Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

[Alexreefer]

Ok, will do a drop test after school today. I have a 6 stage brs rodi 0 tds. I will siphon out where I see the invader and will post a close-up pic. Will reduce white and ordered from reef cleaners a cleanup crew and they should come today. That should help suppress this.

Thanks, Alex

 

[brandon429]

make sure they have nothing to feed on

they're ok to add, but your manual removal is what keeps the cells from dividing--we run a couple of hand guides after the initial cleaning to truly see if the invader rebounds equally or trails off, lacking feed

its a total change of reefing approach to the norms where the invader is literally left in place

vs removing it now that the tank is pretty clean, as hand guiding. like a garden with a few dandelions left, we just pull the dandelions from the root.

The cuc can eat what you feed for the fish etc, but make sure you don't leave the invader in the tank. Its rare to have total growback to original mass even in one week, Im thinking the growback is small, easily accessed do u have a pic


if your sourcewater is testing 0/0 that's good to eliminate that variable yes agreed. lighting intensity reduction and blue is safe for sure, even a healthy reef can tolerate that minor change as overcast conditions on the real reef might cause at times

If we search out rock curing threads, where bare rock is brought up to live rock purple quality, these associates aren't unusual they're expected and that dry rock really could be feeding them for just a while.

Id prefer your invasion to just about any other, its easy to guide out with just a few rounds, the rest don't even have to be deep cleans just topical work

lets see pics to compare to the first

 

[brandon429]

Alex


Also I remember you from about two years ago in Brandon's classroom thread Im pretty sure that's where it was from



the level of aquarium science you are working within is astounding, you are going to go far in this science your setup has a strong foundation to it and its going to mature into a purple coral dense reef
B

 

[Alexreefer]

Took a picture and will post drop test soon.

 

[brandon429]

Looking good that's very light coverage, looks like it's trying to regroup from leftovers possibly from rocks but it's very low level/easy to remove with a gallon or so siphoned out to remove it, easy

System still looks good for first cleaning run, I think looks great

If the bed is still pretty cloud free that kind of easy growth can be removed fast/no takedown/ just by siphoning out that actual tiny top layer portion in that corner, rinse out the sand that you remove in tap water (just a small quick amount of the offending top layer) and then just drop it back all clean, since the whole system is cloudless you can remove portions like that now easy and fast without a takedown

 

[Alexreefer]

Just did a quick water change and got the sand with the invader.

Will post drop test soon.

 

[Alexreefer]

Here is the video

 

[brandon429]

Alex thank you so much for your detailed work it’s just exactly what we need here




The rinse? A score of 105% of course. Plus, what fun is a totally compliant invader anyway we want a coliseum battle. We get to see if the target is strong enough to remass equally every time even with these new alignments, or does it abate over time

Your detailed video and pic of the light guiding above shows determination, and alignment of your aquarium to allow for access. I promise it looks sharp in the work above, truly I think it will come back slower with our re access and lighting adjust
your work will help other people see how instating access turns out long run

 

[brandon429]

I truly believe this is a form of ecological exercise vs inactivity + invasion/infection and it’s a timed benefit, but it comes fast

The whole premise here is this work stops/slows over time, nobody would want to reef if they had to work this hard always

We’re seeking totally purpled rocks, purely coralline covered...that’s when your work nearly stops on the hand guiding business because you had access the whole time it matured that way, you ran things clean. We still get purple live rock systems who present sometimes with invasion, but they’re cloud storers when they show up and since they have coralline, a quick bed rinse often helps them fine we show

*in cracks and crevices beside coralline areas algae can attach as live rock grows towards total coralline coverage. Those areas need detailed work to guide the plants out, or lucky grazing, but either way algae seeks out the non-coralline niches where possible and is bio rejected away from coralline in a majority of settings.

*in the emergency forum there’s a bare bottom live rock system who has dinos invasion, those are just hard no matter what...still tasking there to see what works. By and large, coralline rejects algae anchoring however and it does it well. Maturing rocks, or using matured rocks, and having a managed sandbed, is how to make cruise control take over




It’s the up front work only. Then you age it, get to back off except for basic work for good.

