May 2014 R2R Spotlight: ritter6788

Introduction:

My name is Gabriel Ritter. Staring at my tank everyday I sometimes only see the bad and not the good so to have peers mention my tank for the spotlight is a huge honor. I got started in this hobby 6 years ago. I've had small freshwater tanks off and on since I can remember. I kept a 45 gallon with freshwater Cichlids for 7 years while only browsing the saltwater section at the pet store and hoping one day to be able to keep such amazing fish. One day I came home to a heater malfunction that killed all my freshwater fish. Feeling defeated my wife said "why don't you just do a saltwater tank?" I've been hooked ever since. I started off with the same 45 gallon setup I had used for freshwater and with the advice of the LFS set up a poorly planned newby tank. I bought a few fish and stocked the tank poorly and always struggled keeping fish alive very long. After lots of reading I started to get the hang of it and was more successful keeping fish. I was browsing the web one day and realized "YOU CAN KEEP CORALS IN A TANK???" I became really fascinated with them and is the main focus of my tank today. I had my first 45 gallon for only a few months when Hurricane Ike hit and we were without power for 3 days. I lost most of the tank before it even got going good. After one year a family member offered to sell me a 75 gallon so I decided to jump on it and upgrade. Being in an area where marine tanks were not very popular I didn't have much help starting out aside from the mass of information on the internet. I bounced around a few forums and finally found a local club and reef2reef. With so many members willing to help out and share knowledge my tank much better for it.
System Profile:

• Display tank: 75 gallon (not drilled)​
  • Glass​
• Hardwood stand painted black
• Sump: 29 Gallons, no baffles.
• Protein Skimmer: Reef Octopus NWB 200.
• Carbon/phosphate filtration: I've run GFO off and on over the years but I haven't used it in a long time. My tank seems to do better without the use of phosphate removing media. I use carbon only on occasion if I feel something is wrong or if I feel a contaminant has entered the tank.
• Return Pump: Rio 2100
• Water Circulation: 3 older style Koralia 4's.
• Lighting: 2 x 120w Evolution LEDs.
• Ca/ Alk/ Mg dosing: Bulk Reef Supply soda ash and and calcium with BRS 1.1ml dosing pumps connected to a Reef Keeper Lite.
• ATO: JBJ Auto Top Off with an Aqualifter pump
• RO/ DI: 5 stage BRS RO/DI
• Heating/cooling: Being in Texas I only use a heater a few months out of the year. During the winter I use an Eheim 300w heater. Using leds I have no need for a chiller. The house temperature keeps the tank at a stable temp most of the year.
• System controller: Reef Keeper Lite to run my lights and my dosing pumps.

Water Circulation & flow summary:

I wish they still made Koralias like they used to. They have been running nonstop on my tank for years now with no problems. I've used newer Koralias and Vortech MP10s and I like the wide flow that the old Koralias put out. Having a mix of sps, which like high flow, and LPS which like lower flow has been a challenge. I've placed the LPS in lower flow areas and the sps in more turbulent areas. I can get a lot of flow going in this tank without ripping my LPS to shreds.

Water Parameters:

• Temp: Rarely check but I have a digital thermometer to use if I feel like it's needed. Sticking my hands in the tank everyday I get an instant feeling of when the water temperature is not right, which is almost never.
• pH: I do not test for or monitor pH and feel that you can do more harm to your tank than good by chasing pH.
• Specific gravity: 1.025-1026 Tested with and old swing arm hydrometer. I have a refractometer and and Tunze conductivity meter I use occasionally to double/triple check my numbers.
• Ammonia: API test kit. Undetectable. I don't test for this anymore unless it's an emergency.
• Nitrate: API test kit. Undetectable. I don't test for this anymore.
• Nitrite: API test kit. Undetectable. I don't test for this anymore.
• PO4: Undetectable with Hanna checker
• Calcium: 420-460 API test kit
• Alkalinity: 7-8 dkh Hanna checker.
• Magnesium: 1400 Salifert test kit. I rarely test for it and have never needed to add Magnesium. Water changes have kept my levels stable.

