Substrate change

[NowGlazeIT]

I went for the caribsea pink Fiji alive, was this a mistake?

I know some places you can pick the grain size of that sand but it typically comes in a .5-1m which is a little small for my liking. I prefer the Reef grade by Carib sea. Perfect size grain for my universal needs, does not blow around with my gyres at 100%

 

[TimD]

That was my second option all my old picos online used pre rinsed Fiji pink

I’m actually getting excited now (for a 56yr old male I better calm down) and looking forward to it, painkillers on standby

 

[Quietman]

I went for the caribsea pink Fiji alive, was this a mistake?

Sand is sand as long as your using the stuff designed for reef tanks. Use what you like based on appearance and what can handle the flow you like. I've come to agree with most that wet sand really doesn't make a difference. I used wet when setting up my tank at first and I don't know but there's something that feels wrong not rinsing sand before I put it in my tank.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Sand is sand as long as your using the stuff designed for reef tanks. Use what you like based on appearance and what can handle the flow you like. I've come to agree with most that wet sand really doesn't make a difference. I used wet when setting up my tank at first and I don't know but there's something that feels wrong not rinsing sand before I put it in my tank.

Oh yea I agree, once you rinse sand and see the dirt come out, there is no going back hah

 

[TimD]

I’m actually getting excited now (for a 56yr old male I better calm down) and looking forward to it, painkillers on standby

Last question then I’ll leave you be for now could I remove 1/3 of my existing rock completely or would this alter the amount of bacteria too much. I’m someone who started a year ago without doing enough research and I’m going to persevere and ask the right people from now on.

 

[brandon429]

That will be fine it won't leave too little bac. Buried in those pages are some rock removals too, we are all vastly above the amount of live rock needed to run our bioloading and even occasional losses. We also have inverse ways of assessing the power of surface area, such as this thread where he added twenty fish all at once. Ammonia remained in control the whole time due to this massive ability of even half his live rocks:

Suddenly add 20 fish to Established tank

Hi Reefers I need some advice from experts here. So my 65 gallon tank is about 2 years old and was housing 4 fish and around 20+ anemone. Recently I converted into a clownfish harem by adding 20 clownfish all at one time. Suppose 20 is a good number for them not to fight. Right now...

www.reef2reef.com

Removing rocks with the same bioload in place is the inverse test against adding twenty fish to the same degree of former surface area

 

[TimD]

That will be fine it won't leave too little bac. Buried in those pages are some rock removals too, we are all vastly above the amount of live rock needed to run our bioloading and even occasional losses. We also have inverse ways of assessing the power of surface area, such as this thread where he added twenty fish all at once. Ammonia remained in control the whole time due to this massive ability of even half his live rocks:

It’s only an evo 13.5G but it’s mine

 

[brandon429]

Tim so it’s now apparent this is the biggest cheat in reefing right


this technique means your tank cannot have a dinos invasion


or a cyano invasion


or a gha invasion or caulerpa takeover or another way of losing your tank to a growth


watch how in algae problem threads this technique is never considered, it’s too mean


and watch the threads for specific dates their invasion will be fixed using popular methods (open ended, no committed date)

the date in which a reef tank can be free of cyano is exactly one hour after a rip clean

somehow, the cyano is gone

Algae/Cyano Issue Not Improving, Help Please?

Hi all, I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 that has been up and running for 8 months now. My issue is a strange black algae\cyano growth that has plagued me for the last two months+. I have been treating as follows: cleaning gravel twice weekly 20% water changes twice a week Addition of beneficial...

www.reef2reef.com

see how we do the same set of moves whether we want to move a tank successfully, or if we want to swap beds and skip cycle, or if we want to blast cyano to the moon and have a clean, bright hungry reef just after


people hate this cheat but it works so good we better just keep it going. We are about to have an example nano of a 100% covered dinos invasion undergoing a rip clean in another forum. Can’t wait


controlling your nano all at once vs in tiny portions can make it live without any biological lifespan limit. To run a rip clean is to remove the components of reef tank aging and senescence

 

[brandon429]

Let the official record reflect when you are tap rinsing the fiji pink for an hour to get it clean you are going to feel bad, as if you’re committing environmental harm.