Blusop’s white sand method thread is how to maintain a big tank DSB like yours without having to take back apart. You indeed prepped that sand correctly.
action, turnover and export are CPR for your ecosystem

Takes a few pumps/compression then the ecosystem breathes and has better redox and is better in all ways after the storm.


My own 13 yr pico reef nearly runs itself. I must top it off occasionally but I can skip feeding and water changes for weeks that would kill other new tanks, I literally never work to clean algae ever. It’s 100% coralline and coral flesh, there’s no where for algae to anchor. I still usually feed it well but the point is I don’t have to do any hand guiding work to enjoy reefing, I put my time in during 2007-9

 

[Alexreefer]

Thanks for that. Will post pictures everday to show progress. Hope to have a beautiful tank one day

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I just rinsed my Fiji pink arag alive today. I am redoing my 10 year old rockscape and pulling the gravel and putting in sand Sunday. Not concerned with bacteria with all the rock and other I have.

Also trying to combat algae and Dino so we will see what happens. I rinsed 130 pounds crystal clear. Took forever

 

[brandon429]

Well done team it's all perfect documentation of deep work

I noticed your thread earlier about the redo, thank you for posting

 

[Alexreefer]

A day after "grazing" and some invader forming but nothing to bad.

 

[Alexreefer]

Noticed that my invader is nowhere to be seen in the beginning of my light schedule. It only shows near the middle to wnd of my light cycle. Would this help to figure out if it is diatoms or dinos?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

My redo almost done. Thanks to rinsing my tanks about 75% clear. That is really huge considering I pulled out 100# plus of gravel that some hasn’t been touched in 10 years. The gravel in the dead spots behind was almost cement.

Here’s a PSA on cleaning..

What I took out


8 hours after first top came off the tank and change done

 

[brandon429]

MastiffsRule

That's the oldest sandbed worked here. You were able to attain the ages long stratification where the bed was allowed to process its waste although it still was in various states upon removal. All very rich ferts, now without it all you'll have control over phosphate and nitrate sinks


****did you see handfuls of moving awesome worms and animals in your ten yr dsb, the hallmark reason people will not touch them along with bacterial concerns that rinses are antimicrobial

You having just worked quite a healthy aged sandbed, you didn't mix layers it really did sink away wastes for a long time, it did what it was designed to do I don't fault it

It's a finite system though compared to total access, or at least occasional cleaning. You can only fit so much into a few inches of sand, and you made it last. You have big $ fish on the line which I'm sure mean more as pets, true surgery has risks

You isolated the sensitives from the detritus


the rocks had enough bacteria all along

Sand bacteria are optional, and in excess compared to true basic needs. They do command lots of oxygen, this dark decanted water would show billions of colony forming units

I'm not against sandbedding at all but when it comes time to slice and dice we want that work documented because it can be used during moves and upgrades and emergency my tank cracked threads (how to skip cycle)


thorough and fast cleaning of reef substrates, is safer than working in partials. Hesitation makes the rip clean dangerous because it exposes detritus to sensitives, but being deliberate and separating in approach makes it work always. Sword of Damocles


Incidental losses as they may occur are evaluated against the total investment post transfer to see if the method is solid science (coincidentally Alex another reefer lost a goby on a water change I didn't know they had a sensitivity pattern but it's emerging)

 

[Mastiffsrule]

MastiffsRule

That's the oldest sandbed worked here. You were able to attain the ages long stratification where the bed was allowed to process its waste although it still was in various states upon removal. All very rich ferts, now without it all you'll have control over phosphate and nitrate sinks


****did you see handfuls of moving awesome worms and animals in your ten yr dsb, the hallmark reason people will not touch them along with bacterial concerns that rinses are antimicrobial

You having just worked quite a healthy aged sandbed, you didn't mix layers it really did sink away wastes for a long time, it did what it was designed to do I don't fault it

It's a finite system though compared to total access, or at least occasional cleaning. You can only fit so much into a few inches of sand, and you made it last.

