-- Arwen, i would think if you were to keep up on cleaning the sandbed and around/under the LR you would be ok. the only thing i would think that would be detrimental in doing so would blast all that around and then let it sit and ferment elsewere... thus the phosphates go into the water column. at least that is what i am gathering. ive been messing with freshwater since i was about 10 and at 15 rebuilt a 150 long on my own. saltwater i been messing with for about 3-4 years, but omg i got Tons of missleading info like... the "mechanic in a can" = Purple-up... after reading the ingredients on that stuff i thought WTHeck... thats all in a waterchange lol. my learning experience continues tody as well. im just glad i found a forum with some smart people like G on it. if you fit the mechanics and the science to the basic understandings i have it sure does help understand this waaay more than i did before. i thank you Geoff
Reefkeeping made easy- what was not explained.
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
age 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
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
age 7DSB'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
241 - 260 of 1784 Posts
i will get back to this is just a bit. getting my study on again.
Arwen- we will heading down the path you mentioned earlier with the Ca/alk uptake, so any help with that would be great when we get into it.
i would also only keep enough sand to make you happy, yet easy enough to clean. as long as you only think of it as a decoration you are fine. it is when people start thinking that it is some magic filter that the trouble really starts to happen. CC is great for keeping clean. though i understand the look is not what a lot of people are going for.
i am tired of all of the bad info that is out there. we need to get this hobby under control or it will not make it much longer with all of the environmental trouble that is going on around the world. this hobby of ours is actually pretty self sustaining if we just understand the basics. nearly all of the corals are easily propagated and we really should not need to take any wild specimens. many of our snails are also self propagating. the fish are a bit of a problem, but luckily these are also not fished for other reasons, so we may have a bit more time on these till we get the breeding down for these. unfortunately planktonic breeding and skimmers just do not mix.
G~
Arwen- we will heading down the path you mentioned earlier with the Ca/alk uptake, so any help with that would be great when we get into it.
i would also only keep enough sand to make you happy, yet easy enough to clean. as long as you only think of it as a decoration you are fine. it is when people start thinking that it is some magic filter that the trouble really starts to happen. CC is great for keeping clean. though i understand the look is not what a lot of people are going for.
i am tired of all of the bad info that is out there. we need to get this hobby under control or it will not make it much longer with all of the environmental trouble that is going on around the world. this hobby of ours is actually pretty self sustaining if we just understand the basics. nearly all of the corals are easily propagated and we really should not need to take any wild specimens. many of our snails are also self propagating. the fish are a bit of a problem, but luckily these are also not fished for other reasons, so we may have a bit more time on these till we get the breeding down for these. unfortunately planktonic breeding and skimmers just do not mix.
G~
very close.
it is not a lack of anoxic areas that tend to cause nitrates. it is an overabundance of high oxygen areas in the system. most of the time there are extra filters in the system that are designed to have flow through them to catch debris. this is the perfect environment for growing the ammonia-nitrite and nitrite-nitrate bacteria.
toping off with lime water is a great way to maintain your Ca and alk levels without to much difficulty. it does not really keep your phosphates down, though it does help to some extent. the best way to manage the phosphates is to remove them with the siphon.
calcium reactors are a great source of Ca and phosphates for your system.
G~
it is not a lack of anoxic areas that tend to cause nitrates. it is an overabundance of high oxygen areas in the system. most of the time there are extra filters in the system that are designed to have flow through them to catch debris. this is the perfect environment for growing the ammonia-nitrite and nitrite-nitrate bacteria.
toping off with lime water is a great way to maintain your Ca and alk levels without to much difficulty. it does not really keep your phosphates down, though it does help to some extent. the best way to manage the phosphates is to remove them with the siphon.
calcium reactors are a great source of Ca and phosphates for your system.
G~
I know I'm splitting hairs here, so I apologize, but I think it's important for people to understand that they can not rid their systems of phosphate. There is phosphate available in every healthy reef tank. Even those low nutrient demanding, SPS corals can not grow or replace tissue without phosphate. Our goal isn't to eradicate phosphate. It's simply to keep the concentrations below levels that can fuel rapid growing organisms like hair algae..
it is just better to remove all of the phosphates every week during water changes. if this is done then there will not be any phosphates available for either algae or any money sucking contraption you may feel like buying.
I love this pic! What a great pic to demonstrate what can happen in a neglected sand bed. People think they can maintain a sand bed simply by sucking detritus off the top, having the right flow over the sand, or having a few critters that eat detritus off the top. The top of this sand doesn't look that bad. It's the lower sections that have become a pile of rot and decay. This is where the problem lies. The only way to keep this from happening is to keep organic matter form accumulating anywhere in the sand. Even at the bottom.![]()
G~
241 - 260 of 1784 Posts
