Turtle's Fairy Tale

[sfin52]

settled is what I'm thinking

 

[SashimiTurtle]

The holy grail. It’s real

Wonder where it’s alk going.

Hahaha, yea. Holy grail...

The first 9 months or so I was hell bent on not doing water changes. So I didn't do water changes which means no siphoning the sand. The tank was suffering some corals were great, some were ok, some were iffy and I just couldn't keep others. I made it my new year's resolution top get this tank looking amazing. So I decided that once every 4 weeks I would suck out the sump, clean equipment that needed it and refill the sump with fresh salt water. Which also means, no siphoning the sand.

It was almost an instant turn around. It still looks like there are a few I just can't keep(stylophora and select acropora(I have 3 growing, 3 dead)) but everything else is doing wonderful.

Montipora grows wonderfully but down not up(I have a theory I'll discuss later), my birds of paradise is about to grow a new branch, the trumpet coral that lets me know first when something is off is growing. Oh and this thing... check out the photo up there from July and the one from tonight to look at how big it is now. When fully open, it touches the rock to the left, the one behind it, and almost touches the corals to the right.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

settled is what I'm thinking

I think so too, and it did have a lot of fines. They may also have been filtered out from my wrasses diving in and stirring it up when I was still running socks.

Well, I have some left over special grade aragonite(hahaha, new phone wants to autocorrect aragonite to Aragorn and dragonite) from the Reefer250... and there is some of the ocean direct that dried out. I doubt there is enough organics in rinsed live sand to cause an ammonia spike. I'll add that tomorrow.

 

[Mariette]

Hahaha, yea. Holy grail...

The first 9 months or so I was hell bent on not doing water changes. So I didn't do water changes which means no siphoning the sand. The tank was suffering some corals were great, some were ok, some were iffy and I just couldn't keep others. I made it my new year's resolution top get this tank looking amazing. So I decided that once every 4 weeks I would suck out the sump, clean equipment that needed it and refill the sump with fresh salt water. Which also means, no siphoning the sand.

It was almost an instant turn around. It still looks like there are a few I just can't keep(stylophora and select acropora(I have 3 growing, 3 dead)) but everything else is doing wonderful.

Montipora grows wonderfully but down not up(I have a theory I'll discuss later), my birds of paradise is about to grow a new branch, the trumpet coral that lets me know first when something is off is growing. Oh and this thing... check out the photo up there from July and the one from tonight to look at how big it is now. When fully open, it touches the rock to the left, the one behind it, and almost touches the corals to the right.

I am speechless. Utterly utterly speechless.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I am speechless. Utterly utterly speechless.

You missed the spam from this past week... I'll see if I have anything worth sharing.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Oops, I wasn't done yet...

Last two are zoomed in too far and look like poop, but I promise the corals look great.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

@Mariette, click here

 

[Scurvy]

This is interesting. Settling makes the most sense to me without a chemistry degree. Is there any chance of it breaking down?

I know in my Reefer I would find large clumps that were fused together for lack of a better term. Almost turning from sand to small rocks. I never did understand it.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I like #2 due to the position of the Clownfish.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

This is interesting. Settling makes the most sense to me without a chemistry degree. Is there any change of it breaking down?

I know in my Reefer I would find large clumps that were fused together for lack of a better term. Almost turning from sand to small rocks. I never did understand it.

Huh, like a calcium reactor, but with sand and not in a reactor with CO2?

The BRS160 had the same thing when they were removing the sand. Since it is a running tank going from sand to bare, some of the hard stuff under the rock structure had to stay.

 

[NY_Caveman]

BTW, your tank may be trying to tell you to go bare bottom

 

[SashimiTurtle]

BTW, your tank may be trying to tell you to go bare bottom

You convince the melanarus and both leopards, and probably soon to be Aku, they do not need sand. Oh, and make blue yoga mat look like sand...

 

[NY_Caveman]

You convince the melanarus and both leopards, and probably soon to be Aku, they do not need sand. Oh, and make blue yoga mat look like sand...

LOL!

 

[Mariette]

@Mariette, click here

I could watch your tank in person all day

 

[Brew12]

Hey, just the guy I was looking for... well you and @Brew12, @Fudsey maybe @sfin52 as well. @NY_Caveman runs bare bottom...

Have any of you noticed your sand... disappearing? Check out these photos.

First one is from July last year, after the reboot when the first tank cracked. No sand has been added or removed since then.

There is at least 2" across the entire tank in the first pic and the second there is barely enough to cover the front part of the tank, and it's not like I have 4" of sand in the back either. Is it just settled and compacted, or what? Either way, I think I need to add some more sand.

I do see that, but maybe not quite that extreme. I think it does settle but I know mine tends to wash to the center of the tank. I pull it out to the front again when I clean the sand bed.

 

[Brew12]

This is interesting. Settling makes the most sense to me without a chemistry degree. Is there any chance of it breaking down?

I know in my Reefer I would find large clumps that were fused together for lack of a better term. Almost turning from sand to small rocks. I never did understand it.

It should take a pH of under 7.6 to start breaking down. It might happen locally but I doubt it is a large cause.

 

[Fudsey]

Tank is looking great turtle ! !

And I think my sand has settled too.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I do see that, but maybe not quite that extreme. I think it does settle but I know mine tends to wash to the center of the tank. I pull it out to the front again when I clean the sand bed.

I think mine has that also. I was looking and that pesky brittle star has a few spots under some rocks where it pushes the sand out, but otherwise there is a good bit of sand under the rocks. Not enough to make up for my 2" coverage when setting up the tank tho.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, he's moved. I know, what are you talking about, Turtle?

Aku, my golden dwarf eel. He was a little bit too friendly with his tank mates in the menagerie... Hannibal Lecter "I'm having an old friend for dinner," kind of friendly. He didn't eat anyone, yet. Everyone in here is too large to eat, and he's already found a pretty awesome home.

Its behind the trachy, under the trumpet. It's one of the shapes rocks that made a pretty nice cave.

Other side of cave rock thing

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I meant to post this last night. Guess it didn't go thru.

For those of you concerned with Aku's transition... he ate a piece of shrimp at feeding time and then went exploring.

The location I feed the fish, and where his cave is are on opposite sides of the tank. Some food gets over there but the main frenzy is in the front right corner. His cave is on the bottom left of the tank. I'm sure with time he will learn where I feed the fish, but in open water he's not all that great at aiming or lunging.