One of the weirdest things is my tank hasn’t had worms or pods in years. It was course gravel.

I always ran Po4 close to 1 and No3 close to 40. I am old school, so rarely ever test, don’t chase numbers. I just had mostly softies and everyone did well.

I mainly did this partialy from you thread. I was laid up for a few months years ago and somehow Dino appeared. I really didn’t care too much since I believe let the tank do it’s thing. But after about 2 years it started getting invasive so time for redo

I did lose some blue legs I think. I’ll keep my other thread update good or bad.

Thanks for the thread

 

[brandon429]

Mastiffs yes agreed thanks tons, we want to chart any losses, perhaps some aspect of moves even if unrelated to ammonia are lethal. Interesting, we chart patterns here yep

Moving those huge fish, serious biz right there. That's serious on the line for skip cycle surgery documentation. Your tank just got a trip to the dentist did it not
Evacuated
Jetted. Poked and prodded lol and bleeding slightly but overall healthy

Hungry for re packing / next ten/ circle





Alex
Regarding dinos v cyano can you take a sample to science lab I'll b so happy it's fun, and your cell phone works amazingly. Find you sample nice n clear focus, then bring in your cell and put it right up close, touching then try pulling away one micron lol it'll focus I took this pic of a STILL unidentifed animal with a two megapixel junk flip phone camera

my teachers would let me bring in goodies after hours, see if your science teacher will identify

Cyano is my guess and we have a friend in the chemistry forum right now Dan who studies cyano, with pics, quite scientifically and we'd defer to his ID for the final.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Mastiffs yes agreed thanks tons, we want to chart any losses, perhaps some aspect of moves even if unrelated to ammonia are lethal. Interesting, we chart patterns here yep

Moving those huge fish, serious biz right there. That's serious on the line for skip cycle surgery documentation. Your tank just got a trip to the dentist did it not
Evacuated
Jetted. Poked and prodded lol and bleeding slightly but overall healthy

Hungry for re packing / next ten/ circle





Alex
Regarding dinos v cyano can you take a sample to science lab I'll b so happy it's fun, and your cell phone works amazingly. Find you sample nice n clear focus, then bring in your cell and put it right up close, touching then try pulling away one micron lol it'll focus I took this pic of a STILL unidentifed animal with a two megapixel junk flip phone camera

my teachers would let me bring in goodies after hours, see if your science teacher will identify

Cyano is my guess and we have a friend in the chemistry forum right now Dan who studies cyano, with pics, quite scientifically and we'd defer to his ID for the final.

Owe you a big thanks.
I put all my rock back in, but as you can see it stirred up a lot of stuff and I put in that new sand bed. Totally forgot to do another ammonia check before going upstairs. Ran down , alls good. Still will monitor to be sure.

Thanks again

 

[Alexreefer]

Mastiffs yes agreed thanks tons, we want to chart any losses, perhaps some aspect of moves even if unrelated to ammonia are lethal. Interesting, we chart patterns here yep

Moving those huge fish, serious biz right there. That's serious on the line for skip cycle surgery documentation. Your tank just got a trip to the dentist did it not
Evacuated
Jetted. Poked and prodded lol and bleeding slightly but overall healthy

Hungry for re packing / next ten/ circle





Alex
Regarding dinos v cyano can you take a sample to science lab I'll b so happy it's fun, and your cell phone works amazingly. Find you sample nice n clear focus, then bring in your cell and put it right up close, touching then try pulling away one micron lol it'll focus I took this pic of a STILL unidentifed animal with a two megapixel junk flip phone camera



my teachers would let me bring in goodies after hours, see if your science teacher will identify

Cyano is my guess and we have a friend in the chemistry forum right now Dan who studies cyano, with pics, quite scientifically and we'd defer to his ID for the final.

Thanks. I will try and do that and also send out another icp as they lost my first one. Will see if I have silicates and if not then I can rule diatoms out.