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** may 2011 totm **
* TOTM - MAY 2011 - Mattd28 *
I had the pleasure of seeing this tank a couple of months back and its was a stunner. Well done to Matt for winning the MAY TOTM. Hope you all enjoy Matt's write up.
Over to you Matt.............
Firstly can I say a big thank you to Chris and the team for giving me the opportunity to do a write up on my tank. Being TOTM is an absolute honour and hopefully you’ll find this write up useful and interesting!
I started keeping marines about 5 years ago now; I’ve always kept fish since I was a kid, progressing from mixed tropicals to Malawi’s to Discus. The inspiration for a reef tank came after a diving trip in Kenya, it’s fair to say I was hooked and I was immediately planning how to change my tropical tank to a marine set-up!
My first tank was a Jewell Rio 300 conversion and as is usually the case my impatience led to many pitfalls. Eventually I’d added a sump and got a nice little system but always (as we all do!) fancied an upgrade. That opportunity arrived when I went to pick up a power head I’d seen online that was part of a tank breakdown. The tank was a cracker and reasonably priced so after a bit of persuading with my misses, I put a deposit down.
My Rio 300
Current Tank;
The tank itself is 5ft x 2ft x 2ft c/w large sump and oak finished cabinet and pelmet.
The tank lighting is provided by an Arcadia 3 x 250w metal Halide pendant c/w T8 Actinic tubes. Although I’d like a newer unit with T5’s the Actinics provide enough florescence to give a lovely view of the tank after the main halides go off…. If work re-introduce bonuses as has been promised I may change to a 10 x 80w T5 unit but for the time being I’m happy with what I’ve got. (apart from the electric bills J)
Bulb wise I’m running 12k Marine Lux atm. Previous to this Id always used 10k BLV’s. From my experience (ive never done a par test) I seemed to get slightly faster growth out of the 10k’s BUT they are too yellow for me and I had to have the actinics running. The 12ks are a lovely crisp blue\yellow.
The early days:
Tank circulation is proved by 2 x Tunze 6100’s controlled by the Tunze 7095 muiltcontroller. I also run a couple of smaller Tunze’s just to alleviate any dead spots in the corners of the tank.
The main return is courtesy of an Ocean Runner 3500. All together I’m looking at roughly 50x total tank turnover per hour.
I purchased the Tunze’s 2nd hand and I must say they have been faultless, my only issue is their bulkiness and due to ever growing SPS particularly some large plating Acro’s on the left hand side of the tank, shading is now becoming a bit of an issue….I may have to look at Vortech MP40 sooner rather than later.
Filtration:
Both this tank (at the beginning) and my old tank we’re run as a skimmer less ecosystem. The tank has around 65kg of live rock and it has good flow all around it. Originally I’d built the rock up too densely but after a re-scape I now had plenty of room for flow around the rock. This imo is very important to avoid a build up of detritus and eventually nitrate issues.
Eventually after lots of reading I decided to add an APF600 Skimmer. To start with I ran this 12 hours a day; this wasn’t planned it was simply that the pump was worn and made a right racket. Fine in the day but didn’t impress the wife at night. The tank was downstairs and it still rattled like old bones!! Eventually I decided to replace the pump, the new one has not only improved the performance of the skimmer but it is now almost silent! The skimmer now runs 24/7 and seeing the gunk it pulls out, I wouldn’t be without one.
The rest of the sump is as follows;
First section and inlet from tank contains Bio balls and a phosphate reactor. The second large section contains a mixture of Mineral and Miracle mud and a mix of Caulerpa and Cheato. The feed to my APF600 is also in this middle section. The third and final section contains the OR350 return pump and the return from both my Phos reactor and Skimmer. I know Bio balls cause a bit of a split opinion on this and many other forums, but for me they have always been essential both for gaseous exchange and as a bubble stop. To stop detritus build up I give them a good stir every month or 2.
The micro algae keep my nitrates at < 5 and they have always done so; phosphate is a different issue, more on that later!
Heating and cooling is taken care if via an ATC 800. The tank has 1 x 300w heater and 1 x 200w heater as back-up. I also have a couple of cheap PC fans attached via the controller; these tend to come on daily by mid afternoon. The temperature is pretty consistent at 25.5deg in the morning up to 27.5deg by 9.00pm.
To keep my parameters stable to maintain SPS I run a calcium reactor; this at the minute is a Deltec PF500. Until recently I’d used a TMC V2 1500 reactor. For the price the V2 reactors are spot on, eventually though they do tend to wear. The Deltec is a bit sturdier but in hindsight I wish I’d looked around and got the next model up; although it maintains my parameters, I should have got one with a bit more capacity. To add a bit of extra power, I run another rector filled with coral gravel and magnesium chips, this not only buffers the effluent but helps hold my DKH around 8-9.
Putting the calcium reactor on was the best thing I ever did, although at the time I only had a few SPS frags, the stability increased tenfold, and as we All know, that is the key! My advice to anyone would be to get a small CR running if possible!
