A new beginning

Four years old!! . How on earth are you able to get by with that? I'm a newbie and Its taken me over 2 hours today to clean out my tank and do a 35-40 gl water change. I'd love to do it just every 4 years. Whats the trick? I'd like to try it. :

Cindy

 

Hey Beamer!

Well, 900 plus gallons buys some stability I guess...

Here is a link to Mojoreef's page

http://mojoreefs.homestead.com/files/newsite/index1.html

It's great!

 

Mike,

I've seen pics of your tank(s) and they are simply spectacular

I know that I am going to be very tempted to stock far too soon, it's extremely hard not to, as you wrote, but ( luckily ) I have a few other things to do while the tank stablises that will keep me distracted.

The whole water change issue has always interested me, and I certainly would not try to convince anyone not to do regular water changes if that's what they are comfortable with, but as stated, I have never done one.

John

 

John I am the same way, I definately do not tell folks to do what I do in regards to WC's

Birdlady its a double edged sword with alot of water, it can be very forgiving, but it can be a bear when you need to fix a water problem.

Beammer thier is no real trick to it. Most folks do water changes for two reasons, one is to dillute pollution (one thing I have never understood) and the other is to replenish elements used by the inhabitants.
On the pollution, I am a big fan of removing completely and not trying to just dillute it. Now is saying that I have alot of methods and equipement that does that, so my choice is to process the water and thier by keep it clean. If you cant process it then refer to WC's. On the WC's for replenishment, I also dont like it. Artifical SW mixes are made with the cheapest and lowest grade of elements. Because of this it comes with alot of impurities and toxins. Something I just rather not subject my tank to on a regular basis. In its place I use a calcium reactor and regent grade Kalk. If i need other suppliments I make sure they are regent or analytical grade.

anyway the is the short and skinny version of the story.

Mike

 

birdlady , thanks for Majoreef's page. I'm not quite sure I have the words to express myself. . Absolutely beautiful!! I guess wc could run your water bill up pretty high with that one.

Majoreef, great tank, so totally awesome. I loved seeing your pics.

Cindy

 

Mike,

From memory ( dangerous I know ) you run some cartridge filters on your tank, is that correct?

Cartridges were something that I plan to include down the track a bit and would appreciate any comments experiences you may have had with such a system.

John

 

Cartridges hmm. could you mean inline canisters?? if so I have two inline rainbow life guards that I run carbon in. I use them about 3 days every few weeks. I have them plumbed so they can be bipassed. Other then that I did make a couple of fluidized reactors for rowaphos.

mike

 

Thanks Mike,

I can't access your website from here at my work ( bloody firewall ) and that's probably what I remembered.

John

 

OK, As I know you all just love seeing pictures of rocks here's a couple more

This one is a close up on the live rock initially included in the tank. The white patches are I believe a matrix that is part of the initial bacterial population.



My Ammonia level is now zero and the Nitrite level is through th roof  Brown algae is forming as is shown here plus a couple of snail and limpet type shell fish I picked up on the beach today



All comments welcome

John

 

Oh Yeah!!! Nice Snails! ;D Lookin' Good!!!