Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > General Interest Forums > Reef Discussion
Blogs FAQ Calendar Mark Forums Read

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 12/04/2017, 01:32 PM   #26
karimwassef
Registered Member
 
karimwassef's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 11,033
Quote:
Originally Posted by Subsea View Post
Welcome aboard. Been looking at your tank of the month. Very nice.

Have you started moving? Big job with a system of your size. Good fortune to you on that transition. You should come down an visit me at AQR.

Before the cold weather sets in for Winter, I will have gone to the Coast to collect Ghost Shrimp, Sheepshead Minnows and pods in grass flats and Peppermint Shrimp at night on the jetties. My goal is to grow live food for local reef hobbiest in a 450G outside growout system consisting of three 150G Rubbermade containers buried in the ground. I used this same system 7 years ago during the coldest winter for 20 years in Austin. Trying to keep > 70 degrees was very costly and I pulled the plug. My expectation is that wild caught will be much more hardy to changes to environmental conditions. My temperature setting will be > 55 degrees. Productivity of system will be compared to electrical consumption as totaled by watt meter on that circuit.

Karin,
If you come to visit and enjoy live music, I have many eclectic music friends. While I live in the country, somewhat, I can drive the speed limit and get to the State Capital downtown in less than 20 minutes.

PS. I knew when I said “Bugs Rule”, you might be interested.
Yes. I moved 1000lb glass tank on my own - I had a deadline, so I engineered it. I'll start a thread about how to do that.

I'd love to come visit for a day. Just need to coordinate with the wife and kids... Holidays are especially rough.

Post a thread on the shrimp. I think they're an awesome food source for fish and corals as they multiply at critical mass!

I can maintain my outdoor rubbermaid tanks at 74F inside the greenhouse, but it costs 8A-18A of electricity. Average 13A = 1.5KW all day for my 450 gal system. It's $4 a day, but I hear you. Start an outdoor breeding thread and let's see what we can figure out. Here's the latest sunlit greenhouse tank: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...2653824&page=4

 photo 9D01094C-19E9-4161-B620-C47D5B8E7DD2_zpsyqsdi9uf.jpg


__________________
Failure isn't an option It's a requirement. 660g 380inwall+280smp/surge S/L/Soft/Maxima/RBTA/Clown/Chromis/Anthias/Tang/Mandarin/Jawfish/Goby/Wrasse/D'back. DIY 12' Skimmer ActuatedSurge ConcreteScape
karimwassef is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 07:55 AM   #27
Subsea
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Austin, Tx
Posts: 1,882
Love the overhead. Is lighting 100% sunlight? How big is greenhouse? Mine is 20’ by 40’ with an arched roof.


__________________
Laissez les bons temps rouler,
Patrick Castille

Current Tank Info: 10,000G. Greenhouse Macro Growout
Subsea is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 08:05 AM   #28
karimwassef
Registered Member
 
karimwassef's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 11,033
Just sunlight.. get to 1700 PAR midday but the photoperiod is short.

I'm planning to supplement with UV and MH to extend the photo period.

Greenhouse is tiny ~ 9' x 9'. Plastic sheet and wood/aluminum frame.

Thread has more.

The sandbed transport was the most harrowing part of the experience. It was not trivial to move 700lbs of wet live sand in 30 degree weather into an outdoor reef.. the 3" sand bed is now a 4-5" sand bed but I'm not touching it again for a while.

 photo B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg

Found new things living in the sand too


__________________
Failure isn't an option It's a requirement. 660g 380inwall+280smp/surge S/L/Soft/Maxima/RBTA/Clown/Chromis/Anthias/Tang/Mandarin/Jawfish/Goby/Wrasse/D'back. DIY 12' Skimmer ActuatedSurge ConcreteScape

Last edited by karimwassef; 12/05/2017 at 08:11 AM.
karimwassef is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 08:48 AM   #29
Subsea
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Austin, Tx
Posts: 1,882
Too funny.

As we dig into these established biofilters, mine at 25/years old, we disprove the naysayers concerning sandbeds as “nutrient sinks” that at some point in time will regurgitate and crash a tank.

The truth of the matter is that a mature & diverse bio filter will stabilize and feed tank inhabitants. Remember Mother Nature knows best. After 5 billion years, natural systems have fine tuned back up feeding mechanisms like cynobacteria imbedded in coral biomass. When bulk water is nitrate limited, coral receive nitrate thru “nitrogen fixation” supplied by cynobacteria. How did cynobacteria know to feed coral nitrate? Also, Randy Holmes Farley wrote on “iron dosing” that it would be difficult to dose too much iron in a reef tank and that furthermore macro had iron storage mechanisms to be used when water column is iron limited. I always dose iron heaviest in red macro tumble culture. My first success with iron dosing was a dramatic color shift from pale orange red to dark vibrant maroon color in less than 24 hours. In the case of Gracilaria Hayi, the red blades are flat and lightly calcified and somewhat rigid. Not so when iron is stored in blade biomass. The blade thickness increased ten fold and was somewhat spongy feeling like it had numerous small air bladders. When deprived of excess iron, blade thickness goes back to original shape. It is reproducible with consistency.