thats the forum training being extracted, it’s painful

get the inclination out of you lol at all costs, we can trust the wet rock bacteria I give you my word. I’ve done ten thousand pre rinses and it still feels guilty after 20 years worth. Bottle bac sellers got to us in the 90s, the worlds most adapted organisms for our tanks were painted as the least adaptable and least tough, able to be refreshed by a bottled item

Our form of cleaning is a laugh event to biofilm-encased filtration bacteria.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I still had dinos, probably from the dry rock or imbalanced nutrients but no cyano

 

[TimD]

Let the official record reflect when you are tap rinsing the fiji pink for an hour to get it clean you are going to feel bad, as if you’re committing environmental harm. Bad as in dumping used motor oil in a trout stream


thats the forum training being extracted, it’s painful


add 30 mins more tap rinsing for having that hesitation. get the inclination out of you lol at all costs, we can trust the wet rock bacteria I give you my word. I’ve done ten thousand pre rinses and it still feels guilty after 20 years worth. Bottle bac sellers got to us in the 90s, the worlds most adapted organisms for our tanks were painted as the least adaptable and least tough, able to be refreshed by a bottled item

Our form of cleaning is a laugh event to biofilm-encased filtration bacteria. They were like: I survived Ike b, bring it on

So just to clarify wash the sand to within an inch of its life,drain all the water remove old substrate remove all traces of detritus put sand in and rocks and 100 percent new water. Hopefully it’s that simple

 

[brandon429]

Match temp and salinity to the old water / those two only need to match


we also run lights on lower settings after the new setup and acclimate back up. Since the live rocks only were held in saltwater the core bacteria transferred into the new tank, on top of clean sand, agreed above.

feed lightly just after setup, make use of the new clean settings and it’ll bring corals out the next day. This method is exactly how they move instant start reefs by rows and rows to reef aquarium conventions, and then back home. It’s the secret art of skip cycling and if the new tank is totally laser clear cloudless it will not recycle. Infinite moves, no limit on number of times. Being flushed out is what reef surfaces are adapted to

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I always use a Dechlorinator after submerging substrate in tap water. My last step involves Rodi submersion and prime by seachem. I let it soak in for a little while, then dump and allow it to air dry.

 

[TimD]

Match temp and salinity to the old water / those two only need to match


we also run lights on lower settings after the new setup and acclimate back up. Since the live rocks only were held in saltwater the core bacteria transferred into the new tank, on top of clean sand, agreed above.

feed lightly just after setup, make use of the new clean settings and it’ll bring corals out the next day. This method is exactly how they move instant start reefs by rows and rows to reef aquarium conventions, and then back home. It’s the secret art of skip cycling and if the new tank is totally laser clear cloudless it will not recycle. Infinite moves, no limit on number of times. Being flushed out is what reef surfaces are adapted to

I always wondered how they did it on the programme Tanked,this explains a lot and now makes perfect sense. You sir are a life changer . Many thanks

 

[TimD]

Hi all, I’m really confused and need advice. I currently have crushed coral in my flu all evo 13.5g which due to a month in hospital the sand bed got so badly stained I can’t clean it and it looks gross. It’s a mixed tank with a clown, fire fish and 2 cardinals. I’ve ordered caribsea live pink Fiji but have read so many conflicting posts on what to do to swap it out. Should I do it a section at a time or all in one go, tanks been running a year. Please help!

Thanks for some brilliant advice. Now I have a great looking sand bed and a crystal clear tank. The swap was relatively painless except for rubbing most the skin off my knuckles, you really do need to rinse the sand 1000%

 

[brandon429]

Tim you did great! On top of laser clarity we pre rinse new sand so that its harmless (yet annoying) silt clouding won’t mask up an ammonia event from the transfer or from a lost animal hours after the transfer… ammonia noncontrol nearly always has a cloudy after effect in the new tank setup. By forcing absolutely clean sand and no fear of bacteria loss the clear water can now be watched for clarity


one question before I link this like a madman


you didn’t use any bottle bac in the this process right, nature carried us?

 

[TimD]

Tim you did great! On top of laser clarity we pre rinse new sand so that its harmless (yet annoying) silt clouding won’t mask up an ammonia event from the transfer or from a lost animal hours after the transfer… ammonia noncontrol nearly always has a cloudy after effect in the new tank setup. By forcing absolutely clean sand and no fear of bacteria loss the clear water can now be watched for clarity


one question before I link this like a madman


you didn’t use any bottle bac in the this process right, nature carried us?

