esoxreefer
06/05/2003, 09:44 AM
Hi All,
I posted this to the Main Forum, but I thought it might interest people here too, so I will post it again.
Drew
I am writing in to see in anyone has any ideas about an interesting phenomenon that I am experiencing with my reef system. First I will give background on my set up then pose the problem, since its always best to know what you are dealing with before you try to solve a problem.
The tank has been running for about 4 weeks now. It is a 37 gallon tank (the Eclipse model) with a 400w MH and a 55w PC in a home built hood. They are on timers, with the MH on about 12 hours and the PC an hour before and after the MH comes on. There is a fan to remove heat from the lighting. There is plenty of water flow provided by a PS-10, a PS-20 (in opposite corners) an Aquaclear 802 and a small Microjet behind the live rock. The tank is filtered by an Aquaclear 300 which I gutted and put about 1.5 lbs of live rock in, with some calurpa on the top. I did have a Bac Pak unit on the tank, but discontinued using it (more on this later). I used well seasoned live rock in the tank and it went through the nitrogen cycle in 9 days. During that period cleanup crew was added- hermit crabs and snails. Shortly after the nitrogen cycling, corals were added. Yes, it was rather early to add corals, especially SPS corals, but they are doing very well and are growing rapidly. This is very apparent with a couple of the Montiporas that I have where new growth is very apparent. I will list the occupants of the tank at the end of the post.
When I first started using the Bac Pak, I got a tremendous amount of microbubbles. Knowing the danger of these lil suckers when they get under live rock, I stopped using the unit. That was about two weeks ago. Now I am getting microbubbles again. It’s a strange situation though: there are no microbubbles in the tank in the moring when I first look at it, its totally clear. When I get home later in the day, the tank has lots of microbubbles in it. Now here is my theory, the microbubbles may be caused by the calurpa. Hear me out with this. I have kept many live plants in freshwater and when they are doing well, with plenty of light, they will often produce oxygen from their stems and leaves. I have watched Brazilian elodea do this many times. Would it be possible for the calurpa to be doing the same thing?
This has been going on for over a week. Like I said, it only seems to happen toward the end of the day, after the lights have been on for a long time. The bubbles stop after the lights have gone off, and by morning there are no bubbles in the tank. There is very little in the way of micro algae in the tank- I had a minor diatom bloom early on, but that’s been well over and my clean up crew of turbo and margarita snails, an algae blenny, an emerald crab and various hermit crabs have been keeping things nice and neat. I only have to clean off the front glass every 3 days or so. On top of that, the coralline algae is growing very well, already appearing on the base rock I have used and one of the powerheads.
What do you think? Could it be the calurpa? If so, should I remove that from my Aquaclear? Are there any negative impacts from this? I welcome any thoughts and ideas that anyone can share with me. I definitely appreciate it.
Drew
Tank Occupants: 1 Stylophora, 1 Orange Montipora digitata, 1 Orange Montipora capricornis, 1 Elkhorn Montipora, 2 Plate Montiporas, 2 Encrusting Acroporas, 2 Branching Acroporas (dif species, but I have not identified them yet), 1 Pumping Xenia (growing like mad), 1 small piece of Green Star Polyp, 1 Elephant Skin, 1 Candy Coral, 1 Tridacna maxima (gold var.), I Red Ball Sponge, @9 pounds of live rock, 20 lbs base rock (quickly becoming encrusted), 1 Algae Blenny, 1 Six Line Wrasse (both fish nice and fat), 1 Peppermint Shrimp (no more Aptasia!), 1 Emerald Crab, 1 Porcelin Crab, @ 20 hermit crabs (blue leg, zebra leg and scarlet leg), @20 snails (turbo, margarita, cerith, and bumblebee), Gazillions of copepods, amphipods and isopods)
The live rock has tons of encrusting sponges growing on it which seem to be growing by the day. Huge numbers of small feather dusters are growing all over the place too. I think its doing pretty well……
I posted this to the Main Forum, but I thought it might interest people here too, so I will post it again.
