SueT
Well-known member
the crash of my 180g. Once going through that was way more than enough for 1 person to have to go through in one lifetime. And I'm not being dramatic about that..
Low Tech SPS tank
- Thread starter redrooster
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bergzy
There is a doG!!!
this is the irony of reef keeping!
i have been struggling and i mean struggling to get my 180g sps tank to color up and get decent growth.
you name it, i had it...ozone, fluidized carbon filters, rowaphos filters, phosphate sponges, refugium, massive amounts of live rock for biofiltration (1500 pounds) and the list goes on and on and on...please put a lot of dollar signs after all this...
i finally went to full zeovit on my 180g and my sps' are finally coloring up and i am seeing great growth! whoohoo (a very hard earned whoohoo, i think)...
how in the heck is this a low tech topic?
ready?
my wife wanted, no, she insisted that i start a 110g zoo/ricordea tank as she loved zoos and rics...
how can one argue with that?
so i set up a 110g in the garage with the only thing high tech was a sump. i have a small euroreef es5-2 (puny in other words), an algae filter and pretty low flow with only a quiet one 4000 for a return and a seio 820 for circulation.
we have since collected and stocked it pretty full with zoo's, rics and 2 large anemones. i run no carbon, no ozone, no resins or filter pads of any kind, as barebones as bare bones can get.
it is lit with 2x250w de mh's that is placed way too close to the water surface (6 inches).
basically everything is set up for sps disaster.
i put in two sps' in for quarantine...an unknown purple aquacultured sps' and a bleached out pink stylo. my experience with aquacultured sps and wild sps is that they always brown out then slowly color up after a few months. not these guys...
the pink stylo has gained incredible color is almost to full coloration in the 3 weeks i have had it. the purple sps has intensified in color even more than when i got it.
there is a trick...
i do a 70g water change per week using old water from my 180g sps tank. in addition, the fresh salt water for my 180g is nsw i get from a research facility.
i am now a firm believer of low tech for sps. just keep your parameters in check, stable and one should be good to go!
i dont know what it is but the sps in my softie tank do much better than the sps in my dedicated sps tank. thus, the irony of my tanks!
i have been struggling and i mean struggling to get my 180g sps tank to color up and get decent growth.
you name it, i had it...ozone, fluidized carbon filters, rowaphos filters, phosphate sponges, refugium, massive amounts of live rock for biofiltration (1500 pounds) and the list goes on and on and on...please put a lot of dollar signs after all this...
i finally went to full zeovit on my 180g and my sps' are finally coloring up and i am seeing great growth! whoohoo (a very hard earned whoohoo, i think)...
how in the heck is this a low tech topic?
ready?
my wife wanted, no, she insisted that i start a 110g zoo/ricordea tank as she loved zoos and rics...
how can one argue with that?
so i set up a 110g in the garage with the only thing high tech was a sump. i have a small euroreef es5-2 (puny in other words), an algae filter and pretty low flow with only a quiet one 4000 for a return and a seio 820 for circulation.
we have since collected and stocked it pretty full with zoo's, rics and 2 large anemones. i run no carbon, no ozone, no resins or filter pads of any kind, as barebones as bare bones can get.
it is lit with 2x250w de mh's that is placed way too close to the water surface (6 inches).
basically everything is set up for sps disaster.
i put in two sps' in for quarantine...an unknown purple aquacultured sps' and a bleached out pink stylo. my experience with aquacultured sps and wild sps is that they always brown out then slowly color up after a few months. not these guys...
the pink stylo has gained incredible color is almost to full coloration in the 3 weeks i have had it. the purple sps has intensified in color even more than when i got it.
there is a trick...
i do a 70g water change per week using old water from my 180g sps tank. in addition, the fresh salt water for my 180g is nsw i get from a research facility.
i am now a firm believer of low tech for sps. just keep your parameters in check, stable and one should be good to go!
i dont know what it is but the sps in my softie tank do much better than the sps in my dedicated sps tank. thus, the irony of my tanks!
bergzy
There is a doG!!!
i also took my ca reactor offline! it was much more trouble than i cared for. i was always having my alk shoot up to 8, 9 even 10 to get my ca up to 430.
since my 180g is on zeo, it is recommended that alk be no higher than 8...thus, i found it much easier to just stop it.
i do very large weekly nsw changes (70g on a 195 total net volume) on my 180g and have nothing but great things to say about this. it has become a very low maintanence tank now as i rarely need to adjust ca and alk. when and if i do...i use kent's turbo calcium and seachem reef buffer.
i guess my 180g is also low tech (well, except the zeo part anyway!
