25yr old 75G Jaubert Plenum

[Patrick17]

Great to see so much colour in a softie tank; so easy to end up with a colour palette ranging from pink to brown. 

 

The longevity of your system is to be admired 

[Subsea]

On 4/3/2018 at 1:37 PM, Patrick17 said:

Great to see so much colour in a softie tank; so easy to end up with a colour palette ranging from pink to brown. 

 

The longevity of your system is to be admired 

Thank you.  The beauties in your tank are indeed gorgeous.

 

received some sponges and moved some red macro around:  Bortacladia and Gracilaria Hayi.

[Patrick17]

Those sponges are gorgeous! Have you had long-term success with sponges like those before? My experience was that it was difficult to keep algae from growing on their surfaces 

[Subsea]

@Patrick17

For the sponges, once a week, I use a soft toothbrush and brush off algae.  Long term success with Red Tree Sponge has not been stellar.  I have been educated to dose silicates.  All sponges from GCE.  I have been keeping the Yellow Ball Sponges for about 6 months and really like the way they display.   The orange/yellow elephant ear sponge displays nicely from a foot glued to rock.  The Orange Encrusting Sponge displays very well and I am having great expectations on this bright orange species.

[Patrick17]

I look forward to seeing how they do long term. 

 

I always thought that sponges were delicate, I wouldn't have dared to brush the even gently. I tried in vain to blow any detritus and algae off with a turkey baster but slowly lost the paddle sponge I had. 

 

Do you have any issues with dosing silicates? 

[Subsea]

17 minutes ago, Patrick17 said:

I look forward to seeing how they do long term. 

 

I always thought that sponges were delicate, I wouldn't have dared to brush the even gently. I tried in vain to blow any detritus and algae off with a turkey baster but slowly lost the paddle sponge I had. 

 

Do you have any issues with dosing silicates? 

I have never dosed it.  Silicate  grows diatoms which technically is phytoplankton.  While I don’t plan on testing for  it, I will follow conservative directions.

[Subsea]

With respect to silicate, my bulk water is saturated in silicate.  When I dripped the first drop of silicate concentrate, it crystallized and fell to bottom.  I put Trinity Aquifer water from 1000’ deep, straight into my reef tank.  It comes in at a pH of 7.8 and a TDS > 950.  This limestone aquifer was the bottom of a shallow inland sea in West Texas and as I found out is full of silicates.  So now I am growing sponges and diatoms which feed janitors and thus feeds the tank.

 

Cryptic sponges in mud refugium with lights out for over nine months.  

[Subsea]

On 6/10/2018 at 3:48 PM, Patrick17 said:

I look forward to seeing how they do long term. 

 

I always thought that sponges were delicate, I wouldn't have dared to brush the even gently. I tried in vain to blow any detritus and algae off with a turkey baster but slowly lost the paddle sponge I had. 

 

Do you have any issues with dosing silicates? 

Once I saw Algae Blenny and then later a snail eating algae on sponge, I decided to help with tooth brush.  I emulate nature.

[vlangel]

10 hours ago, Subsea said:

With respect to silicate, my bulk water is saturated in silicate.  When I dripped the first drop of silicate concentrate, it crystallized and fell to bottom.  I put Trinity Aquifer water from 1000’ deep, straight into my reef tank.  It comes in at a pH of 7.8 and a TDS > 950.  This limestone aquifer was the bottom of a shallow inland sea in West Texas and as I found out is full of silicates.  So now I am growing sponges and diatoms which feed janitors and thus feeds the tank.

 

Cryptic sponges in mud refugium with lights out for over nine months.  

Cool!

[Subsea]

Musings from the “lazy boy”.

 

We “emulate what we love” has always been a major influence in my life.  From having lived in a hardwood climax forest in Southwest Louisiana, I have come to see the beauty and sophistication of Nature.  God spoke it into existence and it was good.  As a farmer, fisherman, hunter, Marine Engineer, Gardner and most of all a reefkeeper, I see that beauty in a dew drop or a sunset or a reef tank in full bloom.  Considering that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I have been fascinated by the sophistication of the “coral holobiont”.  how coral can manipulate its environment to its enhancement.  In recent laboratory controlled experiments, researches have seen coral selectively harvest a specific bacteria then secrete a growth hormone that is specific to only that bacteria.

 

to be continued:

[jSully]

psa19:1

 

Really enjoy this thread, your philosophy on reefkeeping and your outspokenness on creation.

[Subsea]

Thank you for the kind words.  

 

Amen to Psa19.1

A good light read on the subject is “The Evolution of a Creationist”.

[jSully]

I'll have to pick that up. I'm working through Van Til's presup and few others currently. I've had to slow down the consumption of theology literature due to the addition of college coursework for career advancement, but it's only a season.

[Subsea]

On 7/13/2018 at 4:33 PM, xtra0t said:

I'll have to pick that up. I'm working through Van Til's presup and few others currently. I've had to slow down the consumption of theology literature due to the addition of college coursework for career advancement, but it's only a season.

@xtra0t

Presuppositions is too heavy for here.  

 

The Evolution of a Creationist was written by Jobe Martin, a outspoken etheist and personnel friend of President Bill Clinton.  Jobe Martin always flew on Air Force One as  he was a dentist for the presidential ontarouge.  Baylor University hired Doctor Martin into their Theology Department to challenge students with other viewpoints.  Over a period of four years Doctor Martin converted to Christianity and wrote “The Evolution of a Creationist”.  He credited God with having a sense of humor because of zebras and giraffes.  

 

The whole book is carried with one quote.   “If you don’t believe in God or Creation, then by logic you believe that, NOTHING, PLUS NOBODY, EQUALS EVERYTHING,  which is the wisdom of a fool.”

