The secret ingredient of Time

[A.m.P]

Biggest issue I have with pods is my springer's damselfish thinks it is a wrasse and eats every pod *except* those little round and white buggers which like to sit on your glass lol (maybe they're too crunchy?)... I have a bunch of matrix and smaller-particle media in the back chambers stuffed-into paint-filter bags which pods seem to like to hang out in, can't imagine it's too different from live rock or large-particle gravel/sand, though I suppose the paint-filter-bags probably keep most of the larger particle-detritus out of it...

[mcarroll]

36 minutes ago, jservedio said:

Yep! I just meant in my display tank they can't do anything. I've got some rubble in my sump in the return chamber as well where they can live and do some work, but I haven't seen a living one in the tank in probably 2 years.

IME that's normal once the major livestock goes into the tank.  

 

The only time I notice any is if I let the glass get really shaggy so there's cover for them.

 

You should be able to do the same if you just wanted to test it and see what you see.

 

As has been said many times by many others, they're still there, just out of sight so they don't get eaten.  🙂 

[Nano sapiens]

True, there is no substitute for time and the resulting stability/maturity.

 

Looking into the back chambers of mature nano tanks is quite interesting.  One might think that the type, ratio and volume of organisms would be similar, but that's often not the case.  For example, I have the typical complement of tiny feather dusters, but currently hardly any pineapple sponges or vermetid snails in the system.  Instead, I have sheets of opaque thin flat sponge on all the chamber walls and Serpulid worms everywhere.  Don't have much detritus, but do have regular mineralization deposits from bacterial activity which are loaded with near microscopic benthic pods.  Now that my bristleworm and micro brittle star populations are extinct (thanks to my Saddled Blenny), multitudes of tiny non-segmented worms have picked up the slack.

 

Given the opportunity, life (of some sort) will fill the niche...

 

 

[jservedio]

2 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

True, there is no substitute for time and the resulting stability/maturity.

 

Looking into the back chambers of mature nano tanks is quite interesting.  One might think that the type, ratio and volume of organisms would be similar, but that's often not the case.  For example, I have the typical complement of tiny feather dusters, but hardly any pineapple sponges or vermetid snails in the system.  Instead, I have sheets of opaque thin flat sponge on all the chamber walls and spinoid worms everywhere.  Don't have much detritus, but do have regular mineralization deposits from bacterial activity which are loaded with near microscopic benthic pods.  Now that my bristleworm population is extinct, multitudes of tiny non-segmented worms have picked up the slack.

 

Given the opportunity, life (of some sort) will fill the niche...

 

 

 

Thank you for this response! Would you mind taking a picture of the back of your tank if you get a chance? I would love to see a picture of what organisms you've got going on and I'm sure lots of other people would, too. Not only have I noticed differences in what critters take up residence in very mature tanks, but I've noticed them shift over the years.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, jservedio said:

 

Thank you for this response! Would you mind taking a picture of the back of your tank if you get a chance? I would love to see a picture of what organisms you've got going on and I'm sure lots of other people would, too. Not only have I noticed differences in what critters take up residence in very mature tanks, but I've noticed them shift over the years.

Back chambers on my tank are still pretty clean... granted my new waterbox is only a couple months old. I lost so much life when I switched from my old 20 gallon to the new waterbox.

[RedCrow]

Great write up! Many forget that the ocean is a complete biological system; you won’t be so successful if you’re only including parts of that system in your tank. 

 I’m also a believer in light stocking and minimal feeding. If your system is healthy enough and you don’t have too many animals competing for food sources, the natural biology of the tank will keep your fish fed all on its own. 

[Clown79]

4 hours ago, mcarroll said:

IME that's normal once the major livestock goes into the tank.  

 

The only time I notice any is if I let the glass get really shaggy so there's cover for them.

 

You should be able to do the same if you just wanted to test it and see what you see.

 

As has been said many times by many others, they're still there, just out of sight so they don't get eaten.  🙂 

Same here. When I don't scrape the glass I see a lot otherwise I see none. 

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Back chambers on my tank are still pretty clean... granted my new waterbox is only a couple months old. I lost so much life when I switched from my old 20 gallon to the new waterbox.

My new 20g is the same, I expect in 6mnths I will start seeing stuff growing

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

2 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

My new 20g is the same, I expect in 6mnths I will start seeing stuff growing

I'm starting to see the little white spiral worms.. I can never remember what they are . Life is happening so i'm happy. Now, I just need more critters

[Clown79]

5 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I'm starting to see the little white spiral worms.. I can never remember what they are . Life is happening so i'm happy. Now, I just need more critters

There's always something we need for our tanks😊

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

There's always something we need for our tanks😊

I'm just happy I can grow algae like a champ . I'm really good at it.

edit: but to my defense I can also grow corals too

[Nano sapiens]

11 hours ago, jservedio said:

 

Thank you for this response! Would you mind taking a picture of the back of your tank if you get a chance? I would love to see a picture of what organisms you've got going on and I'm sure lots of other people would, too. Not only have I noticed differences in what critters take up residence in very mature tanks, but I've noticed them shift over the years.

This is what it looks like most of the time when feeding is relatively light (pics taken a few months back).

 

 

When I notice change (usually due to increased bioload and/or feeding), there's an increase in the mass and different types of sponges.  In the last pic, one can see soft, flexible stringy growths (unknown organism), but currently opaque 'sheet sponge' (for lack of a better term) has taken much of it's place on the walls lately.

 

I do remove much of the mineralization sediment from the chamber bottoms every month or so, so that's why there's so little buildup.  Since I've discovered a thriving community of tiny pods living in this stuff, I'm going to try letting it buildup to maybe 3/16" or so and maintain the bed at that level to give them ample space to 'do their thing' (assuming that I don't see a substantial rise in PO4).  Any lighter detritus I can whirl out in a vortex to then redistribute back into the main tank, or capture in a filter sock if excessive.

 

The heater I have to clean at least every 6 months to remove the abundant Serpulid worms.  I thoroughly clean the pump every month or so, so build up of these organisms is controlled.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

So, if i'm understanding this right, the corals actually eat detritus? I know all the other little critters do.

[MrObscura]

They can when its stirred up. 

[Nano sapiens]

9 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

So, if i'm understanding this right, the corals actually eat detritus? I know all the other little critters do.

While the detritus substrate particles themselves may not always be nutritious, they are typically coated in all sorts of yummy microorganisms that coral's can utilize.

[mcarroll]

10 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

So, if i'm understanding this right, the corals actually eat detritus? I know all the other little critters do.

Definitely.  They just can't walk over to it like a crab or snail, they depend on the flow to bring it to them, of course. 

 

[MrObscura]

That's why if you ever notice after cleaning the glass and/or stirring up the tank corals might perk up and go into feeding mode.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

45 minutes ago, MrObscura said:

That's why if you ever notice after cleaning the glass and/or stirring up the tank corals might perk up and go into feeding mode.

Oh damn!! Yeah they do... i wondered why they always went into feeding mode 😂

[jservedio]

Here's cool shot of what happens even when your most sensitive corals go up against "stinging pests." It's one thing to see a gnarly LPS beating up on a couple tiny colonial hydroids, but here is an acro doing it's thing and growing right over a thick mat of hydroids with several hundred individual hydroids.