That makes perfect sense. I only wish now I had done this months ago.
That makes perfect sense. I only wish now I had done this months ago.
I am not a fan of Deep Sand Beds at all any more. I did a DSB several years ago, it did fantastic for the first 12 months, seriously I couldn't speak highly enough about them the first year, second year, not as good but no major problems, then year 3 hit and the sand just turned to a solid mass on top and under it was all black (hydrogen sulfide). I tried and tried to get the DSB back to "working condition" but never could so finally I just siphoned out most of the sand. As I have found out through experience and research, it takes A LOT of work to make a DSB sustainable. Talking constant stirring of small sections on a monthly basis (never stir more than a 6"x6" patch at a time), use several different size grains of sand from sugar size to pebble size to make different layers, and most importantly, constantly restock the sand bed with critters that make the sand bed their home. Without lots and lots of critters to constantly stir up the sand it quickly loses it positive aspect (talking critters that will bury in the sand, not things like sand sifting gobies or starfish). Also another thing I have found to be necessary is to replace at least 10% of the sand (top layer) on a yearly basis, on top of what gets dissolved through calcification (since aragonite is calcium, it will slowly dissolve over time, about 3/4"-1" a year depending on different factors).
Anyway, enough of my DSB rant, tank looks great and sounds like everything it doing fantastic.
Well, I don't have a DSB in this tank, not really. It's the engineer goby moving it all around, and I've sucked out a full bucket of sand. it's bare bottom in the middle.
Ah, my bad.. I guess I just focused on the giant mounds of sand and totally forgot about the engineer in that tank.. now it all makes sense.Teach me to click the video without doing a recap on the thread to re-familiarize myself with the setup. LOL
Screen growth, first harvest 12/26/2011, 10 days growth:
Phosphate has crept back up to 0.10. Same issue as before, this tank has to be Nitrate limited. I am going to start working in some Calcium Nitrate and see what happens. First though, I have to get a handle on Alk and Cal uptake and switch to Kalwasser. Anyone have a handy calculator for that?
The system sucks down 2g of water per day out of the ATO. I add 6 fl oz of BRS Alk to every 5g bucket and this seems to be holding the Alk steady, dropping a little every week. Started out high (11.2) and is now around 10 or so, each time I test it drops a little bit. Calcium is dropping about 10 points per day or so, I don't have quite as good of a handle on that though, need to be testing a little more often and writing results down. It seems that I add about 10 fl oz of BRS Cal twice a week, just upped it to the max 19 fl oz dose today. Also had to boost Mag the full 100 points which I haven't had to do in a long time, all indication of some serious growth happening!
This got cut out in "the move" (or I forgot to post it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyq77XhvUw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl14nclROCg
Use Kalk to top off, and correct with BRS. As for calculating you'll have to see what others are doing for an approximation then tailor the dosage to your needs. Kinda wish I had a separate ATO tank so I could play with Kalk.Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo
Screen growth, first harvest 12/26/2011, 10 days growth:
Phosphate has crept back up to 0.10. Same issue as before, this tank has to be Nitrate limited. I am going to start working in some Calcium Nitrate and see what happens. First though, I have to get a handle on Alk and Cal uptake and switch to Kalwasser. Anyone have a handy calculator for that?
The system sucks down 2g of water per day out of the ATO. I add 6 fl oz of BRS Alk to every 5g bucket and this seems to be holding the Alk steady, dropping a little every week. Started out high (11.2) and is now around 10 or so, each time I test it drops a little bit. Calcium is dropping about 10 points per day or so, I don't have quite as good of a handle on that though, need to be testing a little more often and writing results down. It seems that I add about 10 fl oz of BRS Cal twice a week, just upped it to the max 19 fl oz dose today. Also had to boost Mag the full 100 points which I haven't had to do in a long time, all indication of some serious growth happening!
This should keep you more consistent.
Here's the 3rd harvest from yesterday
Gooey and smelly. I wouldn't call it "rubbery" because it doesn't feel this way, but sure looks that way. This is what I'm talking about when I say your growth can vary. The second harvest was about 1/2 way between green/bushy and this.
I cut the lights back 1 hour on each end, so now they're about 16 on and 8 off. We'll see how it looks when I get back from a week of vacation.
On the "OH CR!!!P I DID NOT JUST DO THAT" side, after finishing this up I went to clean off a few things in the sump and had to undo a nylon nut/bolt fitting and what did I do on the day before vacation? I dropped the nut in the sump, and it got sucked into the pump. I heard 'click...click' then normal running...I about shad my pants. I came back a few hours later, armed and ready to disassemble the pump and found the nut
as I suspected, not big enough to get through the impeller. It was wedged in there so there was actually no way it was going anywhere. But now I can lay on the beach and be completely relaxed. Ahhhh.
got to love murphy....he hates it when you try to get some much needed down time I noticed. This is a great looking build. what did you use to cut the acrylic with?
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