When you mention a slow conversion to monoculture
How can that be tested or replicated in a system that won’t take twenty years to demo?
Using only large systems as the inference model imo allows for too many attribution errors to outcomes
Everything but small reefing has opinions varying on causality of invasion, unstoppable eutrophication etc (and they never agree sandbed waste is it)
We are usually extrapolating the maturation process for old large systems in the theory portion of these pages, can you make a nano reef reflect that process somehow and will others see the same issues on the same timeline? We can show those processes in the smaller reef relating to, and being arrested by, solely the management of cloud in the system
My system still has pods and worms in the sand after rinsing, they are re seeded by the live rock over time but not as dense as the unrinsed bed. I must surmise no bacterial issues are caused by me simulating tidal flushing actions due to the age of the micro systems and the repeatability by others, I’m able to get more than a hundred systems from others on live feedback showing very streamlined maturation check points, all predictable
If your counter model for aging is repeatable it should be able to be predicted, and modeled, by many and if we use smaller systems it won’t take so long to know does that sound reasonable? You should be able to create the stratification or location of your test system sandbed in the smaller systems, downscale the bioloading to match, and be able to intercept any form of invasion or noncompliance ahead of time, without factoring in the sand since the goal here will be to foster diversity vs guide out diversity and keep only the adapted residents who aren’t affected by tidal action. * imo the test isn’t validated but you pulling it off, it’s validated when twenty others get the same result and you collect those all in one thread for pattern trending
There are members of flora and fauna who can’t be ejected by tidal action...someone always hangs on for sure, rinsing isn’t as thorough as it’s made out to be/my claim
I always like when you post bc nobody else has worked in aquaculture that I know here. You and I once discussed backflushing of large filters to get at detritus, how that’s required in production since bioloading outpaces natural means of balance in high production pools etc...I consider my sand rinse technique and what I advise others to do so we can get ahold of their invasions just another means of backflushing...detritus/POM excellent description. The way most people stock fish in a reef tank makes it more like production aquaculture vs natural models
Stick stirring is not flushing agreed it’s relocation and only partial export (whatever gets caught in filter socks due to the exchange) but at least it is not a compound storage action...the smaller actual export portion is still a net loss in overall density of POM/det ideally. it prevents stratification aging in the sandbed by keeping the detritus aerated, like in Paul’s RUGF approach, which is much safer mulm than mulm spending its time in anaerobic or totally anoxic conditions where metabolites from protein rot are usually lethal vs foodstuff when cast back up before reduction in that mode was complete (takes much longer to mineralize in restricted 02 zones)
Berlin method allows for no such action and pure storage, and only biological mineralization/cacheting the waste into the right zones, hopefully
I don’t consider hand guided tanks sterile, they’re just visually cloudless and therefore not as crash-prone or invasion-prone biologically. Anyone one of the entrants into this thread can be sandbed less, nothing to stir, and they’ll still see everyday compounding the very waste that would have been out of sight out of mind (right up till invasion time) and they’ll still be able to farm all the corals and pods we all like, microflora w be in adjusted rations over time related to real estate changes made but I never viewed the pop shifts as sterility, merely selecting for only the bare essential reef guiders and not the rest of the cloud (reduced heterogeneity agreed)
Mike Palettas article on OTS used key terms about pore plugging and detritus, not any mention of monoculturing, if there is an alternate biosystem undescribed that accounts for senescence of the overall reef system then we should be able to model that with the general public for new feedback and articleworks
A water drop from your reef looks still like mine under the scope.
We should not discuss the total removing of detritus in this thread because it is a thread about stirring the sand to make bacteria or particular organic matter available for filter feeders. There is a special thread about detritus and if it is positive or negative for a reef aquaria. Let us take that discussion in that thread.
Sincerely Lasse