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- Dec 9, 2014
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- tejas
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Team, this is a prep step thread for your tank to be ready for extended blackouts. People are aware of backup power supplies, generators, bubblers etc (hardware) but what’s rare to see is the actual recommended changes to a reef tank biologically that give it the best chance to live while stilled
Did you know stilled (no circulation) reefing already exists? We have full running reefs already in the hobby that live each day without motion. if you want to research it then one place is the biotope forum at nano-reef.com, and another place is google “pj reefs micro reefs” and read about those. Granted, those are nano systems not for tangs and 15 fish and top shelf sps, but in prepping such a tank for the ride there are things to copy from these systems and these approaches are key to prepping your tank, and it’s bacteria, for the still time
#1 above all is clean out your tank before the outage, it’s the single most important biological prep step. Be able to reach into your sand, grab a hand full to the very bottom, drop it, and nothing clouds (snow globe effect clean) this alone is the top requirement for currented tanks to go still for a while. Everything reef teachers state and have taught about detritus storage / sandbed regulation of detritus stops when the current stops. Loads of cloudy detritus are heaps and loads of mixed aerobic bacteria heterotrophs (non filter bac) and these compete en masse for oxygen against your fish during stilled times, if they die as a mass colony they release poison into the water
the sandbed has millions of unneeded bac colonies feeding on cloudy detritus, and if they sap the o2 your snails go first, then a fish back in the rocks (next prep step is accessibility) and then with the typical loss cascade the water goes cloudy and the rest of the fish die, sometimes the filth we’ve been trained to keep vs export outcompetes for o2 even with a bubbler setup...you must clean your reef and go against the grain we’ve been trained if you want the best chance for your reef to survive predicted outages
Stilled nano reefs that run long term without motion are clean reefs, they’re not classic dsb reefs showing black and red and green pigmentation in the sandbed like most tanks, clean your tank to save it, do CPR before the event, not in reaction.
#2 when reassembling after cleaning, don’t have a rock stack where fish can hide. Take out some rocks if you need room to see all fish and clean up crews, or rearrange into bommies vs wall so that the one fish that dies can be accessed and removed. Swish your rocks out individually in buckets of fresh saltwater so that cloudy detritus ejects and clean rocks are put back
Anywhere you store detritus in the tank, undo that and your reef $ has the best biological prep possible. There are many ways to clean tanks in steps, if you want to see a thread solely designed on full tank cleaning in one pass meeting the criteria above then search out the official sand rinse thread and post us your before and after prep pics, plus your sandbed drop tests so we can collect mass preps and follow up on outcomes
B
Did you know stilled (no circulation) reefing already exists? We have full running reefs already in the hobby that live each day without motion. if you want to research it then one place is the biotope forum at nano-reef.com, and another place is google “pj reefs micro reefs” and read about those. Granted, those are nano systems not for tangs and 15 fish and top shelf sps, but in prepping such a tank for the ride there are things to copy from these systems and these approaches are key to prepping your tank, and it’s bacteria, for the still time
#1 above all is clean out your tank before the outage, it’s the single most important biological prep step. Be able to reach into your sand, grab a hand full to the very bottom, drop it, and nothing clouds (snow globe effect clean) this alone is the top requirement for currented tanks to go still for a while. Everything reef teachers state and have taught about detritus storage / sandbed regulation of detritus stops when the current stops. Loads of cloudy detritus are heaps and loads of mixed aerobic bacteria heterotrophs (non filter bac) and these compete en masse for oxygen against your fish during stilled times, if they die as a mass colony they release poison into the water
the sandbed has millions of unneeded bac colonies feeding on cloudy detritus, and if they sap the o2 your snails go first, then a fish back in the rocks (next prep step is accessibility) and then with the typical loss cascade the water goes cloudy and the rest of the fish die, sometimes the filth we’ve been trained to keep vs export outcompetes for o2 even with a bubbler setup...you must clean your reef and go against the grain we’ve been trained if you want the best chance for your reef to survive predicted outages
Stilled nano reefs that run long term without motion are clean reefs, they’re not classic dsb reefs showing black and red and green pigmentation in the sandbed like most tanks, clean your tank to save it, do CPR before the event, not in reaction.
#2 when reassembling after cleaning, don’t have a rock stack where fish can hide. Take out some rocks if you need room to see all fish and clean up crews, or rearrange into bommies vs wall so that the one fish that dies can be accessed and removed. Swish your rocks out individually in buckets of fresh saltwater so that cloudy detritus ejects and clean rocks are put back
Anywhere you store detritus in the tank, undo that and your reef $ has the best biological prep possible. There are many ways to clean tanks in steps, if you want to see a thread solely designed on full tank cleaning in one pass meeting the criteria above then search out the official sand rinse thread and post us your before and after prep pics, plus your sandbed drop tests so we can collect mass preps and follow up on outcomes
B
