Refugium?

[BedScien]

Java moss is in the main tank and doing good. It has let off a dozen or so little strands. These have caught on bits of decor and appear to be growing new branches. The plant itself which is anchored to a rock seems to have gained some size (but may have just spread out.) Some branches of the plant have definitely started growing and forming new branches. If it carry's on this way I wouldn't be surprised to see it all over the tank in a couple of months. It is definitely worth mentioning that a couple of bits stayed in an unaerated and unheated tank for a week and was still appeared as green as that in the tank. I will let you know whether or not it continues to thrive


How I started it off
I did a 30% water change on my tank, which had sg of 1.003, replacing the 30% with freshwater. I set up a 10l tank with freshwater for the plant (with 25+ degree c heating and good aeration and a light water flow and exchanged about a cup of the water either way every day for about a week. I then moved the plant into the main tank.

[RTR]

Java Moss is all but indestructible. Tiny bits do break away* and if snagged onto something which hold it in place, it will form a cloud-like mass which will in tern break off tendrils and continue to grow both in place and wherever it gets caught. I do use "clouds of it as tiny fry refugia, commonly "mounted" by suction cups just below the water surface as well as near the subsrate. The loosely growing "cloud is an inforia nursery, so gelps provide food for some of the tiny fry I breed, as well as security for them. I do this commonly in snall fry grow-out first tanks.

*This can be a ness/hassle in some carefully planted tanks. Many planted tank folk will not allow it in their tanks, as it hard to avoid it spreading where it is not wanted.

[Pufferpunk]

I added a clump of JM to my DP's tank for possible breeding. All it did was break apart & make a HUGE mess, clogging my filter. :/

[RTR]

Actually, Java Moss was part of most of my successful DP breedings. The males would use JM to be part of their "nest' where the females deposited their egg. DPs can easily tear a slump apart to get nest material. That may be why you got filter clogging. My DP tanks were more densely planted than carefully landscaped. Because of my hopes for fry, all the filter intakes were sponge-protected. That sort of sponge I always rotate the prefilters out for a week between uses to block then from becoming biofilters (as they would if just rinsed and replaced). The tanks seemed to have plenty of infusoria without using the intake sponges for extra culture sites. My breeding might have been more productive if I had used larger tanks. I got fry, but not what I would call highly productive breeding.

[BedScien]

I've come into some juwel polypads so I could use these to protect the filter intake?

What's the problem with them becoming biofilters?

[RTR]

Fine foam is harder to rinse well when it is exposed as the first layer to the tank water. Thorough rinsing is likely to reduce the effective biofiltration. My biofiltration is the last thing in the chain of filters. I do not need or want layer biofiltration. If infusoria are gathered on the exterior of the fine foam pre-filter, it just serves as food for tiny infusoria-requiring fish fry. Coarse foams are risky to infusoria and to some infusoria-requiring fry- they may go through or may be caught. I don't want to risk tiny fry grazing on coarse foams. I do not know if the DP fry require infusoia as first food, but I treated them as if they did. Some fish I do breed routinely do require infusoria as first food, so I am accustomed to seting for infusoria use.

[BedScien]

So the bacteria that breaks down the ammonia is a form of infusoria?

[RTR]

Nope, infusoria are commonly mobile, nitrification bacteria are attached, non-motile. They grow out from the edges of the colony or by micro-pieces whih break off (lose attachment site) and attach somewhere else. Infusoria are moving around all the time, mostly actively, but some fairly passively in currents,

The micro-life of fish tanks is huge and complex. FW & BW tanks are relatively straight-forward in set-up and care. SW tanks may have high complexity depending on how and why they are set in special ways - reefs, soft or hard/stony corals, FOWLR ++, etc. FW tanks only get complexity when they are set for breeding, and not always then. Some of us like to play with complex aquatic systems - I have had up to ten tanks linked together in a complex ecosystem. Such are fun to play with, but not always practical...

[Pufferpunk]

If you want to know everything about the nitrification process, RTR has it all lined out in several articles in the Library here.

[BedScien]

Thanks RTR. I've put a bit of carrot in some tank water under a microscope yesterday and, to my delight, have noticed increasing amounts of insofuria whizzing about .

Was your 10-tank set up ale to maintain healthy levels by itself for long periods of time? I saw a guy on youtube who claims that he hasn't had to do water changes for months on end in his reef tank!

[bertie 83]

Please do not be fooled by peoples claims, do you want a healthy tank? Regular water changes don't just remove crud but they also replace vital elements to a tank. This hobby is not as simple as some people make out, we want the best for our wet pets not just enough to keep them alive

[G S P Freak]

Big +1 to what bertie said. It's well known in biology that small-scale systems don't work out well due to "starving"/overaccumulation of certain nutrients/minerals. While in theory it could be possible, I've yet to hear of anyone who can maintain a fish tank to exactly copy the complexity of the biosphere =P.

[BedScien]

Thanks Bert I'll keep that in mind!

LOL GSPF Well put.

[RTR]

Basically I was testing out specialized tanks as biological "benefits" to do some specialized "cleaning" process. One of my favorites was a 24/7lighted FW vasular stemmed FW plant tank with a somewhat slowish throughput flow. The output went to a tank of filter-feeding largish shrimp. The visible infusoria (growth promote by the regular FW tank water flowing through from fry grow-out tanks (i.e., high bioload). the filter-feeding shrimp got the excess infusoria and grew even larger. cuttings of the stem plants and much bigger filter-feeding shrimps were valuable trade-ins at the LFs with the side benefit of lower nitrates and phosphates in the 'system", making for better faster growth for the fry in the system. It does mean more work on the tanks, but it makes the system more efficient, even if the payback was well below my real work salary level. Interesting and more fun than water changes.fun. I enjoy Rube Goldberg systems. My wife (and the LFS owner) think I am a bit mad - which has some validity...

[bertie 83]

Lol rtr, you are far from mad. Maybe obsessed but that's a good thing. So running tanks inline with a separate tank for plants on low flow ( perhaps with Amano shrimp as care takers) leading to a tank of filter feeding shrimp then back to the display hmmm. So for example could I use a 5ft x 2 ft x2ft display with a 4x2x2 sump split in half for plants and shrimp (seperated by partition of course) as a viable experiment? This is ticking my boxes as I have been planning a very complex freshwater tank build decor wise. I don't get bored easily but since setting up my saltwater tank my creative streak has been going crazy lol