Drew
I am writing in to see in anyone has any ideas about an interesting phenomenon that I am experiencing with my reef system. First I will give background on my set up then pose the problem, since its always best to know what you are dealing with before you try to solve a problem.
The tank has been running for about 4 weeks now. It is a 37 gallon tank (the Eclipse model) with a 400w MH and a 55w PC in a home built hood. They are on timers, with the MH on about 12 hours and the PC an hour before and after the MH comes on. There is a fan to remove heat from the lighting. There is plenty of water flow provided by a PS-10, a PS-20 (in opposite corners) an Aquaclear 802 and a small Microjet behind the live rock. The tank is filtered by an Aquaclear 300 which I gutted and put about 1.5 lbs of live rock in, with some calurpa on the top. I did have a Bac Pak unit on the tank, but discontinued using it (more on this later). I used well seasoned live rock in the tank and it went through the nitrogen cycle in 9 days. During that period cleanup crew was added- hermit crabs and snails. Shortly after the nitrogen cycling, corals were added. Yes, it was rather early to add corals, especially SPS corals, but they are doing very well and are growing rapidly. This is very apparent with a couple of the Montiporas that I have where new growth is very apparent. I will list the occupants of the tank at the end of the post.
When I first started using the Bac Pak, I got a tremendous amount of microbubbles. Knowing the danger of these lil suckers when they get under live rock, I stopped using the unit. That was about two weeks ago. Now I am getting microbubbles again. It’s a strange situation though: there are no microbubbles in the tank in the moring when I first look at it, its totally clear. When I get home later in the day, the tank has lots of microbubbles in it. Now here is my theory, the microbubbles may be caused by the calurpa. Hear me out with this. I have kept many live plants in freshwater and when they are doing well, with plenty of light, they will often produce oxygen from their stems and leaves. I have watched Brazilian elodea do this many times. Would it be possible for the calurpa to be doing the same thing?
This has been going on for over a week. Like I said, it only seems to happen toward the end of the day, after the lights have been on for a long time. The bubbles stop after the lights have gone off, and by morning there are no bubbles in the tank. There is very little in the way of micro algae in the tank- I had a minor diatom bloom early on, but that’s been well over and my clean up crew of turbo and margarita snails, an algae blenny, an emerald crab and various hermit crabs have been keeping things nice and neat. I only have to clean off the front glass every 3 days or so. On top of that, the coralline algae is growing very well, already appearing on the base rock I have used and one of the powerheads.
What do you think? Could it be the calurpa? If so, should I remove that from my Aquaclear? Are there any negative impacts from this? I welcome any thoughts and ideas that anyone can share with me. I definitely appreciate it.
Drew
Tank Occupants: 1 Stylophora, 1 Orange Montipora digitata, 1 Orange Montipora capricornis, 1 Elkhorn Montipora, 2 Plate Montiporas, 2 Encrusting Acroporas, 2 Branching Acroporas (dif species, but I have not identified them yet), 1 Pumping Xenia (growing like mad), 1 small piece of Green Star Polyp, 1 Elephant Skin, 1 Candy Coral, 1 Tridacna maxima (gold var.), I Red Ball Sponge, @9 pounds of live rock, 20 lbs base rock (quickly becoming encrusted), 1 Algae Blenny, 1 Six Line Wrasse (both fish nice and fat), 1 Peppermint Shrimp (no more Aptasia!), 1 Emerald Crab, 1 Porcelin Crab, @ 20 hermit crabs (blue leg, zebra leg and scarlet leg), @20 snails (turbo, margarita, cerith, and bumblebee), Gazillions of copepods, amphipods and isopods)
The live rock has tons of encrusting sponges growing on it which seem to be growing by the day. Huge numbers of small feather dusters are growing all over the place too. I think its doing pretty well……