WTB aragonite

[BlkWolfe]

Either in Edmonton, or can pickup in calgary around june 11-14

Can be live or spent the winter in a bucket, just need some more substrate. would prefer sugar sized

Need about 200lbs total

[Beverly]

No, no, Josh :eek: Go bare bottom :biggrin: I'll post pics of the crud we siphon out of our 67g every week if you want to see the benefits of going BB.

[AJ_77]

I'd be down for some crud pics! :cool:

[Beverly]

Okay, Alan :biggrin:

First, here's our BB 67g. We do 15% weekly water changes on it, as well as break down and clean the powerheads, and clean the foam in the prefiters in outgoing changewater:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/67g-may-05-2.jpg

This is the first pail of water siphoned out of the 67g. The detritus in this first pail is that which is easily reached along the back, sides and front of the tank by the siphon hose. As you can see, most of the detritus has settled in the bottom of the pail, while some remains in the water column:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-11.jpg

On the left is new saltwater that will be going into the tank after the water change. On the right is the second pail of detritus siphoned from the 67g. This detritus has been turkey basted from under the rock structure toward the back of the tank for easy siphoning:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-1.jpg

Powerheads and prefilters are removed from the tank using a plastic container so crud from the foams does not fall back into the tank:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-10.jpg

Close up of the dirty foams:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-9.jpg

Water in the container is from the first cleaning of the foams, with the partially cleaned foams below:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-7.jpg

After cleaning the foams in three to five containers of changewater later, here's what the water and foams look like:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-4.jpg

Close up of the clean foams:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/maintain-bb-tanks-3.jpg

The 67g, along with our other tanks, are all BB, have no sumps, refugs or skimmers and bioload is low. And still, we get loads of crud out of each tank EVERY FREAKING WEEK :eek:

[ruck'n'reefer]

Hey Bev: Have you ever thought that you remove that much crude each water change because you don't have a DSB to remove it for you!
Just a thought! :razz:

[AJ_77]

Thorough as usual, Bev! :biggrin:

You don't run skimmers, right? So you would expect more crud in your case, than in a similar tank with good skimming?

(Josh - hit Lee up for some sand. :mrgreen: )

[danny zubot]

Those are some cruddy pics! :razz:

[BlkWolfe]

I might just do that :mrgreen:

Bev, im setting up a DSB in the sump for the 150. Want to see how much flow i could get away with in both the display and sump to try and keep all the detrius suspended for that big honkin skimmer of Jon's to remove it.

[bulletsworld]

:eek: Hey Josh... You never told me you were looking for sand! When we were hauling all those buckets in Calgary over the weekend why didn't you say, "HEY LEE GIMMEEE SUM!" :mrgreen: :grab:

I still have all the sand in buckets from 110gal...haven't had the time to setup new tank yet. Also debating which sandbed to use since I have the sugar sand from my 77gal which I loved the look of. I may not use the 110gal tank sand or just a little, which is crushed shelled and sugar aragonite sand.

Your welcome to sand if you like? :mrgreen:

[Beverly]

ruck'n'reefer,

Have had sandbeds in several tanks over the years. While there are critters in the sandbed that eat detritus, ummm, well.... what do you think they do after they eat and digest that detritus? You got it - they make more detritus :biggrin: :razz:

Have moved plenty of sugar sized aragonite sandbeds from one tank to another. Those sandbeds were disgusting in the amount of detritus they held :eek: Having had three BB tanks for the past year, I don't think I will ever go back to having sandbeds.

Alan,

Nope, no skimmers anywhere. I don't think having a skimmer would do much for the detritus on the bottom of the tank, though. We do have pretty good water flow from powerheads placed near the water surface in all tanks, but all the flow really seems to do is move the detritus to lower flow areas rather than lift it into the water column. At least that's how it appears to me, and that's why we baste under the rock to move the crud to the back of the tank, then do a second siphon.

The only time detritus is in the water column is the day before water changes when I clean the glass then turkey baste the rock. Lots of crud comes out of the rock and clouds the tanks, some of which ends up on the bottom, some in the filter media, and some probably right back onto the rock.

We had a Precision Marine HOB-1 skimmer, as well as powerheads with foam in the prefilters, on our very first tank - a 75g way back when. Had lots of skimmate from it, but then we had a pretty big bioload in that tank compared to our current no skimmer tanks. Also cleaned the foams weekly, sometimes in tapwater, sometimes in changewater. Used RO water in that tank.

At one point, we began to have a cyano problem in the 75g. I had read about basting the rock and sandbed to help export the accumulated crud that was causing the cyano. Man, I gotta tell you, basting rock that had never been basted made the tank so freaking cloudy we couldn't see to the back of it :eek:

Anyway, once the tank cleared, I removed and cleaned the foams, then basted the rock some more. I also gently basted the sandbed where the cyano grew, not so much as to cause a sand storm, but enough to loosen the cyano and some of the detritus into the water column. When the tank cleared again, I cleaned the foams again.

I did this basting and foam cleaning thing at least twice a day for almost a week. Cyano problem went away, but I kept up the weekly basting before the water change and foam cleaning and cyano wasn't much of a problem after that.

So how did the skimmer perform during all this rock and sandbed basting? Well, I can't remember, so I just phoned Chris, my main man :angel: , who was in charge of skimmer cleaning. He seems to remember that there was a slight increase in skimmate but nothing as major as one might think.

I hope my long, convoluted story helps answer your question :biggrin:

[StirCrazy]

Hey Bev: Have you ever thought that you remove that much crude each water change because you don't have a DSB to remove it for you!
Just a thought! :razz:

how is a sand bed going to remove it? do the sand critters climb the side of the tank and throw it over on to the floor? :mrgreen:

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Thorough as usual, Bev! :biggrin:

You don't run skimmers, right? So you would expect more crud in your case, than in a similar tank with good skimming?

(Josh - hit Lee up for some sand. :mrgreen: )

I use skimmers and there is still a lot of crud. I have one corner of my tank that I haven't cleaned yet.. I am going to do a water change soon I will take a pic of what 3 months of build up loos like from 140ish LB of rock.

Steve

[Aquattro]

Hey, let's hi-jack a thread!!

[Beverly]

I use skimmers and there is still a lot of crud. I have one corner of my tank that I haven't cleaned yet.. I am going to do a water change soon I will take a pic of what 3 months of build up loos like from 140ish LB of rock.

Would love to see what you siphon out of that tank, Steve :eek:

Hey, let's hi-jack a thread!!

Oops, sorry Josh :redface: