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It feels so naked and dirty...
Looks great to me, now resist the urge to put sand back in
jlanger's 120gal Arts and Crafts Inspired Reef Build (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jlanger
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Looks great to me, now resist the urge to put sand back in
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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After a few weeks, the sand bed conversion is complete! The old fine sand is out and the new "larger" sand is in.
The old sand that was removed wasn't really as dirty as I was expecting, so the nassarius snails, pistol shrimps and leopard wrasse were doing a decent job of keeping the sand bed "clean". There was still plenty of fine detritus that was in the sand bed, but not enough to make it have that odor of a stagnant sand bed.
I also discovered just how many frags have been lost in the old sand bed. As I would suck out the old sand, dead frags and snail shells would plug the tubing. There were many frags that I completely forgot about as they were probably knocked off the reef and buried/used by the pistol shrimps. Hopefully the larger sand grains will keep any new frags from being lost; I hope. And speaking of frags, I've made a good number of new frags while I clumsily removed the sand and broke off the branches and plates of corals that "got in the way".
I removed the old sand during regular water changes and sucked out about 20% of the sand each time. When I had over half of the sand bed removed I started adding the new sand. I saved the righthand cave for last as this is where the Tiger Pistol Shrimp and Randall's Goby have their burrow. I was able to remove the sand without incident and added the new sand right away. I have plenty of clean new sand left over so I may add some more to certain locations that could use a little bit more. But I'll give the tank a while to settle in and see where the shrimps move the sand and see where I need to add more.
Here's the new sand bed.
The Special Grade Reef Sand is now my sand of choice. The grain size is small enough to make a smooth sand bed, but also large enough to be vacuumed during water changes. The pistol shrimps and goby have no problem with the grain size and the clownfish aren't able to really cause a dust storm when they fan out their nests under the corals. But I think the fish that likes the new sand the most is the leopard wrasse. He's been disgruntled lately with the lack of sand for burying himself at night; I think I see him winking in approval.
In other news, I have been spending a lot of time watching the tank at night.
The anthias are spawning regularly now. This past week, I noticed that the male is spawning with at least two of the females; the larger two. I'll start watching about half-an-hour before lights out and the male will get really excited and begin flashing at the females; the usual "U-dance" followed by quick darts and passes and ending with a side-by-side rub. As the time for spawning approaches, he anthias tend to chase the other fish away from the area just above the chasm in the middle of the tank. And when they feel it is safe, the females will hover near the topmost corals and then they will spawn into that open water above the chasm. The larger female is first and then followed by the second female within the minute. Sometimes there appears to be a second spawning from one of those females; as I've seen three total spawning events in a night a few times but the two smaller female anthias do not participate; that I've noticed.
The eggs are quickly picked off by the other fish. Oh well.
The spawnings happen just before the lights go out for the night. As the Radion LEDs drop the final few percentage points, there's a noticeable drop in intensity. As the lights are about to make those final couple of drops, the fish begin to settle towards the reef. The fish will congregate and wait. Once the male anthias decides it's nighttime, he dives into the reef and all of the other fish follow his lead. It's pretty incredible to watch. As soon as he disappears into the rocks, the other fish disappear and my tank is empty. And with the minute, the LEDs go out and it's completely dark. Even in a home aquarium, the natural instincts of the fish are the same as on the wild reef.
Now that the sand bed conversion is completed, it's time to tackle the next couple of issues.
The old sand that was removed wasn't really as dirty as I was expecting, so the nassarius snails, pistol shrimps and leopard wrasse were doing a decent job of keeping the sand bed "clean". There was still plenty of fine detritus that was in the sand bed, but not enough to make it have that odor of a stagnant sand bed.
I also discovered just how many frags have been lost in the old sand bed. As I would suck out the old sand, dead frags and snail shells would plug the tubing. There were many frags that I completely forgot about as they were probably knocked off the reef and buried/used by the pistol shrimps. Hopefully the larger sand grains will keep any new frags from being lost; I hope. And speaking of frags, I've made a good number of new frags while I clumsily removed the sand and broke off the branches and plates of corals that "got in the way".
