PODS!!!! I'm High Fiving You R2Rers!

[NS Mike D]

I'm so Excited, I just can't hide it!



not just any pods ......

Real quick. I was beaten down, ready to break it all down and give away what remained. Dinos.


I started anew bleached the rock, new sand bed rip cleaned and then some, keeping my fish, but feeding that marine sloth of a mandarin was going to be one heck of a needle threading. I'll link my redo build thread if you have any interest in more details, but I'll spare you the pain. It's more for me to keep a log the progress.

For the past 6 weeks or so I have been nurturing this tank back to health, worrying if I can keep up the heavy feeding of mysis and brine until I had a sustainable pod population. I examine this tank closely top to bottom for signs of dinos returns and nuisance algae/bacteria outbreaks once if not more a day.

Everyday, on my mind is when will I be able to dose some reef nutrition tigger pods and maintain a population that can feed the DT? Worries. Patience. Tick Tick Tick

Today, and I mean out of nowhere today, I saw hundreds of baby tiggers on the CPR HOB sump wall and a few darting about. There had to be a hatch of eggs that were not cleaned from the rubble rock.

Like a new dad, I have a bottle (of @Reef Nutrition) phyto fest in the fridge that I will feed my babies (Reef Nutrition is also their grand parents).


Anyway, I am so excited that I wanted to share some good news given, even if it's tiny.



The road remains a long and difficult one, but I will embrace these small steps forward.


here is the painful redo thread as promised (but I warned you it's a snoozer)

Build Thread - Redo Taking Lessons From My Failures - The Dino's won Round1

I am I the process of breaking down my 29gal mixed reef tank, doing a complete scrub and starting somewhat anew. I'll link my tank thread for background, but in a nut shell, I started about 5 years ago on a whim with a 29gal petco tank, some live rock and a pair of clowns. The tank did...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

Reef nutrition is great, my tank eats roti feast heartily

that is really neat about checking samples of the clean system for offender cells, see them even before massing/ nice intercept planning there

 

[NS Mike D]

Reef nutrition is great, my tank eats roti feast heartily

that is really neat about checking samples of the clean system for offender cells, see them even before massing/ nice intercept planning there

I didn't post it here, but I am very very concerned with the cheato in the HOB and dinos. The HOB was overrun by caulerpa and the cheato was a fraction of its original mass. I pulled most of the caulerpa out (still removing bits and pieces that I come across), but the remaining cheato has nuisance algae on it. I cut what I could leaving a golf ball sized mass. But I noticed fairly quickly brown/red algae like covering on the edges. could it be dinos again? or just some diatoms or other new tank uglies. Some build up on the walls too.

I hate to pull that cheato. I was hoping it would grow quickly and I could trim to removed the unwanted stuff.

Now that I see a new pod population, I don't want to mess with the HOB. Plus, with lack of corals and filter feeders, I need as much cheato as I can to help keep uptake the NO3/PO4, especially with the need to over feed.

Now that I replaced the light on the lower sump, that cheato ball is a deep green and growing, but still too small to harvest some and transplant it to the HOB.

I feel like it's a race with time with the cheato.

I did have a small rock covered in "brown dust" that I pulled up to the weir and brushed it so the "cloud" that came off with in into the weir and down to the filer socks.

Man, this restart is nerve racking

 

[Michael Gray]

so how did u beat it ... because my waterbox will on the corner with a free sign if im not dino free by may1 lol

 

[NS Mike D]

so how did u beat it ... because my waterbox will on the corner with a free sign if im not dino free by may1 lol

here is my thread on the redo.

Build Thread - Redo Taking Lessons From My Failures - The Dino's won Round1

I am I the process of breaking down my 29gal mixed reef tank, doing a complete scrub and starting somewhat anew. I'll link my tank thread for background, but in a nut shell, I started about 5 years ago on a whim with a 29gal petco tank, some live rock and a pair of clowns. The tank did...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Michael Gray]

here is my thread on the redo.

Build Thread - Redo Taking Lessons From My Failures - The Dino's won Round1

I am I the process of breaking down my 29gal mixed reef tank, doing a complete scrub and starting somewhat anew. I'll link my tank thread for background, but in a nut shell, I started about 5 years ago on a whim with a 29gal petco tank, some live rock and a pair of clowns. The tank did...

www.reef2reef.com

I refuse to breakdown. If I breakdown it's not going up lol

 

[homer1475]

Plenty of people have beat dino's, myself included without tearing the tank down.

Just have a read through the HUGE dino thread down in the algae section.

 

[Michael Gray]

I'm gonna do the same. I hope if not I'm breaking down to give up. But I really want a acro tank so I'm gonna put up with alot before I call that. Silica and waste away should be here shortly to attempt more things

 

[NS Mike D]

this was approach was for me. Dinos killed my sps & lps. I wanted to rid of the oolite sand and get a more course sand for easier cleaner and I wanted to get rid of some rocks (I had two pieces that were too big for the tank).

I know this was overkill, but a regular rip clean would get rid of most of the problem, save all your rock and corals and give you a much bigger leg up on finishing them off and you can do that in one day with proper preparation.

In retrospect I didn't need to nuke the rocks. I could have just scrubbed, H202 & rinsed the rocks I wanted to reuse

If you plan ahead it's a lot easier than it appears and having clean tank is a great feeling.

 

[NS Mike D]

pods phyto bacteria and snails are keeping the dinos away. The snails also act like the proverbial canary in a coal mine. So long as they flourish I know my fuge has few dinos.