Keep it Simple

[terraincognita]

Of course now you've got me all worked up on the "If I was Jeff Besoz" dream.

I wonder how much it would cost, and the technological availability of setting up a large lab that could study the minute changes throughout the entire making of a reef tank that leads to a "healthy environment"

And if we have technology available today to automate it or if it would require hundreds of full time employees on very high salaries since they most likely would all have to be Chemists/Biologists with degrees.

That'd be the first step, by understanding how it works in a controlled environment though it would help us start "fixing" the ocean which we seem to have slowly been poisoning over the past thousands of years.

 

[Subsea]

Of course now you've got me all worked up on the "If I was Jeff Besoz" dream.

I wonder how much it would cost, and the technological availability of setting up a large lab that could study the minute changes throughout the entire making of a reef tank that leads to a "healthy environment"

And if we have technology available today to automate it or if it would require hundreds of full time employees on very high salaries since they most likely would all have to be Chemists/Biologists with degrees.

That'd be the first step, by understanding how it works in a controlled environment though it would help us start "fixing" the ocean which we seem to have slowly been poisoning over the past thousands of years.

Indian River Lagoon has serval marine research institutes doing in-depth research on marine ecosystems. On this hobby website there is a group of threads using grad students in micro biology to operate different tank themes. Not positive but I think it is connected to Scrips Institute.

 

[Subsea]

Build Thread - Seagrass Aquarium at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

You are giving me goosebumps. My grandfather was the chairman of the NJ Soil and Water Conservation. I grew up helping him conduct studies on dune grasses to protect our coastline. I've always wondered if sea grass could be successful in a reef tank. I am following you... your threads are the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Subsea]

Hi guys!
I work as a graduate student assistant and aquarist at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center. We are a small educational facility designed to showcase all of the research being conducted by the marine scientists and engineers at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, which is located in Fort Pierce, Florida. We have recently renovated the visitors center to include several aquariums that highlight some of our research areas. As a long time hobbyist and member of Reef2Reef I wanted to show everyone here some of the aquariums we have built.

Also check out two of my other threads about aquariums at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/1...t-the-ocean-discovery-visitors-center.413700/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sponge-reef-at-the-ocean-discovery-visitors-center.409311/

The aquarium I would like to highlight is our first ever build that is part of our Marine Ecosystem Health Exhibit. This tank showcases the beauty and importance of seagrass ecosystems that are found in the Indian River Lagoon.

 

[Subsea]

Right, I guess it's a matter of figuring out what sources are missing, and how the inhabitants in the tank respond to it, or rather their natural preferred methods of receiving the nutrients.

I just personally found after adding the additional dosing of NoPox (which happens to be alcohol based) it gave me positive results. I'm also not sure exactly which parts, of which sources of carbon are being directly given to the corals vs rather feeding other microfauna which are then in turn feeding my coral through the natural food chain cycles.

I just know the combination of X,Y,and Z has resulted positively. To be fair, increasing my responsibility for positive results would include much more study. I've yet a lot of further marine biological research to study and comprehend, and I'm always open to good articles and sources of information.

I'd be interested to know how the various sources of nutrients we are providing each react inside the tank with each individual specimen, including all various microfauna.

I'd love to have gone into marine biology now that I'm a reefer.... It fascinates me and I could study it for years on end.

unfortunately the way life works, it's a little to late now to suddenly change career and life paths.

Build Thread - Seagrass Aquarium at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

Hi guys! I work as a graduate student assistant and aquarist at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center. We are a small educational facility designed to showcase all of the research being conducted by the marine scientists and engineers at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Subsea]

If he isn't a good source then I give up on this hobby forever

It's an hour long but I enjoyed almost every minute of it.

@terraincognita
The assumption here is that elements dosed are only uptaken by certain SPS corals to enhance certain colors. I find this simplistic in its assumption to seperate consumers and competitors.

TRACE ELEMENTS Provides the 31 minor and trace elements necessary for coral vitality and color

Red Sea TRACE ELEMENTS- Provides the 31 minor and trace elements necessary for coral vitality and color

www.redseafish.com

Easy supplementing according to Calcium​

Red Sea’s Trace Color supplements have been formulated such that the ratio of the elements in each supplement is the same as that found in the skeleton and soft tissue of corals.

Our research has identified a constant ratio between each of the elements in our Trace-Colors supplements and the overall consumption of calcium, which is proportional to coral growth and metabolic activity. This provides an easy and safe method of dosing all Trace Colors Supplements based on a measured calcium uptake.

 

[terraincognita]

@terraincognita
The assumption here is that elements dosed are only uptaken by certain corals to enhance certain colors. I find this simplistic in its assumption to seperate consumers and competitors.

TRACE ELEMENTS Provides the 31 minor and trace elements necessary for coral vitality and color

Red Sea TRACE ELEMENTS- Provides the 31 minor and trace elements necessary for coral vitality and color

www.redseafish.com

Easy supplementing according to Calcium​

Red Sea’s Trace Color supplements have been formulated such that the ratio of the elements in each supplement is the same as that found in the skeleton and soft tissue of corals.

Our research has identified a constant ratio between each of the elements in our Trace-Colors supplements and the overall consumption of calcium, which is proportional to coral growth and metabolic activity. This provides an easy and safe method of dosing all Trace Colors Supplements based on a measured calcium uptake.

I'm not doing any trace element dosing currently since I've no big SPS colonies just a few frags in my current tank.

I really was going off Carbon dosing information for that video in regards to coral coloration and health.

Re: Trace elements there's a LOT of info out there for sure.

I have ATI 2 Part I was going to finish using up once I got up to a high enough consumption rate. I haven't really seen many reefers using ATI though on this Forum. Most are using the balling method or Triton method.

After that I was looking at RedSea vs Tropic though, or even doing a DIY Kalk set up like a lot of other reefers are doing. I'll take a look at the article though for sure! I appreciate the info!

 

[Subsea]

Could you elaborate more on how this setup works?

"Also included in biochemical filtration is cryptic refugium with reverse flow undergravel filter. Thank you @Paul B"

Aroggonite substrate with a grain size of 0.01mm to 1.0mm covers a false bottom grid. I make mine out of light diffuser eggcrate and fiberglass screen material. Nitrication bacteria colonize sandbed along with numerous detrivores that cycle inorganic & organic nutrients into live food for hungry mouths. A Plenum void is created with 1/2“ pvc which also provides for oxygen rich water to flow up thru sand bed.

Macroalgare meadow provides for nutrient uptake and nutrient export as required. Macroalgae meadow also supplies grazing biofilm for mollies and pods.

AAAS

science.sciencemag.org

[Surviving in a Marine Desert: The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs]​

1. Jasper M. de Goeij1,*,
2. Dick van Oevelen2,
3. Mark J. A. Vermeij3,
4. Ronald Osinga4,
5. Jack J. Middelburg5,
6. Anton F. P. M. de Goeij6,
7. Wim Admiraal1

See all authors and affiliations
Science 04 Oct 2013:
Vol. 342, Issue 6154, pp. 108-110
DOI: 10.1126/science.1241981

• Article
• Figures & Data
• Info & Metrics
• eLetters
• PDF

Sponge Pump​

“Darwin's Paradox” asks how productive and diverse ecosystems like coral reefs thrive in the marine equivalent of a desert. De Goeij et al.(p. 108) now show that coral reef sponges are part of a highly efficient recycling pathway for dissolved organic matter (DOM), converting it, via rapid sponge-cell turnover, into cellular detritus that becomes food for reef consumers. DOM transfer through the sponge loop approaches the gross primary production rates required for the

 

[Subsea]

Highlighting Bortacladia while waiting on the divers for good weather.

 

[Dave_1972]

@Subsea

-Thanks for the reply. In reading your original post I thought you were saying you were combining your cryptic zone with an RUGF beneath it. Is that correct? Or is the RUGF beneath the Macroalgae refugium and the cryptic zone separate from that?

