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Reefkeeping made easy- what was not explained.

899503 Views 1783 Replies 195 Participants Last post by  hackshobby, 
Geoff
here are a few threads that were started in another forum about what is going on in our system. hopefully some of you all will read the information here and start to get a handle on what makes our systems work or not work. I know this may require some reading and those on the internet are allergic to reading threads that are not theirs, but give this thread a go. I am hoping that it will answer most of the questions you may have about reefkeeping. these first three posts may be a bit disjointed. as they came from the other thread. I will try and edit them so that they flow a bit better and lead into each other better.

the biggest things we will be discussing in this thread are the biological process that are going on in our systems. these biological process are what most of the false information that is out there is about. this includes reef forums and LFS. The two main elemental processes we will be discussing are the Nitrogen and Phosphate cycles that are occurring in our systems. these two elements lead to the greatest confusion about what is going on in our little slices of ocean.

There will be a lot of information in this thread. I will be linking to other threads with even more reading and papers on the subject at hand for even further reading. This hobby is easy if you understand what is going on, if you do not care to understand what is going on and listen to a lot of false information out there, then this hobby can be very frustrating and lots of wasted money.
I would anybody to ask questions if they need clarifications. I will try and keep things as short as possible to keep the reading down to a minimum, but some of this stuff is fairly long winded in general.

G~

UPDATE

A sort of Table of Contents for the thread. please feel free to PM any subjects or pages i should add to the contents.

Introduction: Page 1
Nitrogen cycle: Pages 1-2, 22
Phosphates: Page 3, 31
Sources of Phosphates: Page 3
Phosphate Cycle Graphics: Page 35
Early Tank Processes: Page 30
Problems with Sand: Page 4, 19
Sandbed Cleaning:page 7
DSB's: Page 9
BB Alternatives: Page 25
About LR: Page 8
LR Purging: Page 19, 26
Cured LR: Page 23
Tank Flow: Page 7
Light: Pages 13-15
Kalkwasser: Page 12, 17
Feeding: Pages 17-19
Zoax: Pages 15-17
Carbon Dosing: Pages 24-25
Tank Self Feeding: Page 27
Conservation of Matter: Page 28
Beer!: Pages 6-7
Bad Experts: Page 19
Definitions according to Spanky: Page 21
My Reference Links: Page 37
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hotdogg
Geoff, just call the aquarium...I have called the aquarium in NY and spoke to them and they couldn't wait to expound on their systems...I once spent three hours talking to one of the Marine biologist there.
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hotdogg
They have also found multi cell creatures that live in/near an underwater volcano which is a sulfer based enviroment rather than an oxygen based enviroment...3.5 miles down!
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hotdogg
I believe most people overfeed...With time, most hobbiest can tell if their critters are undernourished just by observation...I feed far less to my fish than recommened by the lables or the lfs...fish should have vibrant colors, be active, and have a nice profile(full stomach)...Animals and plants do not grow properly if undernouished...Just like most humans, if given a chance, most things overeat.
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hotdogg
I have rock that has been in my tank for over ten years...It may look algae encrusted and non porous but that is far from the truth...Put a pressure hose on it and all kinds of stuff (worms, coepods, fine sand) blow out all over the place. Every once in awhile I will redecorate (gives the critters a new view) and blow all my rock to make sure it is doing it's job.
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hotdogg
When I first started salt water, one method was to use an undergravel filter. Which quickly became clogged, and therefore a deep sand bed...This was in the 1984 or so, most tanks were fish only, dead coral for decorations and few live corals...The idea of a thick mass of filthy gravel was very disturbing to me. (I had already been doing freshwater for many years)...and like G, I would stir it up and try to clean it and get the filtering to work, never did...Witin a year I went to bare bottom and a trickle down system which seemed a whole lot better...This was before the internet, I read tons of books and spoke to many "experts" ...There was very little consensus on anything.
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hotdogg
I use four power heads (1700gph each)in a 90 dt, plus return pump at 1000 gph...very loose and open rock formation, bb...I still get this grey dead looking stuff growing out of it on the bottoms of the rocks...almost impossible to be able to blow clean all rocks in all directions...I end up, once a week with my little brush, giving the rocks a cleaning,letting it settle, then sucking it up and replacing 10 gallons of water...I hope someday the rocks will stop leaching this junk.
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