of interest to me, as well as a haven for any battered fish, snails, and mollies I use for genrating live food for the display.
All of this change comes at the back-end of a heat wave here, where my system got above 82F on consecutive days and I had a die off of Mexican Turbos. With about 40+ snails dying in the system, the putrid leftovers caused the tank to swing out-of-whack, and a domino effect took place. The brown algae started to bloom, and probably another 5000+ of the snails I breed died as well. So while it seems gloomy to look at the tank, I do have a plan and will continue to execute it over the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully the corals that are suffering will recover, but I can't expectthat until I have the display completely vacuumed out, have increased the frequency of filter media swaps, and changed out a lot of water.
When it rains it pours!
And I want to be very specific here, I fully believe that a well maintained RDSB has great value in processing nutrients in a mixed reef system. I am a true believer, but reality has set in.
It's not easy to do. I had planned to swap out about 1/3 of the sand every 6 months so that there would always be fresh sand for phosphate etc. to bind to. And the issue again is a mixture of difficulty and laziness. Because that tank is mounted up high, it is difficult to work in, and because I let it go longer and longer, I increased the risk of releasing poisoness compounds by stirring it up.
Sherman and I debated for more than a week what my approach should be, whether to remove and replace the sand, lightening the load on the system and giving it more nutrient sink, or to just completely remove the sand entirely and there were strong arguements on both sides.
We were still debating the issue while pulling the sand out in fact, but I ultimately decided that I would rather gain control of the nurtient issue and not have the risk of the sandbed, nor the work maintaining it, and so my fuge is now BB.
Also a note about the fuge: It is way too small to have any impact on nutrient export in a system of this size. It really is just a point of interest to me, as well as a haven for any battered fish, snails, and mollies I use for genrating live food for the display.
All of this change comes at the back-end of a heat wave here, where my system got above 82F on consecutive days and I had a die off of Mexican Turbos. With about 40+ snails dying in the system, the putrid leftovers caused the tank to swing out-of-whack, and a domino effect took place. The brown algae started to bloom, and probably another 5000+ of the snails I breed died as well. So while it seems gloomy to look at the tank, I do have a plan and will continue to execute it over the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully the corals that are suffering will recover, but I can't expectthat until I have the display completely vacuumed out, have increased the frequency of filter media swaps, and changed out a lot of water.
When it rains it pours!
This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1183341
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