I removed the old sand during regular water changes and sucked out about 20% of the sand each time. When I had over half of the sand bed removed I started adding the new sand. I saved the righthand cave for last as this is where the Tiger Pistol Shrimp and Randall's Goby have their burrow. I was able to remove the sand without incident and added the new sand right away. I have plenty of clean new sand left over so I may add some more to certain locations that could use a little bit more. But I'll give the tank a while to settle in and see where the shrimps move the sand and see where I need to add more.
Here's the new sand bed.
The Special Grade Reef Sand is now my sand of choice. The grain size is small enough to make a smooth sand bed, but also large enough to be vacuumed during water changes. The pistol shrimps and goby have no problem with the grain size and the clownfish aren't able to really cause a dust storm when they fan out their nests under the corals. But I think the fish that likes the new sand the most is the leopard wrasse. He's been disgruntled lately with the lack of sand for burying himself at night; I think I see him winking in approval.
In other news, I have been spending a lot of time watching the tank at night.
The anthias are spawning regularly now. This past week, I noticed that the male is spawning with at least two of the females; the larger two. I'll start watching about half-an-hour before lights out and the male will get really excited and begin flashing at the females; the usual "U-dance" followed by quick darts and passes and ending with a side-by-side rub. As the time for spawning approaches, he anthias tend to chase the other fish away from the area just above the chasm in the middle of the tank. And when they feel it is safe, the females will hover near the topmost corals and then they will spawn into that open water above the chasm. The larger female is first and then followed by the second female within the minute. Sometimes there appears to be a second spawning from one of those females; as I've seen three total spawning events in a night a few times but the two smaller female anthias do not participate; that I've noticed.
The eggs are quickly picked off by the other fish. Oh well.
The spawnings happen just before the lights go out for the night. As the Radion LEDs drop the final few percentage points, there's a noticeable drop in intensity. As the lights are about to make those final couple of drops, the fish begin to settle towards the reef. The fish will congregate and wait. Once the male anthias decides it's nighttime, he dives into the reef and all of the other fish follow his lead. It's pretty incredible to watch. As soon as he disappears into the rocks, the other fish disappear and my tank is empty. And with the minute, the LEDs go out and it's completely dark. Even in a home aquarium, the natural instincts of the fish are the same as on the wild reef.
Now that the sand bed conversion is completed, it's time to tackle the next couple of issues.
CoralKings
Senior Member
Nice tank.
CoralKings
Senior Member
Nice tank, keep up on the update.
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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More happy tenants with the new sand bed.
Last edited:
CoralKings
Senior Member
Looks like they aren't shy at all.
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Quite the contrary.
I've had the goby for over four years and the shrimp for a couple. Since there hasn't ever really been any threats to the shrimp from other fish, the goby allows it to come out and work all of the time.
I see my shrimp in that's in my nano quite a bit also; even though the gobies in that tank are a bit more skittish.
Good work with the sand bed swap. Hopefully it will help keep the nutrients stable long term. I've been contemplating doing the same on my tank.
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Two weeks in with the new sand bed and I'm liking the results.
The sand doesn't get moved around as much as the finer grained sand. The random water flow and the clownfish used to cause my lower corals to get some sand displaced onto them; not so much with this larger grained sand.
I was able to vacuum the sand during my weekly water change. Some sand does still get sucked out by the vacuum, but I am able to notice the sand bed being cleaned of some detritus. An issue that I have encountered is that the vacuum has a limited range of operation. I can't really get into the tighter locations or those that are underneath corals that interfere with the vacuum tubing. Next time I will use a small hand rake to get into those places before I vacuum so that I can clean as much of the sand bed as possible.
I was wondering if I should limit vacuuming the sand bed to every other week or even once a month. Thoughts?
But the most important result of swapping out the sand bed was when I tested for nitrates this morning. Before the swap, I was back up to 32+ppm, so I was hoping for somewhere around 16ppm; or at least something below 32ppm. My nitrate test result was only 4ppm! Not believing such a result, I did a second test to verify the result and it was the same.
:ac15:
And another step in the right direction has been feeding my skimmer with fresh air to raise my pH level.
I didn't mention that project in this thread but you can find that here.
My daily average pH level is now at 8.00 with a range from 7.97 during the night to 8.04 during the afternoon.
