Saturday evening, November 28
Water was looking a bit cloudy, probably from the snexy times that happened the other day (see video below) so I picked up a marineland magnum polishing filter. Set it up as a diatom filter. Ran diatom filter for about 2.5 hours while stirring sand. Blasted rocks.
I've gotta say, I'm impressed with the diatom filter. Thanks to @Paul B for his threads on the matter. Anyone who chunks nuclear waste into their tank for the biodiversity is A OK in my book. Thanks, Paul, for the threads. Your tank is awesome.
Before:
after:
Reddish stuff (presumably the beginnings of cyano or dinos) cleared off rock when I blasted it. Hopefully the diatom filter got most of it out of the water.
I also recently purchased a microscope. I grabbed a sample of this brown stuff (presumably dinos) off the sand. Will look at it under the microscope.
pic of brown stuff:
Don't think I got any red off rocks, but got something, and will look at this under the scope as well. No pics of the reddish stuff.
Interestingly, while I was running the filter, disturbing the sand/rocks, etc., our RBTA was fine. As soon as I finished and turned the lights back up, the new got upset, and retracted. Spit out brown stuff. Went back to normal after about an hour. All fish look healthy.
New creatures have materialized:
There are some small pointy white snails in sand that weren't in the tank when I started it. Will continue to monitor these.
Saw a bug on rock. Scurried off before I could snap a pic. Presumably an amphipod.
There were 2-3 flatworms on the glass. Not sure if they are the bad ones.
Pic of flatworm:
Pods EVERYWHERE. Coating the back glass, which I haven't been cleaning, and all over the front glass and in the water column at night. They were either in the rock I used, or came in the "live sand" that I seeded the tank with.
Pics of pods:
There are also what appear to be juvenile bristle worms in the sand. I like benthic creatures. Unsure what these are, or if I'm imagining them, but will continue to monitor. "He who controls the spice controls the world".
Pics of sandworms:
Inverts and fish all seem OK. Small clown acts bizarre, as per usual. Large clown and damsel still a jerk. Shrimp still my homeboy.
Green algae expanding on rocks. Doesn't scrape off easily. Purple and pink coralline algae seems to be growing. Weird red algae has entered the chat. Some stuff in the sand is turning green. I hope this is indicative of green beasties eating diatoms.
Pics of algae related:
Other stuff:
- Burning through di resin. Tds off tap is about 415-420. After ro membrane is 17-18. 9 coming off di. Need to order more di resin already. Not ideal.
- Bought parts to build a manifold to bring carbon reactor online.
- Not going to run gfo for now. Just going to run polishing filter before carbon.
- Unsure how to wash carbon out. Will need to figure this out.
- I have some leftover saltwater. Will likely use this, and the polishing filter to rinse it.
- Need to figure out appropriate flow rate for carbon.
As promised, video of snexy times:
Here is a video of a tiny beastie in the sand taken with the microscope:
The boulders are grains of sand. Too cool.
Water was looking a bit cloudy, probably from the snexy times that happened the other day (see video below) so I picked up a marineland magnum polishing filter. Set it up as a diatom filter. Ran diatom filter for about 2.5 hours while stirring sand. Blasted rocks.
I've gotta say, I'm impressed with the diatom filter. Thanks to @Paul B for his threads on the matter. Anyone who chunks nuclear waste into their tank for the biodiversity is A OK in my book. Thanks, Paul, for the threads. Your tank is awesome.
Before:
after:
Reddish stuff (presumably the beginnings of cyano or dinos) cleared off rock when I blasted it. Hopefully the diatom filter got most of it out of the water.
I also recently purchased a microscope. I grabbed a sample of this brown stuff (presumably dinos) off the sand. Will look at it under the microscope.
pic of brown stuff:
Don't think I got any red off rocks, but got something, and will look at this under the scope as well. No pics of the reddish stuff.
Interestingly, while I was running the filter, disturbing the sand/rocks, etc., our RBTA was fine. As soon as I finished and turned the lights back up, the new got upset, and retracted. Spit out brown stuff. Went back to normal after about an hour. All fish look healthy.
New creatures have materialized:
There are some small pointy white snails in sand that weren't in the tank when I started it. Will continue to monitor these.
Saw a bug on rock. Scurried off before I could snap a pic. Presumably an amphipod.
There were 2-3 flatworms on the glass. Not sure if they are the bad ones.
Pic of flatworm:
Pods EVERYWHERE. Coating the back glass, which I haven't been cleaning, and all over the front glass and in the water column at night. They were either in the rock I used, or came in the "live sand" that I seeded the tank with.
Pics of pods:
There are also what appear to be juvenile bristle worms in the sand. I like benthic creatures. Unsure what these are, or if I'm imagining them, but will continue to monitor. "He who controls the spice controls the world".
Pics of sandworms:
Inverts and fish all seem OK. Small clown acts bizarre, as per usual. Large clown and damsel still a jerk. Shrimp still my homeboy.
Green algae expanding on rocks. Doesn't scrape off easily. Purple and pink coralline algae seems to be growing. Weird red algae has entered the chat. Some stuff in the sand is turning green. I hope this is indicative of green beasties eating diatoms.
Pics of algae related:
Other stuff:
- Burning through di resin. Tds off tap is about 415-420. After ro membrane is 17-18. 9 coming off di. Need to order more di resin already. Not ideal.
- Bought parts to build a manifold to bring carbon reactor online.
- Not going to run gfo for now. Just going to run polishing filter before carbon.
- Unsure how to wash carbon out. Will need to figure this out.
- I have some leftover saltwater. Will likely use this, and the polishing filter to rinse it.
- Need to figure out appropriate flow rate for carbon.
As promised, video of snexy times:
Here is a video of a tiny beastie in the sand taken with the microscope:
The boulders are grains of sand. Too cool.
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