DonW- I needed that cheato re-start because when I thought I would be fancy and order these 6500k bulbs to "improve" my cheato growth, I had a huge die-off, the cheato turned clear and I junked it all before it completely released everything back into the tanks. It was very lame, and I actually gave my old lighting (that always worked fine, dont ask me why I wanted to change it) away along with a bunch of cheato to a member the same day I "upgraded" to 6500k, so I didnt even have something I could swap back to try to save it. It was very lame. Now that I use 2700k, the cheato just grows right out of the water if I let it (in very short time), and stability has been 100%. I've never seen any clear areas again, and the physical structure feels very strong nearly like a fishing line consistancy. Even on the bottom of very dense thick mats, it doesnt get clear and soft anymore like it did before I was useing the 2700k lighting.
Well, just so nobody has to guess, I have 3 reef tanks down from 4 (due to girlfriend related whineing). One is a high flowing UGF with large crushed coral about 2.5" deep. Its only export system is a fuge with cheato, which is harvested for the export. This is my current favorite tank, and the one houseing the SPS corals. The only water change type deals it gets are from takeing water out to bag the frags and things I harvest from it. I add top off water, then occasionally check salinity, panic, and add a few cups into a bowl in the fuge to raise the salinity again. (fortunately this process has only had to occur a couple times). It gets lugols, and it has a Ca reactor which keeps Ca and alk right where I want the with no fuss.
The tank that used to be my favorite has no UGF, a DSB that has sand stiring critters in it, and a fuge filled with cheato for export. The fuge also has a huge engineering goby in it to make sure the sand stays well turned over, he is a very busy digger. I say that it used to be my favorite, because I came back from working about a week ago, and while I was away, an end on one of the T5s came unhooked from the canopy and dropped into the water while running for an unknown number of hours... I have since taken procautions against this from occuring. Just about everything was either melted, or in the super shriveled up protected state. I quickly pulled everything that didnt look completely melted into the other 2 tanks. Fortunately the anemones and livestock seem totally uneffected (puzzleing to me). Afterwards I did 2 back to back 95ish% water changes with cheap salt, let it run a day, and then another 95% change with IO. My waterchanges were to try to get out the large amount of copper and lead from the bulb end and wire that ionized into the tank through electrolisis. So, its definately been waterchanged now, but not as part of general maintence, more as kinda a OHH CRAP sort attempt at a repair. The live stock that I try to move back into it still doesnt look nearly like it did before the incident, so I'm going to give it more time to sort things out. It was a really really dumb thing, and I am now useing GFCI's that recognize the tanks water as a ground plane now, I really dont know why I wasn't before, it was very foolish. Poor tank, it was really my favorite, and anything I stuck in it just exploded with growth. It cured a bunch of sick animals, corals, anemones etc, I would stick anybodys critter/coral they had given up on in there, and miraculusly, just about everything that lived past the first few hours would make a full recovery. I really hope the tank comes back to its old self soon.
The last tank is my newest, its a frag tank I setup with a free 55gal tank and stand I got from a very nice member here. I just glued an acrilic partition in one side, stuffed it with cheato, and put a powerhead with a little hose on it dumping into the partition area like a little internal fuge with a spill over. I started out BB, because I figured, ehh, the bottom will have every available space covered with frags, it should be fine, just about zero bio load. Well, to be honest, it totally sucked. Stuff wouldnt grow for beans, and big fat plump coral frags I threw in there would shrink, along with zoos and other things. So, talked to a buddy who recomended I add some sand, and I did, and its looking a little better now, and things are finally at least increaseing in size (very slowly though) rather than decreaseing finally. I regret useing the super cheap salt mix with it too, if I could do that one over, I would definately have filled it with IO. Its never had dectable nutrients in it, and it gets fed brine shrimp pretty often, and there is only a 5mm long baby clown in there to be eating things, so I at least know the cheato is doing its job well. Possibily a little too well, and thats why soft corals dont thrive in it, but I really dont know. Somebody needs to make a useful set of nitrate and phosphate test kits with a range of perhaps 10ppb-200ppb, cause it seems so lame to always just read undectable when you KNOW there is a level of nutrients in everytank, and it would be very handy to know what it is. The plan is when I save up some money I will be able to get some more sand for it which will hopefully make things work better for its intended purpose. If anybody has some suggestions, I would love them, but I dont wana get this thread off topic.
So, for maintence, the threads that krish linked are perfect discriptions of what I do, and for tank setup, the above lets you not have to guess about things.