The fresh air has also caused a change in the production of the skimmer. I find that the skimmer has increased its foam production so that I needed to lower the water level in the skimmer column. It's still a nasty smelling skimmate, but it's just produced "quicker" or "more efficiently"; who knows.
As far as fish and corals go, everything is still doing well.
I continue to monitor my anthias at night. I've tried to get better video to share of their spawning behavior, but the fish are extremely sensitive adjustments in light levels. If I postponed the program's sunset, the fish didn't finish the act but spent the extra time continuing their foreplay. If I turned on the room's ceiling light, they seemed distracted and, once again, didn't finish the act. There was a lot of practice runs, but none that resulted in an actual spawn. So I'm trying to find a perfect set up of lighting that allows the fish to feel confident enough to spawn and enough light for the camera to capture quality video.
I have also noticed that the harem is more social towards each other. The females gather as a group and hang out towards the top of my corals more than previously. Before, the hierarchy was a definite issue. The more dominant females would harass the subservient females to hide in the rocks. Now they're more tolerant of each other, but the hierarchy is still there.
The Lamarck's Angelfish is still acting like an angelfish. Seems that there are now issues with the male leopard wrasse and the blenny. One day that fish may get on my last nerve and just need to get removed. Errrgh.
Everyone else is doing just fine.
The sand doesn't get moved around as much as the finer grained sand. The random water flow and the clownfish used to cause my lower corals to get some sand displaced onto them; not so much with this larger grained sand.
I was able to vacuum the sand during my weekly water change. Some sand does still get sucked out by the vacuum, but I am able to notice the sand bed being cleaned of some detritus. An issue that I have encountered is that the vacuum has a limited range of operation. I can't really get into the tighter locations or those that are underneath corals that interfere with the vacuum tubing. Next time I will use a small hand rake to get into those places before I vacuum so that I can clean as much of the sand bed as possible.
I was wondering if I should limit vacuuming the sand bed to every other week or even once a month. Thoughts?
But the most important result of swapping out the sand bed was when I tested for nitrates this morning. Before the swap, I was back up to 32+ppm, so I was hoping for somewhere around 16ppm; or at least something below 32ppm. My nitrate test result was only 4ppm! Not believing such a result, I did a second test to verify the result and it was the same.
:ac15:
And another step in the right direction has been feeding my skimmer with fresh air to raise my pH level.
I didn't mention that project in this thread but you can find that here.
My daily average pH level is now at 8.00 with a range from 7.97 during the night to 8.04 during the afternoon.
The fresh air has also caused a change in the production of the skimmer. I find that the skimmer has increased its foam production so that I needed to lower the water level in the skimmer column. It's still a nasty smelling skimmate, but it's just produced "quicker" or "more efficiently"; who knows.
As far as fish and corals go, everything is still doing well.
I continue to monitor my anthias at night. I've tried to get better video to share of their spawning behavior, but the fish are extremely sensitive adjustments in light levels. If I postponed the program's sunset, the fish didn't finish the act but spent the extra time continuing their foreplay. If I turned on the room's ceiling light, they seemed distracted and, once again, didn't finish the act. There was a lot of practice runs, but none that resulted in an actual spawn. So I'm trying to find a perfect set up of lighting that allows the fish to feel confident enough to spawn and enough light for the camera to capture quality video.
I have also noticed that the harem is more social towards each other. The females gather as a group and hang out towards the top of my corals more than previously. Before, the hierarchy was a definite issue. The more dominant females would harass the subservient females to hide in the rocks. Now they're more tolerant of each other, but the hierarchy is still there.
The Lamarck's Angelfish is still acting like an angelfish. Seems that there are now issues with the male leopard wrasse and the blenny. One day that fish may get on my last nerve and just need to get removed. Errrgh.
Everyone else is doing just fine.
Mandarin_Jake
Senior Member
How much sand did you add with the swap lb wise?
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Around 80 pounds.
Mandarin_Jake
Senior Member
Okay, that's about what I was going to shoot for. Thank you sir!
Congrats on the nitrates! Love the look of the new sand
Yea, and you haven't even taken a picture of your Phoenix since you've gotten it.
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Settle down....
The new pieces I picked up yesterday (Carl) are in the Fluval; three zoanthid plugs.
And you're right (Eric), I haven't taken a shot of the Phoenix Montipora yet.
