Every now and then I watch one of your videos and break down. Realizing I will never be able to enjoy your tutelage as a growing hobbyist. I hope mark rejoins the reef builders cast. We miss you brother. Hope you are healthy and safe. God bless
Hey Jake, never underestimate the positive impact you are having on the aquarium hobby overall. Your content is informative, entertaining and engaging. There are few like you. And thank God you are sharing your talents with the world. Basically you are creating and maintaining "community" - this is appreciated probably more than you know! Thanks! Also - I think you can create a freshwater channel and have it be hugely successful as well. I'm sure you have lots of free cycles for that! :)
Citric acid dissolves calcium carbonate almost instantaneously if you dissolve it in the water 40-50 C degrees hot. You can warm up the RO water to 45 C degrees in a pot, put few spoons of the citric acid, pour it to your bucket and through your aquarium equipment in it. Of course if calcium carbonate deposit is large you might need more acid, warm up water again, or keep it a big longer, but the temperature speeds up the process tremendously :)
Had to pause halfway through to, Clean return pump, change the UV tube (after 2 years), and swop out the Titanium heater for my spare so I can clean the existing one, (could not see the metal for crud). Great talks, keep going.
I agree with u regarding wild corals/fish. It def insinuates positive behavior and keeps the local people from doing a more destructive form of cultivation. Farm raised fish and inverts are def a plus but what I have realized is that some farm raised fish are not as hardy and can have inferior genetics due to inbreeding to retain and certain trait/color morph and that comes in heavy with freshwater rays.
One tip is size your drain line gate valve properly. I had the synergy reef overflow on a 180 freshwater running like 5-600gph on the 1.5" drains. The gate valve had to be closed 90% of the way and a snail or someone would get stuck in the hole and clog the line. I reduced the line to 1" that was 50% open. The next couple years, I never had an issue again.
I agree about taking things apart to clean them. TIP: I record video of anything I haven’t yet taken apart - the number of times I’ve had to refer back to the video to figure out where “that” O-ring goes, or what order the gaskets and washers go on my UV sterilizer... I also always remove the back plates of pumps just to make sure all is well in there. Loved this episode. 👍🏻
So glad you guys are talking about feeding lords. I have always fed mine and they are so much happier than without. Everytime I hear “corals don’t need to be fed” I roll my eyes knowing both my lords and torches are pigs for food.
Thanks for the therapy, most of the time listening via podcast, but on the topic of the detritus in the overflow boxes, if it is intank and if the space permits you can put like a MaxiJet pump inside, I know it is another piece of equipment to mantain, but it keeps the inside of the overflow with less accumulated detritus in the bottom.
IDK if there are other nano reefers in the chat but part of my maintenance is a big reset. On top of my scheduled 6 week maintenance, every 2-3 years I take everything out my nanos and deep clean the whole tank including the three pieces of equipment. If there’s a sand bed in one of my nanos I’m doing the reset on I just replace the sand too. But first I acid wash the tank with the equipment in it, scrub a dub dub, rinse then refill and set the live stock back in easy lol
I added 2 cheap power heads facing downwards to keep all the crap that would settle moving and it’s kept my overflows cleaned for 2 years now. No detritus settles it all goes down into my sump.
All reef therapy sessions are fantastic, this one specially rocks. can't wait for your book to be published. What's the muriatic acid dilution for equipment cleaning like pumps?
I spot feed my lps 1-3 times a week just regular fish food. Calanus spiralina flakes and new life spectrum pellets. It’s funny they just suck on it like a hard candy for a half hour then let the flow take it away and my snails finish it off
For ready made reefers or WB’s stock gate valve maintenance is key Not saying it’s needed but like you pointed out if I have to make adjustments to the valve I know it’s asking for attention or just a few times a year is good. Once had a blenny die and never found it and half was stuck in the valve just decomposing and being nasty. If It would of shifter it would of totally clogged and that scares me. It’s only 4 Allen screws and a soft tooth brush across the rubber side, easy to do. Even doing it a few months apart it is always covered in thick biofilm and baby snail shells. Now I got to go clean my skimmer, such a pain because I did not “wire for maintenance” as you pointed out in a video a while back and because of that I slack on skimmer and return work. Such an important step when setting up the tank I was just excited to get her wet and did not think. Now it’s gonna be hours of redo if I ever want to fix it.
Could you guys do an episode on the classic corals? Like the history behind them, the names, where they came from etc? Pieces like the Greg C efflo, Sanjay leprechaun, etc
i can tell when my MP 40's need to be cleaned by sound too, every few weeks. open them up and find a few of those 1mm snails in there ticking away... for this reason, i prefer the wav pump
Every auto tester has a maintenance schedule. You can send the Neptune Trident in, or fix it yourself with their maintenance kit. I also have a Trident running since RAP NY 2019, has not needed any maintenance yet.
