400 gallon project

Delphinus · #1 11-26-2007, 04:04 AM

Here Myka, check out these pages: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-11/totm/index.php
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=30974
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=686757

*Somewhere* in there is some details about his self-squeegee'ing skimmer head, and some videos too IIRC.

Also, there are some skimmers which employ a spray head which spray down the skimmer neck in an effort to keep it clean. And, I think there are a couple commercial versions of self-cleaning skimmers (Deltec, I think), although they tend to be pretty high-end things.

untamed · #2 11-30-2007, 06:36 AM

I lost my Powder Blue Tang the other night. I only had him for 1 month. No explanation, but he was reduced to a clean skull less than 24 hours since last seeing him alive. I suppose this means that my clean up crew is very good at what they do!

I liked this fish a lot and expect that I'll try again.

michika · #3 11-30-2007, 02:07 PM

I'm really sorry to hear that.

justinl · #4 11-30-2007, 03:07 PM

sorry to hear that. it really was a great fish.

untamed · #5 12-02-2007, 12:13 AM

While my battle with hair algae is under control, it is very much still there. My one remaining sea hare continues to do a decent job. It could be that this is just where my tank ends up.

In an effort to figure out what is going on, I've purchased a Pinpoint nitrate monitor. $250 later, the official low-range reading on my tank is.... zero ppm

Yes, absolute zero. I then verified the test by diluting the 10ppm calibration fluid 50/50 with aquarium water and got a reading of 5 ppm.

So...what does this mean? I suppose it means that any available nitrate is being used by algae faster than I can detect it. I'm going to theorize that algae needs light to make use of the nitrate. That would suggest that I might be able to detect nitrates in the morning, before the lights come on.

More on this as experimenting continues.

justinl · #6 12-02-2007, 01:59 AM

the one remaining sea hare? what happened to the others?

Does photosynthesis actually require the intake of nitrogen? I ask because i dont really know, but i dont think it does... i think. I had always been under the impression that the raw materials for photosynthesis was CO2 and good old H2O. But for all i know nitrogen could be used up in an intermediate step somewhere... regardless, i would definitely be interested in whatever findings you come up with.

untamed · #7 12-02-2007, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinl

the one remaining sea hare? what happened to the others?

Does photosynthesis actually require the intake of nitrogen? I ask because i dont really know, but i dont think it does... i think. I had always been under the impression that the raw materials for photosynthesis was CO2 and good old H2O. But for all i know nitrogen could be used up in an intermediate step somewhere... regardless, i would definitely be interested in whatever findings you come up with.

The hair algae made such a dramatic reduction that I returned one of my two sea hares to the LFS because I was worried it would starve.

As I understand it, photosynthesis reaction does not use Nitrogen directly, but Nitrogen might be involved. The product of the photosynthesis is glucose + Oxygen. My guess is that it is the conversion of that glucose into algae body where the algae absorbs Nitrate and Phosphate.

Nitrogen is a key component of chlorophyll...so the algae has to absorb N in order to make more chlorphyll.

...but what do I know...I just keep fish in a tank!