MARINE PURE

[ScottB]

I feel like I have a lot of rock about 200lbs being that I plan on doin sps with alot of fish and don’t want a Refugium wanted 2 be safe

Hear ya. Likely that is sufficient for nitrification. What kind of rock tho? Caution: I am kinda militant about needing LIVE rock for SPS.

 

[jose hernandez]

i have marco dry rock wanted to go barebottom but im a huge fan of wrasses so decided on live sand as well

 

[ScottB]

i have marco dry rock wanted to go barebottom but im a huge fan of wrasses so decided on live sand as well

There is an increasingly common opinion (which I share) that says you should include some aged, live rock in your start up. It will speed up the system maturation process in preparation for SPS corals.

 

[Greybeard]

My current system, a 140g display, has only about 60lbs of 'Real Reef' rock, and a HDPE substrate (bare bottom). I was initially concerned that I might be limited on bio-filter media, and added a big block of MarinePure to the sump.

KZ Zeovit system, skimmer, BRS 2pt via DOS controlled by Trident, no refugeum.

Did a Dr. Tim's startup, followed by a KZ startup, I'm about 4 months in now. So far so good. Alk/Calc/Mag stable, Nitrate 5ppm, Phosphate 0.11ppm. Only have a dozen frags or so, mostly stix, they're doing well. Color is good, polyp extension is good...

I sent in a sample for ICP testing, haven't gotten the results yet. We'll see.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

There is an increasingly common opinion (which I share) that says you should include some aged, live rock in your start up. It will speed up the system maturation process in preparation for SPS corals.

Really interesting that you used old water but not old rock. I sometimes encounter the view that “most of the microbes are in the rock, what’s in the water doesn’t matter”. Of course, direct counts show tens of thousands of bacteria per ml of aquarium water, and DNA evidence shows these include many of the ones hobbyists care about.

 

[jose hernandez]

i did not use old water i made fresh ro water took 2 days to fill up the tank as far as the marine pure would 1 be sufficient or 2

 

[Greybeard]

Really interesting that you used old water but not old rock. I sometimes encounter the view that “most of the microbes are in the rock, what’s in the water doesn’t matter”. Of course, direct counts show tens of thousands of bacteria per ml of aquarium water, and DNA evidence shows these include many of the ones hobbyists care about.

In this video from Dr. Tim Hovanec, (fast forward to 19:23, if you're in a hurry, though the entire presentation is excellent.)
...Almost no bacteria in aquarium water...

 

[Scrubber_steve]

...Almost no bacteria in aquarium water...

Hi; Just watched that section at this time, but Hovanec’s words were “there are very few nitrifiers in the water”.
Although there is undoubtedly plenty of bacteria in general in the water column this demonstrates conflicting information put forward by two scientists.
If there is "very few nitrifiers in the water" how effective is carbon dosing? I don't carbon dose myself, but as I understand it, the process works by increasing the population of in-organic nutrient processing bacteria with carbon, these bacteria take up inorganic nutrients, & then they are removed from the water via protein skimming. These particular nutrient processing bacteria live in/on surfaces, but to be removed via skimming they must also be in the water column.

In any case, Adam Derickson of Battle Corals states that the "system tested is not that old" & "I actually didn't use any of the rock from my older system, I did use a lot of the water. I transferred a few hundred gallons from the old, to the new when I initially set it up."

Eli from AquaBiotics, who ran the test on the Battel Corals system had this to say - "One of the things that really stood out about your tank for me is the high levels of nutrient-processing microbes. Ammonia-oxidizing microbes made up almost 8% of your sample, which is higher than about 85% of aquariums I’ve tested, about twice as high as the average sample. Your sample also had high levels of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (0.9%), which is among the highest of any tanks tested (higher than 96% of samples), and over 3-times higher than the average sample."
===============================

So who to believe?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

In this video from Dr. Tim Hovanec, (fast forward to 19:23, if you're in a hurry, though the entire presentation is excellent.)
...Almost no bacteria in aquarium water...

This response from AquaBiomics, in another thread, answers the question regarding ammonia & nitrite oxidising bacteria percentages in water samples compared to swab samples taken from a R2R participant's tank..

MnFish1 said:
What was the difference between the 'swab' and the 'water'. was there any ammonia reducing bacteria in the free water? Thanks.