-I was thinking that might be an interesting way to create the slow flow the CMAT articles talk about in Cryptic zones but was wondering if that could also result in more large particulate matter being ingested by sponges and potentially harming them?

I'm still long-term planning my own reef system and I am highly interested in the work done by @Lasse , @Paul B, and Steve Tyree. So I am trying to follow how their systems and fish husbandry methodologies work to influence my own design and trying to read any forum threads similar in design and philosophy.

 

[Subsea]

I have Steve Tyree book. I am not cryptic according to his definition. @Paul B influenced me to convert 25 year Jaubert Plenum with DSB into RFUG filter. I pump more water than Paul does. Not sure if @Lasse still pumps skimmate into the void of his RFUG, anarobic digester.

There is no algae refugium in this all glass aquarium, which has a meadow of Caulerpa.

Build Thread - 25 year old 75G Jaubert Plenum on top with 30G EcoSystem Mud/Macro

The tank has seen little change in 25 years. Jaubert Plenum was designed to use facultative bacteria in a low oxygen environment to perform denitrification biochemistry. Substrate was 6” deep with false bottom making a Plenum under substrate. Plenum performed well until the introduction of...

www.reef2reef.com

This tank has a 3 compartment EcoSystem mud/algae refugium on bottom and a 75G RFUG on top.

 

[X-37B]

Alot of interestng reading here!
I carbon dose but only to feed my corals and bacteria at 10ml a day.
I dose EZ carbon which is a blend of vinegar, sugar, and iron.
I do not use it to control no3.
I feed heavy in my 120 with 14 fish.
I use a filter sock and skimmer only on my bare bottom system plus a very small amount of carbon.
Carx for alk and Ca only.
I dose trace which keeps mag and K stable plus some other trace elements included in the ez trace formula.
I also run a no scheduled water
change system.
Only 3 10gal changes in 21 months.
I have mostly sticks with some lps.

On my upgrade to 3x my 120 I will have a seperate 40 breeder macro/dsb/mud system as not yet determined.

With a heavy in/out system my colors are noticably better when po4 is below 0.1 and no3 is below 10.
Ideal is po4 >.06 and no3 >5 for my system.

I am currently upgrading my skimmer to a larger unit as the one I have is at this systems limit.

I will stay tuned to this thread for more info.

 

[Subsea]

[I'm still long-term planning my own reef system and I am highly interested in the work done by @Lasse , @Paul B, and Steve Tyree. So I am trying to follow how their systems and fish husbandry methodologies work to influence my own design and trying to read any forum threads similar in design and philosophy.]

@Dave_1972
Note that the “sponge loop” Dutch research paper was on cryptic sponges. I suggest you speak with @Timfish on cryptic refugiums.

If you want to take a walk on the wild side, consider a “faux” bare bottom tank. Allow for void under “faux plate”.

 

[Subsea]

Right, I guess it's a matter of figuring out what sources are missing, and how the inhabitants in the tank respond to it, or rather their natural preferred methods of receiving the nutrients.

I just personally found after adding the additional dosing of NoPox (which happens to be alcohol based) it gave me positive results. I'm also not sure exactly which parts, of which sources of carbon are being directly given to the corals vs rather feeding other microfauna which are then in turn feeding my coral through the natural food chain cycles.

I just know the combination of X,Y,and Z has resulted positively. To be fair, increasing my responsibility for positive results would include much more study. I've yet a lot of further marine biological research to study and comprehend, and I'm always open to good articles and sources of information.

I'd be interested to know how the various sources of nutrients we are providing each react inside the tank with each individual specimen, including all various microfauna.

I'd love to have gone into marine biology now that I'm a reefer.... It fascinates me and I could study it for years on end.

unfortunately the way life works, it's a little to late now to suddenly change career and life paths.

See if this is of interest. If Chaeto likes it, why wouldn’t coral zooanthellia like it?

