Let's discuss if this picture holds the key to indefinite reef life span

[brandon429]

my pico here is ten yrs old in a month, what does this treatment pictured (taking apart a reef to its core) have to do with longevity? Wouldn't a reef fully aged taken apart like this recycle?

(I left it drained 15 minutes and the longest ive done is about 25 mins)



How does this pic relate to you upgrading to a different aquarium with all your animals and wanting to skip cycle it? (Have to take apart one reef to move it into another)

How does this tie into large volume water changes and causing or not causing a cycle in a given reef tank (dirty vs always clean sand)



If we have deep cleaning options on reefs, that may change the lifespan potential for many.

How many cyano issues abound on top of untouched 2 yr + sand beds in our forums? The threads are constant, most tanks are cumulative amounts of detritus, my offer is opposite. Even if it's not practical to strip a giant tank like this, are there ways to run sandbeds differently to prevent the sinking ahead of time?



My old reef is taken apart, blast cleaned harshly w gallons of clean water and then tipped sideways to pour off into the sink. the sandbed was heavily pre rinsed fully of silt before use, longevity was intended in each prep action. It is ideal to pre rinse caribsea sandbeds all makes totally free of silt before use. Allows a lifetime of cleaning and waste rejection without additional silting, again an opposite of the common mode.

 

[sawdonkey]

What do you keep in this fish/coral/invert-wise? How do they hold up to such extreme cleaning?

 

[brandon429]

Recently I cleaned out years of growth and red mushroom invasions so the bowl is less crowded now but this is how it runs as it builds up in the vid below.

Back when it was packed wall to wall I didn't part it out, but got the same resets by simply setting it in my sink and pouring twenty gallons of water *hard* through it, ejecting out all waste and storming up the bowl. I had a boxer crab and a yellow CBS in here for five years, they just held on lol

No fish, too small but corals don't mind clearly. For blast cleaning a large tank fish should be held elsewhere safely then reacclimated back after the tank is cleaned. The corals won't need acclimation just use reasonable change water matching.

My reef was kept this clean from the start, so my thorough cleanings are the norm, it adapted like a fringing reef model. Someone with a dirty hands off reef wouldn't go this route, they have a cycle risk. The point is see an old tank who does things differently and consider never having a dangerous sinked up bed.

Getting in deep in a sinked up typical tank is risky, but if we prevent that condition as part of the tank design, access ability changes. Here's the reef two years ago I was crowded to the sides of the glass. There's blasotmussa in here that is 14 yrs old and was produced fully inside this and previous reefbowl

This isn't meant to be aesthetically pleasing to everyone, it's meant to show how bare bones and old can you get a tank with 12 or so kinds of mixed sps and lps, airstone only circulation is rather bare bones. Whether it looks crowded or ugly doesn't matter, I produced hundreds of new biomass frags from it and its perpetually algae free

It was a little model and nothing more. biology, not looks
The patches and spots are sps arms that grew out and touched the glass and began to plate. They almost opaqued the whole bowl before I blasted them out with vinegar lol I'll regrow em in time.



thanks for stopping by~

 

[brandon429]

next day after reassembly

acans open for business after one hour back In water

they want food its cyclopeeze time, brain is back out too

Seemed scary to have it all parted out, drying on a dinner plate there for a sec but it's time
# 200 of this

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No such thing as a mini cycle. Tank is cycling or it is not.
And I've never had a problem deep cleaning a tank. I run all DSB.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sorry re read your posts and I have no idea what you are even talking about.
Nice tank.

 

[yarddoctor123]

Very cool. How did you come about the IDEA of trying corals in a vase?!
Did you start with just a few pieces?
And how often do you "blast" it out?

 

[brandon429]

Salty, it's ok if it's not possible to discern meaning from the posts just enjoy the weird pics. Anyone considering disassembling their tank from recent threads may want to know how and why you can strip a tank and put it back together repeatedly with no harm. Agreed on mini cycles


We know from cycling science that any aged reef tank can digest decent ppm ammonia, say maybe up to 4 ppm or better, within 24 hours down to no free ammonia when using salifert accurate testers, for example.

When a living cured aged system shows .25 at any time sustained for days, that doesn't mean .25 is leaking from a partial activity and is staying in the water at .25, it implies something massive is emitting so much ammonia above 4-6 ppm that all the active surface area can barely keep up and maxes out at .25, doesn't typically occur, puts the reading in question as a false ammonia reading. Regarding .25 stuck cycle threads, we usually find no such source of ammonia and API ammonia test kits nearly every time.

 

[brandon429]

yardDr. thanks for stopping by






The idea came about because I needed something cheap and something easily sourced as the system

the 90s book written rules said that tiny reefs were unstable and impossible, most dismissed the idea but a select few did not and they motivated me (Eric Borneman for example was active in the forums for anyone to benefit from and personally helpful to me in pm)




turn down volume a terrible techno track upcoming

 

[yarddoctor123]

I'm gonna try. Any tips besides complete water changes?

 

[brandon429]

happy to have a new trial run, if you can go without fish you'll love a system this simple and long lived. I suppose some small fish might live there, but ive been able to fend off all the unethical claims over the years by not having them lol. nobody decries coral that grows so much you have to either flush it or give frags away for free

seek out builder Maritza the Vase reef for a recent vase reef design that's getting good recognition on the scene, good to have variation in ideas as initial planning.

 

[brandon429]

Although this is FW, lifespan tricks is the point of the thread

14th yr terrarium globe

it simply doesn't require water changes or any maintenance unless it's time to clean up detritus to be able to see shrimp, topoff and ferts

sandbed design for longevity in planted tanks is opposite to the reef tank.

The substrate in this planted sphere is specifically mixed between baked clay fluorite and quartz so hard it can never break down to change modes over the years (inert structural support portion) and silty laterite (high cec nutrient sponge portion)
that along with yrs of impacted organic matter will comprise a self refreshing feed source for the plants. the reef tank model is parted out down to the sand, and cleaned, as often as is needed to be accumulation free.

The metal halide burns some of the ferns, but those are now important shades for below to prevent GHA in the aquatic part. Life death balance, hands off for good.

Sometimes I do cherry shrimp a few yrs as the organic input, and others I'll put in a few guppies but the plant mass to bioload ratio is at any time here 1:100 in whatever measure, slow aging and zero algae is key plan.

To me, it's biologically amazing that to get a planted system to live long term you treat it oppositely of the reef.

This aquarium produces bags and bags of mini pellia freshwater macro that retails for $10 per golf ball size for trade at my local pet store. almost exactly like a mini ulva marine macro, both unicellular amazingly enough.