Tank Journal Archive

[slin1977]

Today is quite the milestone I've been waiting for. It happens to be the start of my holidays and marks the three month period for my Siporax to bed in.

I won't be around to post details of the Sips bedding in but I will post some figures of the tank parameters tomorrow.

Whilst I'm away there will be no water changes and saying that I've done zero water changes since strike up of this journal.

Looking forward to a few things along the way but most of all getting this tank going upon arrival home.

 

[Wrangy]

Just a few rings hahaha

 

[slin1977]

Just a few rings hahaha

Kinda don't think I have enough space to be honest.

 

[MagicJ]

Where are you off to Nils?

 

[slin1977]

Where are you off to Nils?

Shane, I'm off to Fiji first, booked it six months ago.
Upon arrival home I'll leave Sydney and take my sweet time heading north along the coast ticking each town off along the way.

 

[slin1977]

Here goes... Since I am fluent in Nitrogen cycles I have to add that I can influence them with the aid of two products that I'm very familiar with.
Zeo bac and Start...

Knowing this tank I have been able to manipulate my phos and nitrate levels bringing them up and down according to dosing or lack there of...

The beauty of this is having laboratory type tank to check the performance of the new Siporax media that will go into the tank whilst away.

Keeping records has been my thing.
Funnily enough at the end of a thirty day cycle my levels of nitrate and phosphate were exactly zero. That was 27 days ago and have to admit that I've removed all my live rock three weeks ago and replaced it with some "freshwater style pagoda rock"

With zero levels 27 days ago the tank has crept up to 0.08 phos and say 35ppm nitrate pls see the photos as reference

The tank has had no water change from the first day as mentioned and sits on 7.0kh

 

[slin1977]

Step 1 rinse Sips in tap water. And drain on balcony.
Step 2 soak Sips in a RODI 8 hours
Step 3 drain 15 litres tank water , add 10 ml Zeo Bac and add 10ml Start to 15 litres water Note there may not be 15 litres water left after adding sips last after mixing - I'll report back on that.
Step 4 soak overnight.

 

[slin1977]

Colour comparison Tank water and RODI

15 liter tank water bac and start - due to porosity did not overflow as anticipated- happy soaking

 

[Lesley]

Please excuse my stupid question

What is the difference between this product & plastic noodles we used to run in fresh water tanks ?

When first got into SW no 1 golden rule was no plastic media ?

How is this media different ?

Thanks in advance - stupid question
:(

 

[slin1977]

Please excuse my stupid question

What is the difference between this product & plastic noodles we used to run in fresh water tanks ?

When first got into SW no 1 golden rule was no plastic media ?

How is this media different ?

Thanks in advance - stupid question
:(

So recently I took down a four foot freshwater tank filled with ceramic and clay media the ceramic were similar to Siporax and the clay were round balls. Back in the day bio balls were made from plastic. However Siporax is made from sintered glass, totally inert , highly porus with a huge surface area compared to solid plastics.

 

[Lesley]

So recently I took down a four foot freshwater tank filled with ceramic and clay media the ceramic were similar to Siporax and the clay were round balls. Back in the day bio balls were made from plastic. However Siporax is made from sintered glass, totally inert , highly porus with a huge surface area compared to solid plastics.

Ok. So it's the same as matrix just different brand & shape

Got you thanks

 

[slin1977]

Ok. So it's the same as matrix just different brand & shape

Got you thanks

Pretty similar - over the years I've used a lot of matrix on and off - even used matrix on this tank until recently when I shifted all my zoas to a friend who wanted to start a marine collection.
We fast tracked his tanks cycle by bringing over the mature 1 liter matrix from this tank and the transition was seamless.
There is no doubt surface area -be it rock ,plastic ,ceramic or such is necessary for a healthy bacteria colony to reside upon ,its just from my experience when my blue thumb was in its prime I had 20 kg of seeded base rock -was when I had an awesome three foot tank.... Since then admittanly I have not found my groove.

 

[Mattres]

This is kool, will be interesting seeing you document how it all goes.
Where did you source the siporax from?
Your holiday sounds amazing, loved Fiji when I went about 4 years ago.
Has the recent storm there troubled your plans much?

 

[slin1977]

This is kool, will be interesting seeing you document how it all goes.
Where did you source the siporax from?
Your holiday sounds amazing, loved Fiji when I went about 4 years ago.
Has the recent storm there troubled your plans much?

Thanks mate, the Sips was ordered through aquatic addict
Which is the Aquaristic online store.
The person to speak to is Billy at the Arncliffe store 02 9599 8841 as this is a special order product from the distributer.
They do flat rate shipping right around Aus for $7.50
Billy has it listed at $30 For a liter (290 grams)

The hotel put up a FB post saying all is good at the resort. We asked them if we could help by bringing over anything they might need.

 

[Sam Parker]

Seems everyone is going to matrix and siporax lately! Hope it goes well, enjoy your trip

 

[slin1977]

Seems everyone is going to matrix and siporax lately! Hope it goes well, enjoy your trip

Thanks Sam.
Yap I've been waiting for the next bandwagon to jump on...biggle juice and porus rocks my tip for 2016

 

[Wrangy]

Gotta love a good ol' bandwagon!

 

[MagicJ]

 

[Mattres]

Thanks mate, the Sips was ordered through aquatic addict
Which is the Aquaristic online store.
The person to speak to is Billy at the Arncliffe store 02 9599 8841 as this is a special order product from the distributer.
They do flat rate shipping right around Aus for $7.50
Billy has it listed at $30 For a liter (290 grams)

The hotel put up a FB post saying all is good at the resort. We asked them if we could help by bringing over anything they might need.

Thanks for that info mate appreciate it.
Have a great trip!

 

[Sam Parker]

Nothing wrong with ceramic balls and biggle juice (I realise on any other forum I would probably get banned for that sentence!)