But photos may be on hold for a while as my computer is on life support; only runs in Safe Mode. I'm not able to import any photos from the memory card and any sizable file likes to lock up the computer regardless. I'm scheduled for a diagnostic check today as we've done all of the checks for any software issues; looking at hardware failure now. Yea....
eeved:If you really want photos, I can take some crappy iPhone 4 shots. :boo:
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jlanger
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Update on water parameters... (more so for my record.)
Before doing any water change this past weekend, I tested the tank's nitrates again just to see where they fell. The result was now just under 4ppm.
It appears that the old sand bed was acting as a nutrient sink. Nitrates falling from 32ppm to 4ppm over four weeks with regular water changes (20%) and removing the sand was quite remarkable. The fact that the nitrate level hasn't risen (possibly dropped just a tad) could show that the added ceramic media blocks and bacteria are finally kicking in.
On a side note, I witnessed my Yellow Clown Goby nipping at the base of an acropora frag. Looks like I'll have to trap that little bugger and move it to the nano tank.
Before doing any water change this past weekend, I tested the tank's nitrates again just to see where they fell. The result was now just under 4ppm.
It appears that the old sand bed was acting as a nutrient sink. Nitrates falling from 32ppm to 4ppm over four weeks with regular water changes (20%) and removing the sand was quite remarkable. The fact that the nitrate level hasn't risen (possibly dropped just a tad) could show that the added ceramic media blocks and bacteria are finally kicking in.
On a side note, I witnessed my Yellow Clown Goby nipping at the base of an acropora frag.
Looks like I'll have to trap that little bugger and move it to the nano tank.
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jlanger
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Here's some photos to coincide with my recent updates.
The montipora corals are growing like crazy!!!
The green M. hodgsoni, red M. capricornus and Idaho Grape montipora are doing great.
I can even see some growth coming from the Oregon Blue Tort.
The red M. hodgsoni is the fastest grower. The coral has grown enough so that I need to break off some plates when I'm using my glass magnet; too close to the glass!
And I placed a large chunk of the Idaho Grape montipora in the back of the chasm just so it was out of the way. But now with the water parameters becoming more "normal", this coral has decided that it was time to start growing again. I kind of forgot how nice this coral looks when it's growing well.
And here's a couple of pics of some frags that are now beginning to take off.
Hawkin's Echinata.
Encrusting well and now growing new tips.
Phoenix Montipora.
The growing edge is more orange than pink and it doesn't look so washed out to the naked eye.
It has encrusted since I brought it home, so hopefully this piece will take off and grow like my other montipora corals do.
The montipora corals are growing like crazy!!!
The green M. hodgsoni, red M. capricornus and Idaho Grape montipora are doing great.
I can even see some growth coming from the Oregon Blue Tort.
The red M. hodgsoni is the fastest grower. The coral has grown enough so that I need to break off some plates when I'm using my glass magnet; too close to the glass!
And I placed a large chunk of the Idaho Grape montipora in the back of the chasm just so it was out of the way. But now with the water parameters becoming more "normal", this coral has decided that it was time to start growing again. I kind of forgot how nice this coral looks when it's growing well.
And here's a couple of pics of some frags that are now beginning to take off.
Hawkin's Echinata.
Encrusting well and now growing new tips.
Phoenix Montipora.
The growing edge is more orange than pink and it doesn't look so washed out to the naked eye.
It has encrusted since I brought it home, so hopefully this piece will take off and grow like my other montipora corals do.
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Looks like things are starting to level out! Is that phoenix an encrusting monti?
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jlanger
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Yep.
The one side has reached the edge of the frag disk already, so we'll have to see if it grows down the side or decides to "plate out"; one of my other encrusting montiporas likes to grow out over the rock in places.
My parameters are definitely doing better after the sand bed exchange.
I have been working on an ATS for my sump for the last couple of months. The design process was challenge as I wanted a filter that was effective, easy to maintain and fit within my sump and stand. Once the design was figured out, I spent a couple of weeks making parts and mocking up various options. I spent yesterday machining the parts to build the actual ATS. Today, I plan on assembling the filter and trying to fine tune the spray bar before the filter goes live.
I'll be taking photos, but my computer has been sitting in a repair shop awaiting a new video card; hence no new photos or bigger posts from me the past week or so.