rinckemd
Active Member
PC Rainbow
Blue-lined rabbitfish eating
sea lettuce
Orange Center Cynarina
JF Beach Bum
Bio-reef Anacropora
Unknown blue and green Tenuis
Red Setosa with orange stripe,
red mini-carpet,
Hawaiian Palythoa
Fox Flame
Cherry Corals Royal Flush
Chalice
Therman’s Hawaiian Pocillopora
from Sanjay Joshi’s tank
Unique Corals Torquoise Stunner
Jason Fox Goldmeister Chalice
ORA Bird of Paradise
Sunset Montipora
updated 7/29/17
I've updated this thread for years on and off. Great things happened, disasters occurred, things died, some survived, and a few thrived. This tank is far from one of those dream tanks you see featured, but it’s getting better.
Overview
- 150g open top tank with mangroves
- I’ve been in the hobby maybe 7 years now, this is my third reef tank.
- I follow a pretty simple rule, which is that I don't add crap that I can't test with an ICP test or something. I don't add any additives, etc.
- Mixed reef because I can’t resist a good looking coral.
- I run Triton, and ICP test the water every month or two. I think ICP testing is a big revolution, and I hope it becomes more cost effective. I don’t do water changes. I have probably changed 25 gallons this last year when cleaning out the refugium. Macro algae + moderate feeding + lots of coral keep things under control.
- I automate most things, I'm a programmer in real life and I think that helps with the whole Apex thing and automation.
Tank and sump
I splurged on this tank, I admit it, but no amount of money in the world buys a great reef tank. I had a small solana 60g before, and honestly I was going to get out of the hobby, or go big. I’m glad I kept going, as lots of things improved.
- 60”x30”x22” acrylic tank and stand made by ZeroEdge in Chicago. (1 1/4th” front and back acrylic, 1” sides. You can set crap on the rim!)
- Royal Exclusiv sump, refugium and skimmer
- 80w Red Dragon return
- Neptune Systems Apex controller
- Avast Marine ATO (pumps water from 100g basement reserve)
- 4 part Triton dosing via Neptune’s DOS’ers in my basement.
- Carbon reactor, no phosphate media unless I see a big problem
Fish
I'm not really a "fish guy". I keep the number low to avoid overloading my macro with nutrients. I added the rabbitfish to eat nuisance algae, like bubble, and he has done a fine job.
- Flameback Angel
- Mystery Wrasse
- Ocellaris Clownfish (This fish has been with me since the beginning, a young 7 year old!)
- Yellow Tang
- Copperband Butterfly (With a taste for clams!)
- Blue-lined Rabbitfish (Siganis Doliatus)
- Biota captive grown green mandarin
Mangroves
I was going open top, and I thought it would be cool to try and grow some red mangroves. On the right side with the rock I just stuck the propagules into the rock. It was tall enough to keep them poking out. They occasionally popped out until the roots started growing. On the left side I took a stick of bamboo and plastic tied them to it. The roots are still growing, but someday I’ll take out the stick once the roots are secure. The roots on the right side are intense. I’ve got a video of them somewhere in this thread. They are slow growers for sure. I try to spray them with ro/di water once a week. My lights aren’t ideal, the radions will burn them if too close.
Feeding
- Fish get fed each day with a bit of Rod's food, mysis and a black mussel for the copperband. (He’s been an extremely picky eater) Every few days I find the mandarin, shut off the pumps and spray him with nutramar ova to be sure he is getting enough.
- Corals get target fed about 2x a week with a mixture of various stuff when the nitrates are below 10ppm, otherwise I hold off. Right now I'm using Oyster Eggs, Rods coral food, Reef Roids, and some chopped up mysis, but it varies.
Parameters
- Alkalinity: 7.2->7.8dkh - I'm dosing about 65ml of each part of Triton Core7 per day. I have Apex DOS's adding alk all day long in small amounts. It keeps things stable, but someday I'd like to tweak it a bit further to add more during periods of use throughout the day.
