OK Two new 75 Starfire tanks on the way and lots of possibilities and money.

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Good to hear from you. I hope it gets resolved sooner rather then later for you.

Taking a few close up pics of one critter at a time is fully worth it. I know you used to really like doing that.

There is a minion stuffed animal in the window across the street, it made me think of you!
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
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Basile

Well-Known Member
Update time !. Uh Huh, you know it's long overdue.


I still have the tanks but i'm shutting down for a while . Need to regroup; lost my job and a tank without a job is not a healthy tank lol. So instead of letting things go i rather sell the stuff clean the tanks and wait till i get a stable income. I ran it without a job as long as i could and now its time to take a break lol Thanks for following. Just to give you an idea, where the money goes i'm in court with a $500/h lawyer fighting for my rights.

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Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
I'm really sorry to hear about the problems are still going mate :( I really hope for a speedy resolution mate and it's sad to hear you're shutting down the tanks after putting so much love and work into them! I really do hope you come back to the hobby soon :) if you want to of course :)
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
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[/URL][/IMG] Hi guys well its been 7 months since i closed up my tank for unforeseen reasons, some of you knows why, but now its seems like i'll be restarting the tanks system. As i go through my equipment and the pictures of the last operation, i'm force to contemplate the successes but also the failure of the system. Will i do the same kind of tank system i had or do i go another route.

My tank was basically a high nutrient system allowing me to keep a very diversified colony of species. Unlike an SPS rigid emphasis on very low nutrients in the water, which i admire as well; mine was aimed at keeping species with lots of demand and with different nutrients for many colony.

I had sponges which demand a high level of bacteria to prosper. I had gorgonians both photosynthetic and non photosynthetic ; which meant that food additives had to be provided. A huge CUC diversity.
herbivore and carnivore fishes, seahorses, and large crabs. Mostly LPS i had also SPS that to my surprise did well considering the high nutrients in the water.

I also had a huge refugium, ran by gravity with lots of different species of macro algae. So in the next few months before restarting the system( i rather wait till spring, better weather to get things shipped) i'll go through memory lane and talked about what worked and what didn't worked. I did many experiments with mixed results, some very good some bad ones.


 
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Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
So glad to hear from you again mate :) and even happier that you're getting things going again! I have to say that your system was one of the coolest with the variety of sponges and nps along with the fuge :)

I'm very much looking forward to following along with your new endeavours! :D
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
So glad to hear from you again mate :) and even happier that you're getting things going again! I have to say that your system was one of the coolest with the variety of sponges and nps along with the fuge :)

I'm very much looking forward to following along with your new endeavours! :D


Thanks that's very nice of you. I'm still on fighting the last battle. It'll be after Christmas that i'll have all goods if i win. I'll be cleaning the tank the next few months. I fore see may ,before i've got the water going again. Sooner is more difficult because some of the stuff has to be cleaned outside, like the sand and the sculptures.We have 2 feet of snow here in Ottawa already, lol.

I'll be using Prodibio products like i did the first time. A great product to jump start your system.
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
One of my success and failure at the same time was, the 12 hour cycle i put my skimmer on for helping my 13 sponges have better nutrients . It worked very well plus my zoos loved it too. HOWEVER; the added particles in the water column favored aiptasia developments, which became a problem.

Even with all the methods of getting rid of them failed. Laser, chemicals, even the filefish who's suppose to like them failed. One reason the filefish who was a know eater, i didn't buy just a filefish i bought a known Killer lol.

One of the reason for that was the filefish found much better morsels in the tank and was quite happy without the aiptasia diet.So in the next tank i don't think of stopping my skimmer therefore will have less sponges if any.

This concludes my observation for the day.
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Basile

Well-Known Member
Today i'll talk about sand, and the ever controversial cleaning vs leaving it alone.

During my system operation i've observed 2 phenomenon. First the biodiversity of an undisturbed stable sand the effects of its biodegradable powers.



Among's the bacteria who are visible by the different shades of color and its distribution pattern; lives an acute population of pods, worms(not bristle worms), emerging snails(hundreds of babies) who are ready to devour any morsel left behind. In fact my sand was so alive it damaged a gorgonian i had, who had fell on its side touching the sand. The little critter ate its tender flesh so fast that it was denude right to the stems in a matter of minutes.

http://www.aquaticlog.com/showcase/image.jpeg?imageId=113573

You can see on these image the Cirratulid worm a super detritus eater. many of the pockets of gases including oxygen produced by the bacterial activity. Within these small pockets also live pods, and othe critter that have yet to identify really. You can check my microscope video of my sand if you like.


So why not vacuum ever so often. First i didn't want to loose the gas pockets full of micro-organism helping in the clean up and denitrification of the sand and water. And why loose all the micro-organism population and flush it down the drain, when they're doing their stuff.



Once i disturbed a corner of my tank and look at how long it would take to rebuild the same structures as before. It took 3 weeks for the gas pockets to return, not as big mind you but to start being noticeable. As for the rest of the worm 2 months to repopulate their dwelings. And how many coutless snail did i loose who knows. One corner didn't make an impact on my system but i can imagine that the whole sand bed at once could send my chemistry into a spike in gases, and nutrients all over.
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So a weekly or monthly vacuuming destroy an important part of the filtration and ecosystem of a tank. Can it be done once a year and by stages and on different areas of the tank once a year; i suppose so in fact it may be a solution to other problems. I don't know which one yet.
 
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Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
How about only vacuuming half the tank. I only vacuum the front part of the tank in which I can reach. I can't reach half the tank, which might harbor all these critters.
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
How about only vacuuming half the tank. I only vacuum the front part of the tank in which I can reach. I can't reach half the tank, which might harbor all these critters.
Well like i said ; done maybe once a year is a possibility, but i don't really know which problem it addresses its a choice for each to make, i just gave my observation on my tank and why i wont do it in the next operation .
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I know. Seems to not be an issue thus far in my tank. Corals are growing into each other and fighting over space while the fish swim by not noticing anything in particular :dunno:
 
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