new to the forum

Hey everybody! I'm new to the forum, but not really new to forums. I'm looking forward to mingling and having great conversations with everybody. A little background about me... I have been keeping aquariums on and off for over 20 years, the last 12 reef specifically. Currently I have a 29 mixed reef, a 20 gallon qt and a 40 gallon fowlr until its ready for my sps to be transferred. I don't really practice the recommended way to keep a healthy tank, but there is a method to my mayhem. I don't really recommend anyone to treat their tank the way I have kept mine, but this is what's working for me. Anyways, I'm looking forward to learning new things as this seems to be a never ending part of this hobby.

Is there an app to download for this forum?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Welcome Jeff. I'm looking forward to hearing about your methods.

 

Thanks Bill....

Why do I have to be plankton? I'm not trying to steal the recipe for crabby patties! Can I at least be a chiton or something else cool?

 

Welcome to 3Reef! Correct me if I'm wrong but your well known over on Reef2Reef right? Your activity and input on this forum will be appreciated

 

Really my method is nothing special.... Its more like abuse. My 29 is a little different than what most people would experience. I feed it 1-4 times a day with rods and twice a night with coral frenzy or reef roids. I have no skimmer and no sump, only a hob that the filter pad gets changed when its so clogged up it overflows. I have a really nice collection of snail shells in the tank from them dying and just leaving them in there. My cuc is probably 3 times the size of what it should be. If I had to guess I would say I have 25 fully grown hermits (blue leg, red leg, scarlets) and at least 25 snails (turbo, trochus, cerith, nassarius). I also have a breeding population of snails and chitons that were hitchhikers. Of course I have three usual micro stars, bristleworms pods etc. I almost forgot the hundreds of asterina stars I have that keep my rocks clean of nasty coralline algae ;-).

You're probably thinking I'm crazy right now with my poor husbandry habits and whatnot. The method behind this mayhem is that this tank is actually nutrient deprived without overfeeding etc. For the first year it was set up I had 0 nitrate, and at the time I thought this was not the worst problem to have (right?). Well I could have had worse problems, but just keep reading. Right at the first anniversary I moved the tank. I bagged up all the corals, put all the live rock in buckets, fish in bags etc. I decided to keep the sand since I have a dsb. I left a very small amount of water in the tank, just barely covering the sand. Then I placed a garbage bag on top of the sand with the powerheads on top so the.sandbed wouldn't stir around too much.

Fast forward 1 week..... I noticed a couple of my acro started to look better than they ever have before. My bonsai that had always been pale brown with purple tips started looking more colorful than I have ever seen it. Another unknown acro that I called turd, because it was a great shade of dark brown, was turning green. I checked the nitrates and they had spiked to 1ppm. Within 3 weeks of this move both of these acro were vibrant in color and I was absolutely amazed!

To keep my nitrate slightly elevated (.5-1ppm) I have to feed this tank insane amounts of food. So yes, its kind of crazy, but there is a method to my mayhem....

 

I am a member there, yes. I'm well known? Like village idiot well known? Or the good kind of well known?

 

haha no the good kind of well known. I just joined over there and saw that you have quite a bit of insightful and useful information as well as members referring to you.

 

Well I'll take it then! Thanks

 

Looking forward to your perspective. How deep is the sandbed? Also, bonsai is a plant?

 

Its a 4" sand bed. And no the bonsai is a purple bonsai acropora.