Lighting summary & objectives:

I use Evolution LEDs, 120 1watt leds in each fixture. People have been telling me for years that you can't grow sps with 1w leds. I've had great sps growth and color from these lights. A few friends of mine locally were using these lights and having great success with them. I have no other reason for using them other than that. I can't explain why they work so well but they do. I had 150w MH previously and was tired of the bulb replacement so LEDs sounded like the way to go. My corals responded instantly and I've been using the same lights for 3 years now. For the cost of MH bulb and actinic replacements, these LED lights have paid for themselves already. I'm a fan of a longer photoperiod and my alkalinity and calcium usage shows that I get more growth with a 12 hour photoperiod than a 6-8 hour like many people run. My photoperiod is; 10am blue LEDs on, 11am white LEDs on, 10pm white LEDs off, 11pm blue LEDs off. I do not run any type of nighttime lighting or moonlighting.

Filtration & water quality summary & objectives:

Lots of live rock, strong skimming and water changes. My Reef Octopus 200 NWB was the largest skimmer in my price range that would fit in the sump. I owe a lot of my tanks success to the skimmer. Before adding the large skimmer I struggled with nitrates and phosphates. I believe it is the most important piece of equipment for a reef and run it 24/7. I've never had success with a reef tank without skimming. I do not run any other type of filtration. I've even removed the macroalgae from the refugium and I feel like it isn't needed in my tank. I'm not a religious water changer and don't really have a set schedule. I try to do one 15 gallon water change every 2 weeks but sometimes it's 3-4 weeks until I do a water change.

Tank Inhabitants

Fish: Yellow Tang, Royal Gramma, Male Lyretail Anthia, Ocellaris clownfish pair, Falco Hawkfish, Blue spot watchman goby, starry blenny, mandarin dragonette.

Other inverts: Derasa clam, maxima clam, brittle starfish, turbo snails, blue leg hermits.



Corals: My tank is stony coral heavy but I do have a few zoanthids, palythoas and a couple of large leathers. The stony corals in the tank consist of Acropora, Montipora, Stylophora, Seriatopora, Pocillopora, Chalices, Favias, Acans, Euphyllia.



Fish & Coral feeding:


I feed my fish twice a day and rotate between, frozen mysis, Marine Cuisine, Rod's Food and Nori. Occasionally I feed NLS pellets and freeze dried cyclopeeze but not often. I do not use any type of coral foods anymore and I don't believe they are needed in my tank.


Advice:


My tank thread is an encyclopedia of what not to do. I had so many issues along the way there's no telling what my tank would look like without the problems. I've had problems from using bad RO water, fish disease from lack of QT, parameter problems from lack of testing, blue snowflake polyps that almost took over my entire tank, Lysol spray that got into the tank, hair algae, grape caulerpa, hydroids, alk burn, red bugs, AEFW, you name it I've had it and dealt with it. There are so many things that would have caused me to take this tank down but I kept going. Learning from each mistake along the way and having a great group of reefers always willing to help.

Conclusion:


I would like to thank my local club, reef2reef and all the members for all the support over the years. I think without the group here and the local club I would have been out of the hobby a long time ago. As I am typing this I am preparing to upgrade this tank to a larger set up. I said when I started this hobby that if I could keep a tank going for 5 years I would be happy. The tank is exactly 5 years old this month so I do feel like the time is now to upgrade to a larger set up. Having only a 75 gallon limits me on the types of fish I would like to keep long term so with a larger tank I'll have more freedom in fish selection. I have some of the same fish and corals as when I set this tank up in 2009 so I'm proud of that. For anyone that is thinking about getting into the saltwater hobby, read as much as you can, be willing to take advice and most of all be patient. Thanks to everyone that has given help and advice to me over the years and I'll see you all on the forums!

Congrats Gabe!! Following the progress of your tank has been great. I know that I, as well as other members, have learned a lot from your journey. Very well deserved!!