Cryptic Zone for Sponges in the Sump/Refugium

[CastAway]

Excellent video @mcarroll!

 

[Ashish Patel]

cryptic zone is doing excellent, The sponges on the rock have inflated like a balloon and few started to spreading on surrounding rock. Since adding the cryptic zone i've noticed most of the SPS frags have started to encrust and increased PE at night! I am considered removing some rock and just adding multiple layers of eggcrate with few piece of rubble. Eggcrate seeded with few sponges should spread in all direction instead of just a pile of rock aswell as increased waterflow... Besides only thing I can see making the egg crate home is sponges and small feather dusters, prefer not to give more home to bristle worms.

 

[User]

Awesome tank. I'm planning the exact same thing, but with a 29 gallon tank. I'm planning to feed it from the return, dialing the flow back on a manifold to around 5x turnover. Any idea what your flow is through the cryptic, or the turnover inside?

Thanks!

 

[Ashish Patel]

Thanks, I'd say 10X turnover. Flow is coming from multiple 1/4" holes so flow is strong and gentle. If it was coming from 1 inlet pipe it would be too much!

 

[User]

Thanks, I'd say 10X turnover. Flow is coming from multiple 1/4" holes so flow is strong and gentle. If it was coming from 1 inlet pipe it would be too much!

You don’t have any addition powerheads in there, right? This is all tee’d off the return?

Thanks

 

[Ashish Patel]

You don’t have any addition powerheads in there, right? This is all tee’d off the return?

Thanks

Right, Just a T from the return..

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I had some really nice khalini live rock several years back in a 40B. A few pieces developed some large sponges on the backs and under sides. Had that 40 running for 3 years then moved everything into a 75g that ran for 3 more years. I miss quality rock like that, you just cant get it any more I guess. I also have experienced pineapple sponges in newer tanks and after 6-12 months they disappear.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Quality LR and a cryptic sponges will bring my Phosphates down to 0 if i am not careful. I turned my skimmer of for 5 days for 10 hours per day and Phosphates remain at 0.01. I am starting to feel overskimming is a reason why many of us have a lousy first year... along with lack of patients of course

 

[mcarroll]

IMO, and speaking very generally, the effects of aggressive install and setup timetables combine with effects from aggressive live-stocking goals to make folks feel a need to aggressively remove nutrients from the system in hopes of preventing algae takeovers....or worse.

This was never a good/well-considered strategy for starting a tank, but I don't think we had strong enough tools to do real damage with the back-end part of the strategy until relatively recently so a good percentage (>30%?) of folks had luck with the approach, whether because of it or in spite of it.

It seems like as soon as we got the tools that let us press this "aggressive setup/back-end cleanup" strategy much harder, the weaknesses in the strategy have just become more clear and seemingly more prevalent.

Over-skimming has been wondered about lots in the past in terms of "nutrient-stripping" but the two research(ish) articles that advancedaquarist published on skimmate kinda indicate that's not really likely....skimmers are probably better aerators than nutrient removers. (Aeration could be more important, so that's not a dig against skimmers.) It would still be interesting to specifically test "over-skimming" in a controlled setup to see what could be learned.

 

[Ashish Patel]

So. Trying to bring back an old thread and get a boss crytic fuge going

 

[Emanuel Refer]

Very interesting! I wonder how are the sponges in the cryptic zone doing now? I'm planning to make a cryptic zone of my own. Best regards!

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

You don’t need to clean the Body of your Skimmer. Only the Cup, Throat, “Wiped out with a wet Paper Towel.” Also the Pump, and the Vortex, if you have a Vortex.

 

[Ashish Patel]

You don’t need to clean the Body of your Skimmer. Only the Cup, Throat, “Wiped out with a wet Paper Towel.” Also the Pump, and the Vortex, if you have a Vortex.

Looks like you wrote on a wrong thread, this is about Cryptic fuges

 

[Ashish Patel]

Very interesting! I wonder how are the sponges in the cryptic zone doing now? I'm planning to make a cryptic zone of my own. Best regards!

I transferred everything to a new home and 100 gallon plastic tank, Due to not have flow in the black cryptic box i put it directly in the fish tank, my 3 yellow tangs made it their home so wasnt able to remove it, it still served as a good cryptic zone (not the best) and I finally removed it few months back. I wouldnt spend too much time thinking about it (as i once did), just add rock with sponge in a good area in sump with alot of flow (or add it via pump or manifold), and leave it alone. Sponges are like a natural carbon filter, its pretty impressive how crystal clear my old system is without any care.

 

[Lonely reefer's]

This cryptic zone been working well for me that I don’t use skimmer anymore

 

[Ashish Patel]

This cryptic zone been working well for me that I don’t use skimmer anymore

Thats awesome, i actually just setup a QT tank with same exact sump, Just Rock rubble and no skimmer. I am setting it up just like a display tank but since I may not have fish I need nutrients so rather not do the skimmer, I may have to add fish bc i feel dosing NO/PO is too much testing and work.