New start 400 litre hole in wall NPS

[Neil@coralworkshop]

Right as I have had big problems with my current tank see
My hole in wall tank

So I have decided to go in a different direction and enter the DARK SIDE no not UR but a non photosynthetic coral system (NPS)

I have only ever seen one in the flesh and it was stunning and have wanted to set one up since then but have not had the space or the guts to do so but as my tank is empty and most of my corals are dead I haven't got anything to loseer

Pieter van Suijlekom Netherlands NPS tank photo by myself
note this tank is in the sump room of his main tank see Tank of the Month - February 2006 - Reefkeeping.com




so what's the different about a NPS to a normal reef system well the main thing is that the corals don't use light to produce food so the tank does not need bright lights BUT will need to be feed loads of food and with feeding loads the nutrient levels will go up very high so filtration will need to be very good and water changes will be very important

so the tank its self will be the same the sump will be converted to an old school trickle filter that's great at converting ammonia and nitrite but not good with nitrate so will run some form of carbon dosing to deal with this as well as higher water changes my even give bio pearls another go as I have a reactor anyway or see how it works as a sand filter

as for water changes I have been doing a 24 litres a week on a 400 litre system so about 5%
so this will have to go up to do this I will need a bigger salt water storage vessel at the moment I have a tank that is split up holding the 23 litres of salt water and 21 litres of RO water for toping up Im going to remove the divider so I will have around 45litres for water changes and may even automate it to do it daily this will mean I will have to find something to hold RO water for topping up

as most NP are not calcium demanding as normal corals I will not be using automated balling lite this gives me a 3 head dosing pump that will be used for feeding and dosing carbon

as for feeding NP corals require loads of food and his is done my feeding a cocktail of foods via a dosing pump into the tank the problem with the cocktail is that it need to be kept mixed up and chilled I have a small clear tides liquid feeder but this will not contain enough food so I need a bigger one just my luck that I have a rats kalk stirrer in the shed that will do the job great

anyone who don't no what one is its just a mixer that water in pumped into it by a dosing pump and the mixed contents is displaced to the tank



now for keeping it cool what I was thinking was to rap a tube around the stirrer and run chilled water through it this would not be hard as I have a chest freezer right next to the tank all I need to do is drill a hole in the side of it and pass the tube in and back out and using a pump the cooling liquid would be pumped round the stirrer and temperature control would be done by changing the amount of pipe that’s in the freezer


next is lighting at the moment Im running two Orphek PR156 LED’s plus two TMC marine blue aquarays and one TMC red flexi led one thing is with NP corals they dont need light but we do to be able to see them and this is more blue and red then we are used to so I will be only using one of the Orphef PR156 and changing (swaping) the aquarays for or all blues and getting another TMC red flexi led

Well thats all for now

[james32]

Sounds great Neil, p.s I'm after some leds for my tank, but guessing your will be a bit of a overkill :/

[ReefDuckk]

Wow that's a different and unique approach that should be really good to follow
RD

[domayne69]

Can't wait to see how this developes. Didn't realise NPS were so colourful...should be stunning this!

[barracuda]

Very interesting build Neil and a very different approach.

will you be adding fish to this setup at all?

like the idea of drilling a hole through the freezer!

[Neil@coralworkshop]

Very interesting build Neil and a very different approach.

will you be adding fish to this setup at all?

like the idea of drilling a hole through the freezer!

thanks still chucking ideas around in my head and yes there will be fish as well and on this thinking about have a school of deep water anthias

[Neil@coralworkshop]

Very interesting build Neil and a very different approach.

will you be adding fish to this setup at all?

like the idea of drilling a hole through the freezer!

thanks still chucking ideas around in my head and yes there will be fish as well and on this thinking about deep water fish like a school of anthies

[Neil@coralworkshop]

a small update

Sold my marine white aquarays so have got some funds to do get a few bits

decided to mod my sump to run K1 bio media to deal with ammonia and nitrites will post a drawing later
and as Im not going to be growing algae I wont need to light the sump so going to have a cover on it this will give me some more space for placing equipment

as the corals dont need light most NPS run blue and red and as I have £1600 worth of LED lighting that is mainly white light and I dont want to sale them (at this time) I have decided to do a very easy mod to them to get the lighting colours that that I want and what I have done is using permanent blue, red marker pens is to shade in the acrylic covers on the lights again will post picks when done

more very soon

[JonnyReefGeek]

Wow this is very left field.... I Like! Watching with interest.

[MinerWilly]

You will probably know this already but there's a whole forum devoted to NPS here :

Azoox.org • Portal

I'm not sure how active it is, I haven't been on much since my failed, half-arsed NPS pico attempt.