fuge.
Pods, (amphi and cope), mysis, bits of sponge, worms---and occasional stupid small fish.
Ways I do clean my water: I will use a wad of blue/white filter floss if things get kicked up: it comes out after a single day, and I always wince at the loss of pods.
Now, mind, this is MY style of tank: doesn't make it the only way in the universe to run a tank---tthere are, for instance, the lovely, white-sand, low-nutrient TOTM (tank of the month) types...which I pretty well know I will never have. My tank has patches of very untidy stuff. I run sps, lps, small fish, lots of fuge life. I don't have ich, don't have disease, do have bubblealgae and cyano now and again (sunlight from kitchen window)---it's NOT a pristine hyper-controlled tank: it looks more like a fuge with corals---
and, yep, you can see film algae here and there before my blenny gets it.
But it's alive. It crawls, at night. And the fish have a lot of spare hours occupation chasing pods and mysis. I have a lot of spare hours occupation scraping coralline off my glass.
This isn't a critique of the pristine tank. But newbies, particularly fresh-water-trained newbies, walking into a store with all those super filter displays and trying to buy the right equipment for their tank do need to know two things:
1. any filter is a pita when it comes to creating nitrate pockets: rock and sand is far the better and produces NO nitrate pockets.
2. you pay in pods for filter socks. They're good to have on hand, however. In case you move a rock and kick up goo.
3. white sand is a choice, among many choices. Depends on your style.
But stay away from filters unless you keep big fish in a fowlr. The TOTMs are a whole different pursuit, and you need to do a lot of research and study and gather know-how to do those. They also require time and dedication, and a small smattering of good luck with a large dose of really good set-up.
HTH...and makes people feel better about their own little patch of cyano. Doesn't make you a bad reefer. Just means your tank is like a lot of other tanks.
Here's mine: 54g bow with 30g sump containing 20g fuge. This is about 12 mos after the Big Move and re-setup.
Oh---that white sand? I've moved that out: it kept blowing and bugging my corals. I'm going to install coarser, less pristine-looking medium grade aragonite, which FINALLY has come in at my lfs. I pick it up today.
Paint my background? Naw---I just let coralline and red algae take it. It would anyway.
Pods, (amphi and cope), mysis, bits of sponge, worms---and occasional stupid small fish.
Ways I do clean my water: I will use a wad of blue/white filter floss if things get kicked up: it comes out after a single day, and I always wince at the loss of pods.
Now, mind, this is MY style of tank: doesn't make it the only way in the universe to run a tank---tthere are, for instance, the lovely, white-sand, low-nutrient TOTM (tank of the month) types...which I pretty well know I will never have. My tank has patches of very untidy stuff. I run sps, lps, small fish, lots of fuge life. I don't have ich, don't have disease, do have bubblealgae and cyano now and again (sunlight from kitchen window)---it's NOT a pristine hyper-controlled tank: it looks more like a fuge with corals---
and, yep, you can see film algae here and there before my blenny gets it. But it's alive. It crawls, at night. And the fish have a lot of spare hours occupation chasing pods and mysis. I have a lot of spare hours occupation scraping coralline off my glass.
This isn't a critique of the pristine tank. But newbies, particularly fresh-water-trained newbies, walking into a store with all those super filter displays and trying to buy the right equipment for their tank do need to know two things:
1. any filter is a pita when it comes to creating nitrate pockets: rock and sand is far the better and produces NO nitrate pockets.
2. you pay in pods for filter socks. They're good to have on hand, however. In case you move a rock and kick up goo.
3. white sand is a choice, among many choices. Depends on your style.
But stay away from filters unless you keep big fish in a fowlr. The TOTMs are a whole different pursuit, and you need to do a lot of research and study and gather know-how to do those. They also require time and dedication, and a small smattering of good luck with a large dose of really good set-up.
HTH...and makes people feel better about their own little patch of cyano. Doesn't make you a bad reefer. Just means your tank is like a lot of other tanks.
Here's mine: 54g bow with 30g sump containing 20g fuge. This is about 12 mos after the Big Move and re-setup.
Oh---that white sand? I've moved that out: it kept blowing and bugging my corals. I'm going to install coarser, less pristine-looking medium grade aragonite, which FINALLY has come in at my lfs. I pick it up today.
Paint my background? Naw---I just let coralline and red algae take it. It would anyway.