- Calcium: 430ppm
- Magnesium: 1450ppm
- Nitrates: 5-10ppm
- Phosphates: 0.02
- Salinity: 35ppm
- Temp: 78 -> 81 degrees
Lighting
- 4 Radion G4 Pros running the PHX14 color profile from Ecotech. The mangroves provide a lot of shade, so having 4 on a 5ft tank helps with that. I love the color, but those 4 fans running are the loudest thing on my tank. (Anyone know a good replacement fan?)
- Refugium runs a Kessil h380, and I've turned the skimmer compartment into a mini fuge running an h80.
Here is the radion profile:
Flow
I don’t often see specific details on the types of flow, so I thought I’d share. The black below are my pumps, producing laminar flow. The other shapes are my rockwork. The pumps switch between constant and pulse throughout the day. During the times you see 0 on a side, the tank is in a gyre instead of a more turbulent counter wave. I make no promises, but it’s an example.
Here’s the schedule
Left side
00:00 -> 00:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
00:31 -> 05:30 - 0%
05:31 -> 06:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
06:31 -> 11:30 - 45%
11:31 -> 12:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
12:31 -> 17:30 - 0%
17:31 -> 18:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
18:31 -> 23:30 - 40%
23:31 -> 23:59 - Pulse 55% 10s
Right side
00:00 -> 00:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
00:31 -> 05:30 - 40%
05:31 -> 06:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
06:31 -> 11:30 - 0%
11:31 -> 12:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
12:31 -> 17:30 - 45%
17:31 -> 18:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
18:31 -> 23:30 - 0%
23:31 -> 23:59 - 55%
00:00 -> 00:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
00:31 -> 05:30 - 0%
05:31 -> 06:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
06:31 -> 11:30 - 45%
11:31 -> 12:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
12:31 -> 17:30 - 0%
17:31 -> 18:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
18:31 -> 23:30 - 40%
23:31 -> 23:59 - Pulse 55% 10s
Right side
00:00 -> 00:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
00:31 -> 05:30 - 40%
05:31 -> 06:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
06:31 -> 11:30 - 0%
11:31 -> 12:30 - Pulse 55% 10s
12:31 -> 17:30 - 45%
17:31 -> 18:30 - Pulse 55% 1.7s
18:31 -> 23:30 - 0%
23:31 -> 23:59 - 55%
Maintenance
- Check alkalinity every couple days.
- Change carbon every 5 weeks or so.
- I dose various Triton elements once per week. Basically stuff that always needs added after seeing the ICP results. (50ml strontium, 2ml zinc, 5ml iodine, etc)
- Not running any GFO right now
- Take out cheato if it's growing big.
- I have filter socks, but I hate them. I think I have 800micron bags in right now and I probably only take them out once a month now. lol
- Empty skimmer weekly
- Glass cleaning 1-2 times a week
- Check salinity each week.
- Check triton 4 part containers in my basement to verify the levels are equal and nothing is dosing incorrectly.
- Frag back corals monthly. Trim the red cap continually...it's like my new shelf, and it grows so dang fast.
- Take some of the sea lettuce from the refugium and toss it into the display for tang and rabbitfish.
Refugium
Chaeto and sea lettuce in the main refugium. Various red algae, codium, etc in the skimmer compartment. I run a Gyre to keep the chaeto moving. I keep a large black urchin in the fuge that was banned from the display. He seems to be doing well, but you need to be careful when reaching in!
Pests, problems and fixes
- Bubble algae - It got out of control somehow, with lots of rocks covered. I didn’t want to dose anything, so after research I bought a blue-lined Rabbitfish. He’s done a great job, I’ve even seen him grab bubbles floating and start munching on them.
- Flatworms - oh my god. This is the biggest disaster I’ve had with this tank. I realized too late I had flatworms. I may have even had them in the old tank and transferred them over. I lost whole colonies, I dipped and dipped and dipped. Nitrates rocked up, things browned. I ended up tossing the coral infected, or dipping and fragging off the bases of them until I didn’t see one again. With coral on the rocks I turkey basted them daily. For over a year I dipped, mostly using Revive, and occasionally Bayer. It was almost impossible to get rid of them. You need to dip multiple times a week with Bayer. Revive/Coral rx is just too hard on many acros, particular with the repeated dipping. I haven’t seen a aefw in a year now. Quatentine your new stuff, buy from trusted sources, and most if all, watch your corals. Don’t be me!
