First post

[nsinner8]

Hi everyone, I thought with my first post I'd introduce myself and state my plans for the tank I'm setting up.
This isn't my first try at ATS, I ran one for about 6 months on a reef tank that unfortunatly I had to break down due to circumstances beyond my control. It was a simple waterfall type setup above my sump, very getto, but it was only a tester. It was set up just about long enough to see the possabilities, then life got in the way.
The new tank will be a 18x18 cube, it will have a sump, but I haven't decided on the size yet, perhaps 20g perhaps larger.
This will be a dedicated NPS tank, as it will be low light, algae in the DT shouldn't be a problem, but with the amount of food needing to be fed, No3 and Po4 will be a battle. I believe an ATS will be the best way to keep inorganics to a minimum, and the pod production will be a plus. Also in the sump I'll be using Miracle Mud or similar substrate. I know there is alot of controversy over this stuff, but one thing the cheerleaders and flames agree on, is pod production. Pods, and pod larvae make great coral food. The idea is overnight I would like to get a large amount of live food comming into the DT, to sustain my corals until morning feeding. I hope in this way to only have to feed during the day, which will help control inorganics, which leads me to the second part of my post, namely me asking questions.
SantaMonica
I read your thread on constant feeding your 100g tank and it gave me a few ideas, but I need some info before I move ahead.
Can you tell me the size of the screen you were using on this tank ?
Was that measured by the old way ( tank gals ) or amount of feeding?
Approx how much in cube size were you feeding, when you noticed the ATS couldn't keep up ?
Are you still running this tank ? is it the same set up?

You had mentioned in the thread that the screen was normal size, as the tank it about 4x the size as the one I'm setting up, I believe it may be about what I'm looking for, and my feed rate may very well be close to what you were feeding.
To begin with I plan on relatively easy ( NPS easy ) LPS corals, Tubastrea, Denro, Rhizo ( if I can find one )
These guys can be fed, pellets, mysis, or other meaty foods. And if you broadcast feed everyday, you only have to spot feed every 2-3 days, depending on the coral. At first I'll be manualy feeding, untill I can get a dependable fish feeder, for the dry food. And later a doser for liquid food. At this point I'll add some more difficult corals.
It seems recently some good lines of NPS food have come out, I've always liked these corals, but never attemted to have an exclucive tank for them, but now with the new foods, perhaps its possable.
I plan on feeding a mixture of the FM powder and pellets for the dry food and Reef Nutrition for live food.
From what I understand Carnations only eat Pyto, and the size has yet to be determined, so these guys will be a challenge, but some are having success, so in the future they may end up in the tank as well.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

One thing with mud, just like with waste settling in the sump, is a possible increase in P from particles getting stuck there. And even more so with heavy feeding. You'll need a good CUC there to break up the particles, but then they might eat the pods too.

I'm using two 10-cube scrubbers. I peaked at a calculated-amount of 72 cubes a day, but went back down to 36 at that time, which worked for a while.

The way to think about coral feeding, especially NPS, is to pretend that the tank is not even there. It's just food in --> scrubber out. The more you can scrub, the more you can feed. Even at 72 cubes, it's only half of a normal reef. A well-fed NPS should be a giant scrubber with a small place for corals. That's how the ocean is: 90 percent of the biomass is algae, and the vast majority of the remaining 10 percent is zooplankton. Corals and fish are way way less than 1 percent.

[nsinner8]

Thanks SantaMonica, I'm going to have to give the mud some more thought, and look deeper into the possible problems.
I understand what you're saying about the ocean , algea with fish/corals only being a small part. I think along the same lines, which is why I haven't nailed down a sump size yet.
I believe you were having success as far as corals are concerned, feeding your 72 cubes a day, other than the scrubber not keeping up.
Some NPS corals wont even show a feeding responce until there is a certain amout of food in the water, what I wanted to do was mimic the food density in the water column that you had, so with the tank being 1/4 the size that would be about 18 cubes/day.
I think this is much more than others who have been successful with NPS have been feeding, so its just a matter of food the coral recognizes as food, and particle size.
As you stated in your thread, we have to work up to these levels, if I was to make 2- 10 cube screens as you have now, but only install one, and light it one side, would that work as a 5 cube screen to start ? or perhaps would a 5 cube screen be better, and add the larger screen as the tank feedings grow?

[SantaMonica]

You'll need to have two screens running from the beginning to prevent spikes. So you may as well have two 10's. Or one 10 with a split screen.

If I did an NPS tank I would not even have a sump. Probably would do a bare bottom with powerheads pointed straight down. Seal off most of the top of the tank, and there would be almost no evaporation.

[nsinner8]

Thanks SantaMonica, I've given this some thought, and I believe the best way to start is with a 10 cube split screen. I plan on making an LED scrubber, is it still 1- 3w led per 4 sq inch ? If so then a 15 x 8 screen would use 8- 3w led's per side on a 2 sided screen ?

I pretty much need to go with a sump to hide all the equipment, the tank will be a rimless cube, and will be in the living room. So aesthetics is important.

[SantaMonica]

I think one lambertian 120 degree 3w @ 2 inches can cover a 3 X 3 section (if no light escapes) when there is no growth, but when growth gets thick you could double it.

A 15 X 8 = 120 could indeed eventually use 48 total LED watts, but maybe you could put them on two drivers so as to be able to just start with half (and it will be redundant too)