REEF OF THE MONTH - May 2023: Ancient Mariner's 100 Gallons of Acropora Splendor!

[Ancient Mariner]

Wow. Tank is spectacular. Love the slides. Wish I had a closed to use as an equipment room.

How do you manage to only clean your skimmer once every few months? Or is that the skimmer body and the cup and neck are cleaned daily or weekly?

There’s a drain from the cup that empties through 1/2” flexible tubing to the drain of the shower pan. So there’s no need to empty the cup. The top part of the skimmer body and the neck through which the foam passes through does develop muck build up. This is what I scrape off and wipe down every few months. But it doesn’t affect skimmate production nor are there any negative effects like excess nitrate or phosphate production that I can tell.

 

[wjgeese]

Love this tank. Makes me REALLY MISS my halides!!!

 

[Toob]

So often very successful tanks have a very simple approach! Do you ever run carbon under any conditions (or have you in the past?)

 

[Ancient Mariner]

So often very successful tanks have a very simple approach! Do you ever run carbon under any conditions (or have you in the past?)

No, not in this reef. In past reefs, I have used activated carbon in a filter bag due to my mixing of soft corals with SPS corals. My initial approach was to change the carbon out every month. Then laziness set in and sometimes it would be many months before I got to changing it out. I never saw any negative effects. So even though I have softies like Capnella , Sinularia, and Cespitularia in this reef I haven’t detected any negative effects despite not running carbon.

 

[Toob]

No, not in this reef. In past reefs, I have used activated carbon in a filter bag due to my mixing of soft corals with SPS corals. My initial approach was to change the carbon out every month. Then laziness set in and sometimes it would be many months before I got to changing it out. I never saw any negative effects. So even though I have softies like Capnella , Sinularia, and Cespitularia in this reef I haven’t detected any negative effects despite not running carbon.

Thanks! How often do you stick your hands in the tank? I am running a very similar setup as you in a new tank, and I am very encouraged by your results. I run a bag of carbon right now but mostly because I’ve got my hands in the tank a lot, and I’d like to stop at some point.

One more question for you - how did you arrive at the decision to not run any mechanical filtration (filter socks/roller mat)? Do you feel like the lack of it helps “feed” the corals since you aren’t feeding them otherwise?

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Thanks! How often do you stick your hands in the tank? I am running a very similar setup as you in a new tank, and I am very encouraged by your results. I run a bag of carbon right now but mostly because I’ve got my hands in the tank a lot, and I’d like to stop at some point.

One more question for you - how did you arrive at the decision to not run any mechanical filtration (filter socks/roller mat)? Do you feel like the lack of it helps “feed” the corals since you aren’t feeding them otherwise?

I stick my hands in everyday because of feeding nori or algae wafers that I place in a veggie clip daily. I do rinse off my hands prior.

I’m basically following the Berlin method which traditionally did not use mechanical filtration, just live rock and a protein skimmer. In the early days mechanical filtration was seen as nitrate production devices and zero nitrate was the goal. So after years of success without mechanical filtration I don’t see its purpose. It just seems to add more maintenance chores and possible points of failure.

 

[Toob]

I stick my hands in everyday because of feeding nori or algae wafers that I place in a veggie clip daily. I do rinse off my hands prior.

I’m basically following the Berlin method which traditionally did not use mechanical filtration, just live rock and a protein skimmer. In the early days mechanical filtration was seen as nitrate production devices and zero nitrate was the goal. So after years of success without mechanical filtration I don’t see its purpose. It just seems to add more maintenance chores and possible points of failure.

Thanks so much for answering my questions!

I also have an acrylic tank - what do you use to scrape algae? Are you able to avoid hairline scratches? (I am not - though nothing major yet)

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Thanks so much for answering my questions!

I also have an acrylic tank - what do you use to scrape algae? Are you able to avoid hairline scratches? (I am not - though nothing major yet)

I use a plastic blade scraper. Noticeable scratches eventually occur. Bits of shell /aragonite/ coral skeleton dragged along the acrylic by the blade can cause scratches. Be careful not to capture and drag debris like that with the blade. Noticeable scratches can buffed out with some sanding kits. I haven’t done this yet but have seen videos of people cleaning up the panes nicely.

 

[Reign1]

I believe I saw this tank on a build thread or had seen it before on other platforms.
I just wanted to comment that not only do I absolutely love this tank for the awesome sliding tray, amazing scape, and SPS growth but the setup in general gives me the feels and reminds me of everything I love about reefing when I was getting started in this hobby. It not only tells a story of what reefing/equipment was at time (totally a time capsule) but also how as much as husbandry techniques and technology have come along there are still truly some fundamentals that hold true in this hobby. Thank you for inspiring new reefers and also older ones as well (me).
Once again really loving the setup checking all the boxes (MH, Iwakis, Aqua-C, Korallin) of best equipment at the time!!