- Bryopsis - I had it, I dosed fluconazole, now I don’t have it.
- Copperband Butterfly - He's a pain and won't eat anything but black mussels. I toss him one each day or so. I keep a supply of them frozen. He will also eat my maxima clams if they sit on the sand. I actually moved by clams up in the tank on top of the red montipora cap to get them away from him and that has worked out great somehow. He tends to pick on the sand when hungry.
- Over reliance on automation - I have a salinity probe on my apex. At some point I had a flood from a clogged refugium (added a long strainer on the outflow to prevent clogging), and the ATO topped it off so the salinity went down. I adjusted it back in line based on the probe, but weeks later things didn't look great, I restarted the apex and the salinity was way lower than reported. I now manual test salinity every week. The apex is great, but you still need to verify.
- Don’t tumble your carbon! For a while I did. My tang got hlle, and I noticed my clownfish, which I’ve had for 6 years, start to get large black spots. Once I stopped tumbling my carbon, the spots are slowly disappearing.
Dosing/Additives
I dose nothing but Triton Core7. I dose them continually throughout the day into the sump. I largely don't trust additives that I can't verify the ingredients and test the results. I don’t dose Triton’s nickel additive.
Backup Power
I had a giant tree fall, and it got me thinking about backup power in case of disaster. I have had a UPS for a while, but it really only added maybe 45min of backup. Now that I have 2 tanks I’m doing some upgrading, and learning more about the options.
I want something that will last long enough for me to get home and start my portable generator. To do this, I first needed a notification that power is out. I’m using a smaller UPS on my cable modem and router to ensure they stay up long enough to hopefully sent a notification from my Neptune Systems apex. On the apex I have 2 energy bars, one with UPS protection, and one without. All the important stuff goes on the one with backup power. When the Apex sees power is out on one of the bars, I’ll get a phone notification.
For the UPS, one thing I did not realize is that you can’t just chain multiple together for more power. You need one that supports adding external battery packs. I’m going to switch to use an APC SMX1000. It supports up to 10 extra batteries. My goal someday would be to have enough power to go 8 hours, so that if I didn’t get a notification, everything could go until I got home. Keep in mind that batteries only last 5 years, so replacing them could be expensive.
I’ve also purchased a portable generator to meet my goal of days of backup power. I got a Honda EU2000I, which should provide enough juice, and lets you add another if the demands become higher. I hope I don’t need to use it, but the thought of everything dying in the cold wasn’t something I want to consider.
Photography
Things got a lot better mid-2017. Started using a Canon EOS 77d, with 100mm or 60mm macro lenses. I take my pics under the tank lighting at the time I’m feeling the urge. I white balance adjust, and I correct WB with B3, M1. I usually use the picture as shot, but I pull up Lightroom if it needs exposure tweaks, etc. The pics often look like what the coral does under full blue, which I run in the evenings, and true to life. Very few vendors take respectable photos. Kudos to unique corals, battle corals, and house of sticks.
Preachy thoughts on wild harvesting, mariculture, and aquaculture
I’ve killed a lot of coral, especially wild coral. A lot of it was my own stupidity, and a lot was just buying large colonies that couldn’t take the travel, acclimation, tank conditions, etc. These days I am an extreme advocate of aquaculture, and while I’ve bought stuff from the guys who import and pass along, I am largely against mass wild collection of corals. I’m okay with mariculture, but still suggest people buy aquaculture stuff for hardiness and to support the people that slave over growing and raising here in the USA.
While I understand the argument that the hobby helps preserve coral, it only does that in trained hands. Don’t be like me and buy some nice wild acropora colony you may not be able to keep, buy an aquacultured one that doesn’t take from the wild.
Link to more recent changes
Link to my picture album
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