The Other Way to Run a Reef Tank (no Quarantine)

[hotashes]

This is the beach where I get my water. View attachment 939199

Looks nice enough to even get sun cream residue in the mix

A.

 

[Neptune 555]

Ok I can get to the beach and collect water and mud to add to my tank. Anyone here now how to get a poll started? I would love to see how many fellow reefers use only salt mix or Ocean water for their tanks?

I feed live food... blackworms and clams... do we expect my fish to get sick when I first add ocean water and ocean mud?

Neptune

 

[Jay Norris]

Ok I can get to the beach and collect water and mud to add to my tank. Anyone here now how to get a poll started? I would love to see how many fellow reefers use only salt mix or Ocean water for their tanks?

I feed live food... blackworms and clams... do we expect my fish to get sick when I first add ocean water and ocean mud?

Neptune

That's all I ever used, plus live sand collected from the reefs, no the fish will not get sick as long as the water is collected from an area where the water is pristine and not polluted with storm runoff or other type of pollution, same goes for the sand or mud.

 

[Neptune 555]

I have been researching the many methods employed in reef keeping over the last 9 months. I have a 150 cycling for about 2 months. I have been attracted to the natural ecosystem methods. There are so few reefers employing natural reef systems with many more pushing all the gadgets and everything else that makes our reef tanks a sterile environment.

One of my original plans was to use natural salt water to start my tank up but was dissuaded by the multitude of naysayers who advocate for a sterile environment for our inhabitants. I am 3 hours drive away from the South Carolina and Georgia coast beaches.

The sand in my sump, which is all fuge except for return pump section, is dry sand from a beach on Hunting Island, SC. I don't know how much biodiversity was dormant in that dry sand but I would imagine some would have came to life in he presence of saltwater.

My plan at this time is to start to develop a population of phyto then pods. I plan to get some garf grunge and bag of bugs and some KP Aquatics live rock. Over the summer I am going to take my wife and daughter to every beach in the area and bring back a homer bucket with some sand, mud, water to add to my tank.

I probably won't add any fish til May or June so I can build up my ecosystem.

Do share your progress!! I am also going to use ocean water and mud in my upgrade system in the next few months.

 

[Paul B]

Is it because he is using other methods he is not forthcoming with?

OK, I didn't mention that I do occasionally rub chicken bones over the tank to quell the Ich spirits.

 

[Matt Carden]

What do you mean? I have been quarantining for ~ 20 years now, and many of those fish lived 10-20 years. To be fair, my father (aka your twin brother) lived next door, never quarantined and had similar success. But I was always nervous when he would come over and want to put his hands in my tanks.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina wiped out all of our tanks and my dad decided he had had enough expect for keeping freshwater.

Paul made that claim several times about no old QT fish and you were the first to chime in. Which it so happens that he probably already knew that.

 

[Ezduzt_nyc]

@Paul B

Thank you for your article on your method and why you think it works so well! I haven't added water yet, so this is good timing for me.

I appreciate articles that make me stop and think about what I am doing or planning. Even if I decide to make no changes, I feel that I have gained from doing this. So, thanks!

 

[csmaxspect]

look nice.

 

[Matt Carden]

When I told my wife that I had to set up 3 QT tanks, she said why do you have to QT, you didn't before and we didn't have any problems? Thanks to this thread by @Paul B , I had to tell my wife, you were right I don't have to quarantine after all!

 

[ReefWithCare]

Can you recommend a readily available garden soil for those of us landlocked with no access to a beach ‍

 

[Paul B]

Go outside your house, walk 20 paces, bend down and grab some dirt. OK, don't use it if you use chemicals. Look for weeds and bugs. If there are weeds and bugs, it's probably clean dirt. Just use like a tablespoon of it, not the tablespoon that you eat breakfast with. Maybe use your wife's spoon.

 

[ReefWithCare]

Go outside your house, walk 20 paces, bend down and grab some dirt. OK, don't use it if you use chemicals. Look for weeds and bugs. If there are weeds and bugs, it's probably clean dirt. Just use like a tablespoon of it, not the tablespoon that you eat breakfast with. Maybe use your wife's spoon.

I think that is the problem. I don’t know if chemicals were used in the soil from the prior owners and how long to wait if chemicals were used. I haven’t seen worms and bugs but have seen weeds in it

 

[Paul B]

Go to a park, mountain, hiking trail, lake, etc.
Come to my house and I will collect some mud for you.

 

[count krunk]

you can also get the cheapest potting soil from a outdoor store.

fill a bucket half way, fill with water, scoop out floaters. repeat 5-7x.

get a tarp, lay it in the sun. spread soil over the tarp. wet it and let it dry at least 3x

get your 5 g bucket, dump soil into it. then you then sift it with any sort of colander to get the pieces of wood out of it.

that is the process i went thru for my 55g planted tank. It grows like crazy, no dosing etc. It is the walstad method or the natural planted aquarium. easiest tank that is full of life to maintain for sure.

I imagine, using a spoonful of soil you have done that to will be quite okay. I have a 1-2" layer of soil "treated" that way in my 55g, with another 1-2" layer of pool filter sand on top of it. as well as some koi quality calcium clay powder mixed in.

 

[Paul B]

Be wary of commercial soil as it may have been treated or heated to kill microbes. The sun will also kill microbes as will drying it. You want living microbes.

 

[truepercs]

"QT with fish is absolutely necessary, I can sit and watch them for hours and not say a word..."

I liked that so much I quoted myself... and added to my signature

-Ed

 

[dportero]

Go to a park, mountain, hiking trail, lake, etc.
Come to my house and I will collect some mud for you.

I would be wary even of dirt from there. I worked for the county weed department one summer here in Utah. We specifically went up into the mountains to spray for weeds. I also know the DWR sprays in the mountains and hiking trails.

 

[Salty Lemon]

I think my head just exploded. Oh wow! ;Jawdrop

 

[Matt Carden]

I was thinking of blending some bait worms with the dirt and adding that to my cycling tank. Maybe add in some mussels or clams. Kinda like ghost feeding.

 

[truepercs]

How about using homemade compost, definitely contains bacteria and you should know what is in it...