[jSully]

ah yes, prov26:4&5

 

That's exactly what presup does. I'm fascinated by the philosophy behind presup. Presup answers the fool according to his folly, so that he is not wise in his own eyes. The atheist rejects their Creator thereby rejecting their ability to account for universal absolutes such as logic or the constants that physics relies upon, essentially destroying their foundation and forcing them to acknowledge their "faith based" rejection of God. Some of the most difficult conversations are getting the atheist to understand their religion requires more faith than mine. 

 

Another book on my list is Lawrence Krauss' "A Universe from Nothing". That fits your quote quite well, ha! That book of Dr. Martin sounds very interesting. 

 

Ben Shapiro interviewed a philosophy professor a while back who used to be an atheist. He started diving into Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas and a couple others and formed the conclusion that it's logically incoherent to reject our Creator. I'm looking forward to diving into this one eventually. It's called Five Proofs for the Existence of God by Edward Feser. If only humans required 2 hours of sleep rather than 6-8. lol. 

[Patrick17]

Pretty sure that you are the person to ask, Subsea...

 

I've been thinking about moving to a more natural setup after reading through a couple recent threads you have contributed to; what would your thoughts be on removing the skimmer and using the central section of the sump as a macro display/refugium? What would you use as a substrate - I can see the benefits of mud, sand and bare bottom. The plan would be to use the refugium for nutrient export but also to provide pods for the fish I chose to keep. Would a refugium be as efficient as a skimmer in removing nutrients?

 

The macros I bought for my DT are doing well, a couple became snail food but overall I'm pleased. 

[Subsea]

Remove nutrients or recycle nutrients, that is the question.  

 

A protein skimmer removes nutrients mostly in the form of bacteria.  Refugiums are not designed to remove nutrients.  Just like a mature sand bed, refugiums process inorganic & organic nutrients to grow live food for tank inhabitants.  If you prune and remove macro, then you export nutrients from system.

 

Refugiums grow coral and feed fish.  Protein skimmers strip bacteria from the water column and remove food (nutrient export).  Which of those two does your system need?  IMO, the only consistently good thing about protein skimmers is they provide good air exchange and increase redox values.

 

 

[Patrick17]

4 minutes ago, Subsea said:

Remove nutrients or recycle nutrients, that is the question.  

 

A protein skimmer removes nutrients mostly in the form of bacteria.  Refugiums are not designed to remove nutrients.  Just like a mature sand bed, refugiums process inorganic & organic nutrients to grow live food for tank inhabitants.  If you prune and remove macro, then you export nutrients from system.

 

Refugiums grow coral and feed fish.  Protein skimmers strip bacteria from the water column and remove food (nutrient export).  Which of those two does your system need?  IMO, the only consistently good thing about protein skimmers is they provide good air exchange and increase redox values.

 

 

I'm definitely looking at removing nutrients from the system; whether they are bound up in trimmed macroalgae or in skimmate doesn't matter too much. I would like to achieve this in the most efficient manner possible. I don't think I have the space in my sump to be able to do a refugium with a large enough volume to make much difference with the skimmer in place and I'm not convinced my skimmer is doing particularly much. 

[Subsea]

It sounds as if a chaeto reactor or an ATS is what you need with your space limitation.    Neither produces live food, but they remove nutrients.

[Subsea]

On 8/7/2018 at 6:37 AM, Patrick17 said:

Pretty sure that you are the person to ask, Subsea...

 

I've been thinking about moving to a more natural setup after reading through a couple recent threads you have contributed to; what would your thoughts be on removing the skimmer and using the central section of the sump as a macro display/refugium? What would you use as a substrate - I can see the benefits of mud, sand and bare bottom. The plan would be to use the refugium for nutrient export but also to provide pods for the fish I chose to keep. Would a refugium be as efficient as a skimmer in removing nutrients?

 

The macros I bought for my DT are doing well, a couple became snail food but overall I'm pleased. 

I would discontinue use of skimmer with no socks on flow in sump, I would place eggcrate in sump to provide surface area  for biofilms for pods or sponges.  If you wish to make this a pod refugium, it would work well.  If you wish to make this a cryptic  refugium, it would work to recycle nutrients and feed coral.  To remove nutrients, use macro, either in chaeto reactor or  in ATS.

[ramona]

Love your tanks, a lot to learn! 

[Subsea]

@Romana

 

what would you you like to learn.?

 I could not find a tank journal.  Have you started your cube, yet"?

[ramona]

2 days ago I placed the very first coral: a green mushroom on a tiny rock, today I got 3 Ricordea from KPAquatics, one RFA, one purple sea whip and a feather duster. I had my hands in this tank today hundreds time😂, I just cannot resist. I have no clue at I do. It's my very first aquarium, 9 gallon Eheim with 10 gal sump I siliconed the baffles, Mame overflow (didn't expect so much pain to work with it) running/cycling for almost 3 month; I tried to practice all this time in keeping parameters stable as much as I can. SG at 1025 with pet bottle ATO NanoSapiens so far.

Thank you for asking. You are very kind.👋

 

 

[Subsea]

@ramona

you should start a tank thread on this forum.  Information specific to your tank would be in one place so that people could make informed comments that are pertinent to your system.  

 

With a three month young tank, I would not have gotten a deep water gorgonion that is non photosynthetic and requires a specialized diet.  I just did attempt NPS with moderate success.  This coral requires much more than casual attention.  You should reconsider if you can adequately provide for the food requirements in an immature tank of 3 months.

[ramona]

Oops, I knew I will do something wrong. I thought will be an easy one. I will try to exchange at LFS if possible. Thank you. 

I plan on starting a tank thread, just have to find the time and figure out how to insert pictures. To be honest, all the awesome tanks on this forum are very intimidating.