Aiptasia Farm

[yote]

From what I've seen,Reefs right.
Xenia tend to grow better in tanks that have at least a trace on nitrate and phosphate.I have no idea why.

[McCrary]

Dude, you guys are crazy, lol. If you have a fuge with macros and a good skimmer you shouldn't need much else (if you are doing regular water changes).

[cthegame]

Originally Posted by McCrary

Dude, you guys are crazy, lol. If you have a fuge with macros and a good skimmer you shouldn't need much else (if you are doing regular water changes).

Maybe you're right. But im bored and i want a new project that will help my water quality even more...

If i did go with the aiptesia farm (im not saying i will for sure), why cant it be the same as my fuge? Im sure it wont affect the pods...why does it need to be in a separate area?

Can the xenia farm be in the fuge?

[Bifferwine]

It can't be in the same area as your fuge, because you NEED a UV sterilizer downstream from the aiptasia farm to kill any aiptasia spores or pieces that can travel in your water to the main tank. You do not want aiptasia in your main tank and using a UV sterilizer will help prevent that. If you do not use a UV sterilizer after the aiptasia farm, it's pretty much a guarantee that your main tank will get infested.

If you have the aiptasia and fuge in the same place and have a UV sterilizer downstream from it, the UV will kill all your pods and live food that you are trying to produce in the fuge. It will defeat the purpose of having a refuge for live food in the first place.

I don't know why someone would choose aiptasia over xenia either, if they were going to have something in the fuge. What a pain in the ass to maintain.

Xenia would not have to be kept separate because they are not as much of a risk of spreading to the main tank.

[simpleman]

What about cleaner clams? Can't seem to get a good link, but you can open this one in a new window.

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=574&parent_category=4 &category_search=63&root_parent_id

[simpleman]

Ok it does work

[reeffreak]

Originally Posted by McCrary

Dude, you guys are crazy, lol. If you have a fuge with macros and a good skimmer you shouldn't need much else (if you are doing regular water changes).

I agree but if somebody wants to try other methods,why not?

Cleaner clams is something else you can try in a refugium too.

[McCrary]

Totally agree reeffreak. The method has been tried a couple times, but the results were less than conclusive and even large amounts of aptasia were shown to have minimal effects on water quality. There was also a good scientific paper written on how large clams, 10+ kg, were inefficient at providing reduction in nitrates.

[reeffreak]

I agree,that's why I mentioned it was debatable if aiptasia would do anything significantly to reduce nitrates.That goes for xenias and cleaner clams as well.Nothing really works better than good old fashion water changes and of course,macro algae in the fuge.

...but this experiment,especially for CT if he's using xenia and cleaner clams have really little risk or none at all.

[fatman]

There are those you do not like to do water changes, and for them things like nutrient exporters are important. There are those with plenum-type beds that have sumps/refugiums with soft corals just for nutrient exportation and they have gone years without water changes. The same goes for some people with deep sand beds. They like the Plenum-type sand beds have no need to do water changes for nitrate removal, but there things other than nitrates to control and nutrient exporters seem to work better than macro algae for this. I use macro algae for its oxygen input, not its nutrient uptake. I really have no nutrient problem and do not have enough algae growth to provide sustantial nutrient export.