Apart from this, I currently keep things pretty simple; TMC Iodine gets added daily plus I’m currently trying Grotech A, B and C….. Whether or not there making a huge difference I can’t honestly say.
This tank has now been up and running for roughly 3 years and in that time I have messed about with all sorts of potions and miracle solutions, my verdict; save your money. I’m not saying the like of Zeo don’t work but in my opinions, good lighting, good flow, Calcium, Alk and magnesium supplementation via either a calcium reactor or balling, plus sensible feeding, stocking and nutrient control are all you need to have a thriving system.
As for other equipment, this system has various methods of automation. The first and one of the most crucial is the Tunze auto-top up, this is fed from a 24x18x18 tank situated by the side of the main system. I also run an ATC-800 to control heating and cooling.
To run the calcium reactor effectively and efficiently I have a TMC PH controller \ monitor, this controls the C02 input into my Calcium Reactor. When I first got the reactor I was simply judging the CO2 addition via the bubble counter, this method worked fine but I did see a PH dip which meant I knew I had to invest in a PH controller. Calcium Reactors are a fabulous piece of kit but they have to monitored closely; its still gives me the biggest headache and worry to this day, The Reactor is fed via a small t-off from my return pump, again this works fine but getting a steady drip rate without a peristaltic pump can be difficult.
Feeding:
As simple as feeding is; this for me is one of the most crucial aspects of maintaining a successful mixed reef, to little and things starve, too much and nutrients get out of control. If like me you try to run a low nutrient system then coral feeding is a necessity, certainly for SPS such as Acropora Hoeksemai. I currently dose amino acids as well as coral gel, occasionally Oyster Relish and Phytoplankton. The Oyster Relish, although relatively expensive gets a fabulous feeding response from the SPS, but a word of caution; I decided to have a few weeks of heavy coral feeding, I used a mix of the above but in larger than normal quantities, within a week my phosphate levels had shot off the chart, only now 3 months later am I getting on top of it! Getting the balance right is every reefers holy grail and the key to a thriving reef in my opinion.
As for the fish, as I have a group of greedy tangs I feed a full sheet of Nori on a daily basis plus New Era Flake. I occasionally feed frozen mysis but this is mainly used to target feed the LPS. All of my fish (even the Powder Blue eventually) are now weaned onto flake, this makes life much easier and I tend to feed a small amount as much as I can during the day. This may be twice a day in the week and up to 10 x per day at the weekend if i'm at home.
Tangs at feeding time!
I’ve recently been mixing a bit of coral gel with Cyclopeeze and sticking this high up the back of the tank where my tangs can’t get at it; this releases Cyclopeeze slowly for the Anthias to pick up in the top half of the water column. Again, the key to keeping Anthias is feeding!
Problems:
Where do we start!!! The beauty (and nightmare) of this hobby is that its always throwing something new at you to deal with, the key for me has been not to get too frustrated and try and deal with them as best you can.
The only real issue that has led me to nearly giving up is Flatworms! I see so many posts relating to the little blighters. I had them in their trillions. Every available piece of rock was inhabited by thousands. No matter how many I siphoned out, they’d be back with a vengeance the next day. I was trying hard not to result to chemical treatments such as FW Exit as I heard bad stories relating to them but I nearly crumbled. I tried Velvet Nudi’s, a leopard Wrasse, a Jade Wrasse and a Mandarin, and although the Jade and the Mandarin, had a go, noting would have dented the plague I had.
I decided to start a vigorous daily siphoning attack on them; this along with natural predation eventually defeated them. All in all I must have had them in force for over 6 months. I still have a few in the sump but if they get into the main system, one of my fish takes care of them! The tank has now been flatworm free for 18 months!
The next issue and one that will eventually cause me to do some serious thinking are brown button polyps. The polyps must have sneaked in on a coral or piece of rock but they are ultra invasive. They are now at the point that they must cover 60% of my rockwork. The only relative saving grace is that they don’t seen too aggressive to other corals like Zoanthids, but they are starting top become a PITA. Eventually they will cause this system to shutdown.
Most other issues have been small, normally linked to the Calcium Reactor or other equipment failure… My Tunze osmolater died on me recently but a new pump resolved that one, my halides also recently decided to give up meaning they had to go back to Arcadia to fix…. A week (and a hefty bill) later they were back on the tank.
The hard times are where this and other forums prove so fantastically valuable.to various local guys (Andrew especially for lending me a halide unit to keep me going) any issues aren’t irreversible (albeit frustrating!!) I guess this is one of the problems of a system of this age (3 years and it was purchased 2nd hand) sooner or later something goes and needs replacing!
That’s basically about it really; if anyone has any specific questions then please fire away, all that’s left is for me to thank everyone for looking. A big thank-you to all the local guys I’ve met, and especially to my good lady for putting up with the endless ‘days-out’ to various LFS!
Matt
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Re: ** may 2011 totm **