__________________
Laissez les bons temps rouler,
Patrick Castille

Current Tank Info: 10,000G. Greenhouse Macro Growout

Last edited by Subsea; 12/05/2017 at 08:54 AM.
Subsea is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 10:44 AM   #30
McPuff
Registered Member
 
McPuff's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,735
Quote:
Originally Posted by karimwassef View Post

 photo B2E4021E-B858-45C7-B258-3FC772080C0A_zps4vxl8y1g.jpg

Found new things living in the sand too
Karim, what are those little things anyway? I can't say I've ever seen those... and I'm a biological scientist! :0)


McPuff is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 01:00 PM   #31
karimwassef
Registered Member
 
karimwassef's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 11,033
I call them cocoon sand worms:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2659233


__________________
Failure isn't an option It's a requirement. 660g 380inwall+280smp/surge S/L/Soft/Maxima/RBTA/Clown/Chromis/Anthias/Tang/Mandarin/Jawfish/Goby/Wrasse/D'back. DIY 12' Skimmer ActuatedSurge ConcreteScape
karimwassef is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 01:01 PM   #32
karimwassef
Registered Member
 
karimwassef's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 11,033
I think a deeper dive into detrivores is sorely lacking in reefing today.

It's like being a farmer and not caring about earthworms or bees...


__________________
Failure isn't an option It's a requirement. 660g 380inwall+280smp/surge S/L/Soft/Maxima/RBTA/Clown/Chromis/Anthias/Tang/Mandarin/Jawfish/Goby/Wrasse/D'back. DIY 12' Skimmer ActuatedSurge ConcreteScape
karimwassef is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/05/2017, 01:21 PM   #33
Subsea
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Austin, Tx
Posts: 1,882
Quote:
Originally Posted by karimwassef View Post
I think a deeper dive into detrivores is sorely lacking in reefing today.

It's like being a farmer and not caring about earthworms or bees...
We should carry a banner that says that. Maybe we should have a “natural day parade” and parade “a la natural”


__________________
Laissez les bons temps rouler,
Patrick Castille

Current Tank Info: 10,000G. Greenhouse Macro Growout
Subsea is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/06/2017, 03:51 PM   #34
Subsea
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Austin, Tx
Posts: 1,882
We should go deeper than the deepest detrivore. I say bacteria rule. However, if the players don’t play well then things never work out.

It’s like the joke about the differrent members of the body trying to decide who was most important. Every body had their say as to who they thought was most important. Nobody asked AH who he thought was important, so he pouted by shutting it down. When everybody else got sick with the backup, they all came to AH and gave him homages. Now, the morale is not to empower *** holes and give them homage. The moral is that everybody is important on the team.


__________________
Laissez les bons temps rouler,
Patrick Castille

Current Tank Info: 10,000G. Greenhouse Macro Growout
Subsea is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/06/2017, 07:09 PM   #35
karimwassef
Registered Member
 
karimwassef's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 11,033
That is the old tale of the boss ... the a**hole

But bacteria are complicated. They're important but they can behave badly. Worms and pods really don't. Also... bacteria are limited in mechanical action- they need the larger detrivore to create water passages for exchange flow.


__________________
Failure isn't an option It's a requirement. 660g 380inwall+280smp/surge S/L/Soft/Maxima/RBTA/Clown/Chromis/Anthias/Tang/Mandarin/Jawfish/Goby/Wrasse/D'back. DIY 12' Skimmer ActuatedSurge ConcreteScape
karimwassef is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 12/08/2017, 09:09 AM   #36
Subsea
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Austin, Tx
Posts: 1,882
Quote:
Originally Posted by karimwassef View Post
That is the old tale of the boss ... the a**hole

But bacteria are complicated. They're important but they can behave badly. Worms and pods really don't. Also... bacteria are limited in mechanical action- they need the larger detrivore to create water passages for exchange flow.
Karma,
Nature is complicated, intricate and sometimes fickle. If I understood more, the fickleness would go away. I so much enjoy the thought provoking input on this thread. Thank you for that.

I just dosed bacteria from TLC into all of my tanks. I am in conversations with tech representatives from TLC. I have asked them for the list of differrent bacteria in their product. If only nitrifying & denitrifying bacteria, then I will use Rid X bacteria for septic tank instead of TLC.


__________________
Laissez les bons temps rouler,
Patrick Castille

Current Tank Info: 10,000G. Greenhouse Macro Growout
Subsea is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:25 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.