liveforphysics
Banned
A few differnt times I have mentioned to people that growing algae works great for reefkeeping.
Then people generally want to see some pics. So, I finally took some pics.
Being a broke college student, I have close to $400-500 between both of the tanks in the bedroom. Thats includeing EVERYTHING, calc reactor, tanks, stands, pumps, lighting , rock and livestock for both tanks.
This is the tank that has the calc reactor hooked up. It uses the 2L bottles filed with 2cups of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast located next to the fuge to feed the calc reactor. The pH of the calc reactors drip is 7.7 with a calcium level of about 520ppm. The pH of the drip is so high because I made a secondary chamber full of marble chips (CaCO3) which the higher pH solution drips though. I belive this makes it a much safer calc reactor than many units on the market. Costing under 100$ for everything involved was also a plus.
The tank has a few powerheads in it and the return enters from a spray bar at the top which also ensures constant surface turbulance and O2 exchange.
The only filtration is the fuge filled with cheato. I feed it as many times a day as I feel like. There is a large engineering goby that lives in the fuge and is constantly stiring the large chunky substrate to prevent anerobic areas from forming.
The cheato grows at a rate just about exactly dependent on how much I feed. I tossed 6 monster sized prawns in one time when I was on my experimenting with over feeding kick. Never could get the tank to register any NH3/NH4, no2, or no3, and I was checking no3 with the low range kit. Its also never had any appreciable phosphates.
And here is the fuge. Yes, Im growing monti-cap(brown/green) and pumping xenia in the fuge under 2700k lighting and it grows and seems totally happy.
This tank has been algae scraped about 2 times during the first 2 weeks of setup. In the last year, this tank has never had me need any efforts to clean algae, nor has it been able to grow any. I added in some rocks covered with hair algae, the algae just kinda withered away after a few weeks and dissapeared.
The rocks and sand bed have never EVER had any effort made to blow detritus off of them, nor has any every been visible in the tank. The rocks just stay totally spik-n-span. While feeling bored one day, I stired the heck out of the sand bed. I couldnt even get the water to cloud up at all. Its like the sand is just totally clean pebbles with no detritus trapped in them. I belive this is because I dont skim. When I used to skim (other tanks), I had detritus like everybody else, and my rocks gradually got this little flakey filmy coating on them.
This is the tank that I gave to my girlfriend. Its on her side of the bed and she decorates/aranges it how she likes. She says she cleaned the glass once in it, but it didnt need it. Thats the only maintence besides harvesting cheato that this tank has ever recieved. I uses a high flowing UGF under a corse sand bed. Everybody thinks thats the pinicle of nitrate factory, however I cant make it register any nitrates or phosphates either. Its sole filtration consists of that fuge with rubble and cheato in it. Her sand bed is so clean and detritus free with that UGF under there that its amazing. I showed one of the members on here how I can vigorously stir that sucker and it just wont cloud at all (since its a UGF, Im not worried about stiring it at all).
Here is her fuge
Her tank has also never accumulated any detritus, algea,nitrates, phosphates, cyno etc.
Anyways, I just wanted to share this method with you guys. I have played the DSB +skimmer game, the DSB plenum +skimmer game, the BB with skimmer game (hated how it looked and built detritus) and have had all methods FUNCTION for me. However, I was always cleaning algae, getting occasional cyno or hair algae spots, accumulateing detritus on rocks etc. Like I said, the other methods FUNCTIONED fine for me. However, this cheato only method has just been a lazy mans dream come true. My total maintence consists of topping off the fuge occasionally with chlorinated water straight out of the tap.
The only problem I have ever had was a xenia crash from an I2 shortage. I guess after a year on the same water, it ran out of Iodine. Added some and everything went back to great again.
During this xenia crash time, I went into panic mode and hooked up my old skimmer. After that, my phosphates increased and detritus became visible on things for the first time. I belive this is because the skimmer removed things which are required to maintain rapid cheato growth and green water type food to feed the micro organisms which feed on the detritus. I also belive that a chunky crushed coral substrate makes the best material for holding these micro organisms which devour this detritus. I look at the floating autotrophic algae cells (greenwater) to be the base of the pyrimid of a healthy micro organism population. Skimming removes this core base food.
Anyways, I see people struggleing on here just like I used to. I wanted to share this super cheap method that has worked really well for me on quite a few tanks now (more than just the bedroom tanks).
If anybody has any questions about adapting this system to there own tanks, just let me know, I will be eager to help. I am also inviteing flameing/debateing from anyone
.