Brightwell Aquatics - ChaetoGro

Overview​

• For all marine aquariums & ULNS systems
• Shrimp & Invertebrate safe
• Phosphate & Nitrate free
• Provides 13 elements critical to long-term health, growth, and coloration of aquatic plants
• Well-suited to ULNS aquariums and designed for nutrient control of phosphates and nitrates by chaetomorpha uptake
• Formulated utilizing extensive research on aquatic algae nutrient requirements

Sizes​

250ml | 500ml

Technical Background​

Nutrients are substances required by algae for survival; they are collectively involved in all aspects of the biological and chemical reactions that allow algae to function properly. Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro provides these substances in concentrations found by researchers to be necessary for long-term health. These elements, and some of the processes that they are involved in, are:

Potassium - Protein synthesis, water and charge balance, enzyme activation.
Boron - Chlorophyll production, flowering, root growth, cell function.
Carbon - Required for all organic compounds.
Calcium - Cell wall stability and permeability, enzyme activation, cell response to stimuli.
Chlorine - Water and charge balance, photosynthesis.
Iron - Required for photosynthesis, component of enzymes utilized in redox reactions.
Magnesium - Component of chlorophyll, enzyme activation.
Manganese - Formation of amino acids, enzyme activation.
Molybdenum and Cobalt - Required for nitrate reduction.
Nickel - Enzyme activation, processing of nitrogenous material.
Sulfur - Component of proteins and the coenzymes that are involved with nutrient utilization and growth.
Zinc - Chlorophyll production, enzyme activation.

ChaetoGro does not contain phosphorus or nitrogen

 

[Lasse]

Not sure if @Lasse still pumps skimmate into the void of his RFUG, anarobic digester.

No i do not for the moment - maybe start again

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Subsea]

Lasse,,
Everytime I see quote in your signature, I laugh inside because it is so true.

[I am not young enough to know everything, but neither so old that I forgotten everything;]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

 

[Subsea]

Too much photosynthesis producing bubbles on all seaweed surfaces including diatom dust in substrate.

Natural sunlight from two 2’ by 4’ windows, one facing NE and one facing NW.

LED light bars at 4’ and 3’ provide 27W per foot. Color rendition on 3’ bar is about 14K and it makes coral pop. The 10K color rendition on 4’ bar highlights greens, reds and yellows of fish.

I just turned off 4’ bar with 14K on right 2/3 of tank. Note how Red Grapes color is more subdued under 14K compared to 10K. The left 1/3 of tank is lite by 6500 Kelvin natural sunlight.

 

[Subsea]

In anticipation of 50lbs of uncured diver collected live rock, curing in 55G aquarium, I ordered two pints of EcoPods. One pint was going into this tank and the rest divided up to seed other systems.

 

[Subsea]

@Subsea

-Thanks for the reply. In reading your original post I thought you were saying you were combining your cryptic zone with an RUGF beneath it. Is that correct? Or is the RUGF beneath the Macroalgae refugium and the cryptic zone separate from that?

-I was thinking that might be an interesting way to create the slow flow the CMAT articles talk about in Cryptic zones but was wondering if that could also result in more large particulate matter being ingested by sponges and potentially harming them?

I'm still long-term planning my own reef system and I am highly interested in the work done by @Lasse , @Paul B, and Steve Tyree. So I am trying to follow how their systems and fish husbandry methodologies work to influence my own design and trying to read any forum threads similar in design and philosophy.

Dave,
I read your proposed tank thread discussion with Lasse. What do you plan on keeping in your system?

The point of this thread, is to show “elegance in simplicity”.

 

[Subsea]

Musings from the Sofa:

Curious as to weather pods can act as a cleaning station and a refueling depot at the same time.

Instead of Pepperming Shrimp cleaning everything off, amphipods & copepods would be less abrasive. Once desired level of cleaning is accomplished, live rock with pods can be removed and used to seed cultures of pods elsewhere.

Prior to cycling this 55G tank, most everything was in a 30G tank. After the 30G was cycled for nitrification bacteria, it was seeded with live rock that had resident amphipod population, after which one peppermint shrimp was added to tank. A week later, I noticed absence of amphipods when lights came on.