No I believe in letting nature decide and yes you can share the hell out of it as not enough people know.

 

[brandon429]

Just perfect- so happy, nice start to the weekend = a nice rip clean

summary: this is how I’ve cheated my reef vase into just shy of seventeen years running. Reefing is not about set it up, hands off, hope it works, cross fingers some invasion doesn’t take your investment in year nine etc

we are trained by peers and by bottle bac sellers to avoid ‘disruption’ hinted that instability is the consequence…or after such a rip clean our peers won’t recognize the age of the tank as it was reset-cleaned

but it’s all untrue and what peers think doesn’t matter. Your rocks are the workhorse, if they’re in a new tank one day or even over a totally different bed one day they are still the horsepower growing the corals attached to them, and producing corals vs losing them to disease and takeover invasion is the sole goal.

this is the universal cheat for dinos invasions

or cyano

or gha, you can kill it right off the rock one day externally vs dose the tank with coral stressing changes for three months


this is how we move reefs and make skip cycle upgrades: right before that new old tank was reassembled you could have easily moved the reef across town, or into a different set of glass walls.


being able to run tank surgery without dependence on bottle bacteria is a big deal, it’s market balancing to be able to have trust power in the hands of the aquarist vs have to make a purchase to feel ok about absolutely taking control and responsibility for ones reef


about six different pressing reef tank needs can be garnered from your post i have some nice study threads who want to see these examples and will link to them soon. If this reef runs nine years coming with no more direct intervention needed, that’s great. But if it’s like my reef there will be challenge, mistakes, and this above you did is the cheat reset fix button with no downside and only the upside of those shiny happy after pics.

 

[TimD]

Just perfect- so happy, nice start to the weekend = a nice rip clean

summary: this is how I’ve cheated my reef vase into just shy of seventeen years running. Reefing is not about set it up, hands off, hope it works, cross fingers some invasion doesn’t take your investment in year nine etc

we are trained by peers and by bottle bac sellers to avoid ‘disruption’ hinted that instability is the consequence…or after such a rip clean our peers won’t recognize the age of the tank as it was reset-cleaned

but it’s all untrue and what peers think doesn’t matter. Your rocks are the workhorse, if they’re in a new tank one day or even over a totally different bed one day they are still the horsepower growing the corals attached to them, and producing corals vs losing them to disease and takeover invasion is the sole goal.

this is the universal cheat for dinos invasions

or cyano

or gha, you can kill it right off the rock one day externally vs dose the tank with coral stressing changes for three months


this is how we move reefs and make skip cycle upgrades: right before that new old tank was reassembled you could have easily moved the reef across town, or into a different set of glass walls.


being able to run tank surgery without dependence on bottle bacteria is a big deal, it’s market balancing to be able to have trust power in the hands of the aquarist vs have to make a purchase to feel ok about absolutely taking control and responsibility for ones reef


about six different pressing reef tank needs can be garnered from your post i have some nice study threads who want to see these examples and will link to them soon. If this reef runs nine years coming with no more direct intervention needed, that’s great. But if it’s like my reef there will be challenge, mistakes, and this above you did is the cheat reset fix button with no downside and only the upside of those shiny happy after pics.

And that’s why people should listen to people who know what they’re talking about unlike the keyboard warriors of Facebook

 

[brandon429]

Corals refuse to open after treating tank for dinos

My SPS (mainly) have looked like this for over a month (no polyp extension at all) right as I starting fighting dinos, it’s been about 2 weeks after treatment for dinos and my corals look horrible. What can I do to bring them back?

www.reef2reef.com

Tim

imagine if he rip cleaned that tank

we are trained to ride that invasion into the dirt, bringing all corals down and blanketed in waste, in the name of stability. Sometimes the reef is too big to clean as well, to be determined


two opposite paths for the next few months based on rip cleaning: your reef is bright and clean and full of open spaces wanting to take on coral waste and fish waste from primed feeding, the best the tank can endure. Your tank can take on more feed for the corals than normal, it’s a positive mass interval for your reef if you step up and sustain target feeding.


an invaded tank is all full of waste in every crevice, invasion matting, less actual nitrification rates- more buildup of scum mats, feed withholding due to starving out a target vs feed input in the clean condition...these two reefs are on totally diverging paths all due to storage mode vs export mode. I thought it would be handy to have updates between two varying systems for the next few months tracking.