Then people generally want to see some pics. So, I finally took some pics.
Being a broke college student, I have close to $400-500 between both of the tanks in the bedroom. Thats includeing EVERYTHING, calc reactor, tanks, stands, pumps, lighting , rock and livestock for both tanks.
This is the tank that has the calc reactor hooked up. It uses the 2L bottles filed with 2cups of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast located next to the fuge to feed the calc reactor. The pH of the calc reactors drip is 7.7 with a calcium level of about 520ppm. The pH of the drip is so high because I made a secondary chamber full of marble chips (CaCO3) which the higher pH solution drips though. I belive this makes it a much safer calc reactor than many units on the market. Costing under 100$ for everything involved was also a plus.
The tank has a few powerheads in it and the return enters from a spray bar at the top which also ensures constant surface turbulance and O2 exchange.
The only filtration is the fuge filled with cheato. I feed it as many times a day as I feel like. There is a large engineering goby that lives in the fuge and is constantly stiring the large chunky substrate to prevent anerobic areas from forming.
The cheato grows at a rate just about exactly dependent on how much I feed. I tossed 6 monster sized prawns in one time when I was on my experimenting with over feeding kick. Never could get the tank to register any NH3/NH4, no2, or no3, and I was checking no3 with the low range kit. Its also never had any appreciable phosphates.
And here is the fuge. Yes, Im growing monti-cap(brown/green) and pumping xenia in the fuge under 2700k lighting and it grows and seems totally happy.
This tank has been algae scraped about 2 times during the first 2 weeks of setup. In the last year, this tank has never had me need any efforts to clean algae, nor has it been able to grow any. I added in some rocks covered with hair algae, the algae just kinda withered away after a few weeks and dissapeared.
The rocks and sand bed have never EVER had any effort made to blow detritus off of them, nor has any every been visible in the tank. The rocks just stay totally spik-n-span. While feeling bored one day, I stired the heck out of the sand bed. I couldnt even get the water to cloud up at all. Its like the sand is just totally clean pebbles with no detritus trapped in them. I belive this is because I dont skim. When I used to skim (other tanks), I had detritus like everybody else, and my rocks gradually got this little flakey filmy coating on them.
This is the tank that I gave to my girlfriend. Its on her side of the bed and she decorates/aranges it how she likes. She says she cleaned the glass once in it, but it didnt need it. Thats the only maintence besides harvesting cheato that this tank has ever recieved. I uses a high flowing UGF under a corse sand bed. Everybody thinks thats the pinicle of nitrate factory, however I cant make it register any nitrates or phosphates either. Its sole filtration consists of that fuge with rubble and cheato in it. Her sand bed is so clean and detritus free with that UGF under there that its amazing. I showed one of the members on here how I can vigorously stir that sucker and it just wont cloud at all (since its a UGF, Im not worried about stiring it at all).
Here is her fuge
Her tank has also never accumulated any detritus, algea,nitrates, phosphates, cyno etc.
Anyways, I just wanted to share this method with you guys. I have played the DSB +skimmer game, the DSB plenum +skimmer game, the BB with skimmer game (hated how it looked and built detritus) and have had all methods FUNCTION for me. However, I was always cleaning algae, getting occasional cyno or hair algae spots, accumulateing detritus on rocks etc. Like I said, the other methods FUNCTIONED fine for me. However, this cheato only method has just been a lazy mans dream come true. My total maintence consists of topping off the fuge occasionally with chlorinated water straight out of the tap.
The only problem I have ever had was a xenia crash from an I2 shortage. I guess after a year on the same water, it ran out of Iodine. Added some and everything went back to great again.
During this xenia crash time, I went into panic mode and hooked up my old skimmer. After that, my phosphates increased and detritus became visible on things for the first time. I belive this is because the skimmer removed things which are required to maintain rapid cheato growth and green water type food to feed the micro organisms which feed on the detritus. I also belive that a chunky crushed coral substrate makes the best material for holding these micro organisms which devour this detritus. I look at the floating autotrophic algae cells (greenwater) to be the base of the pyrimid of a healthy micro organism population. Skimming removes this core base food.
Anyways, I see people struggleing on here just like I used to. I wanted to share this super cheap method that has worked really well for me on quite a few tanks now (more than just the bedroom tanks).
If anybody has any questions about adapting this system to there own tanks, just let me know, I will be eager to help. I am also inviteing flameing/debateing from anyone
.