)!
Last edited:
redrooster
Landshark
I've had my acro's ( only 2 of them) a little over 2 months now and I am not seeing much growth but they colors are extrordinary. Even if my growth is very slow I'll be happy to keep them healty and well colored. My Montipora danae is growing slowly but steadily, that I've had about a year. It is honestly the best color coral I have seen in person EVER. And my dad worked at the John G Sheed Aqaurium for 5 years so that says something. It is the color of a red LED light under any lighting type and the piece is 6" x 9" So so far is guess I would say low tech for me is a slow a steady wins the race approach. I would like to get at least a drilled tank with a sump though!
SueT
Well-known member
This is such a great thread. Shows that keeping sps corals doesn't have to be rocket science. All the high tech gadgets are out there and some use them and thats fine but it's the low tech tanks that seem to be doing the best. I don't forsee anything new on mine except for light bulbs switch outs and cleaning what I already have.
DonW
R.I.P.
I'd say young low consumptions tanks are doing well. I do think there are some gizmos like ca reactors that become almost manditory as a tank ages. I dont see a carx as a high tech gizmo..Most if not all carx problems are caused by their owner, improper set-up or just plain poorly designed reactors.
We also see so much over kill in this hobby. Crazy huge reactors installed on reletivly small tanks 200g and less with almost no ca consumption. Folks jump into the hobby with their credit card and dreams of that sps tanks like SueT's old 180. They fire up that shiny new $500 carx and have nothing but problems exactly as Bergzy described.
If a tank can be maintained with weekly water changes a carx is not needed and will just be a headache. If a tank can be maintained with kalk alone a carx is again not needed. Once consupmtion gets high enough to really need a reactor is where benefits start being realized.
There is really no reason for a properly sized, set-up and properly regulated quality reactor to be anything less than a benefit.
Don
kevinpo
Expert
Here are some shots of a 125 gallon tank with just a 30 gallon sump. No skimmer, or filtration. I changed 18 gallons of water a week with RO/DI and salt. Calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium were dosed manually. All the corals except one were 1-3" frags that were captive grown. This tank is just over 2.5 years old. Many of the corals have been fragged several times.
Long term this is not really a cost effective way to maintain a SPS tank for the average reefkeeper. For a store that has saltwater always on hand and buys in bulk/wholesale it's much cheaper than the average hobbyist would have to pay.
There are many ways to achieve the same results in this hobby. You just need to research so you can properly apply and find the ones that fit your needs.
Regards,
Kevin
Long term this is not really a cost effective way to maintain a SPS tank for the average reefkeeper. For a store that has saltwater always on hand and buys in bulk/wholesale it's much cheaper than the average hobbyist would have to pay.
There are many ways to achieve the same results in this hobby. You just need to research so you can properly apply and find the ones that fit your needs.
Regards,
Kevin
kevinpo
Expert
The lighting is a 36" PFO Professional Series fixture with 2 - 400W Reeflux 10,000K bulbs driven by a dual PFO HQI ballast. It also has 2 - 95W URI actinic VHO's.
Regards,
Kevin
Regards,
Kevin
spongebob lover
flea whisperer
wwoouu dood thats a very nice tank .
.SueT
Well-known member
Good grief Kevin, thats just simply amazing.
Don, the sad thing in my mess was the guy that built the reactor said to himself when I approached him about building me one, he is in the acrylic biz here in Houston, that at first he was concerned about making me a reactor and something happening and it crashing my tank. He said he'd be right there to help me dial it in but when I started having problems he stopped answering his phone. Just goes to show with what little I understood about them I should of known what to do. I was all over the internet trying to find out what was going on but still couldn't fix it.
Don, the sad thing in my mess was the guy that built the reactor said to himself when I approached him about building me one, he is in the acrylic biz here in Houston, that at first he was concerned about making me a reactor and something happening and it crashing my tank. He said he'd be right there to help me dial it in but when I started having problems he stopped answering his phone. Just goes to show with what little I understood about them I should of known what to do. I was all over the internet trying to find out what was going on but still couldn't fix it.
