ATS for 120 Reef

[Floyd R Turbo]

Ok, I sold a couple of big rocks that were covered with Xenia and Anthelia. So this is mainly a tank update to show everyone this mixed-reef tank, scrubber going on 8 months. Keep in mind I had to move the entire setup into this tank about 1 month ago, and had to tear it down 3 days later and fix the stand then set it all back up again. Lost 1 fish (small yellowtail blue damsel was eaten by the banded jawfish) and only one Zoa that doesn't look so good, a few other things recovering from prolonged out-of water time (oops).













































Top of tank scrubber



Intake basket





Far side drain



Super-ultra ghetto bubble reducer mod: removed PVC drain and cut 1L bottle to act as a splashguard and drain water guide, then added the mega ultra-high-tech 2L bottle bubble trap and diffuser system



The 2L bottle will soon be replaced with something like a box made from egg crate with some bio-balls in to break up the water from the scrubber and trap bubbles. I just haven't had the time, and this works fine for now. Found the Banded Jawfish trapped in the 2L bottle yesterday though. That was pretty funny.

Anyways, here's the near-drain, which still has the PVC in it so this is a 'high' drain, and as you can (maybe) see it only starts draining very slowly after about day 4 or 5, by day 7 it's going pretty good.



If you can tell, this is day 4 and the bottom inch or so is 3D



Top of screen



Shot of the 'low' drain

[SantaMonica]

I'm gonna have to try some xenia again....

[Floyd R Turbo]

Keep in mind that this tank appears to be N limited. P hits a floor of about 0.09 and is usually no lower than 0.13. Going to start dosing N, got my stuff from aquarium fertilizer that you recommended, but I don't know how much to dose (did not come with instructions)

[SantaMonica]

Well the P I got from them was extremely powerful... one spoonful put the 100 gal at P = 1.0 for over 6 months.

[Floyd R Turbo]

You want some Xenia? I've heard they don't ship well but I want to rid this tank of them completely and I can't seem to give these away. I heard they don't ship well but I've got to frag some for another guy and put them on rubble rock so you can be my test-shipper

Back to the tank, I have been dealing with a recurring issue. The 2 Frogspawns, the Branching Hammer, and the ORA Green Birdsnest have been clamping up. This is a problem that came up before when it was in the original tank. Having been able to see the tank dynamics day to day, I have noticed a definitive pattern.

When I move the entire system, and was just hanging the screen in the tank to keep it alive, everything opened up huge, more than in months. the N went up to 5 or so in that week, and P went up to about 0.63. I installed the scrubber, and within 2 weeks they started clamping up again. N=0 and P=0.09-0.16 (bottomed out).

What I noticed is that within a day or so of cleaning the screen, they start to open up again. They get to the point where they are about 1/2 way fully open about 3 or 4 days after screen cleaning, then start to go backwards. By the end of the week, they are fully clamped up. I just cleaned the screen for the 4th time so I've had the tank setup running for about 6 weeks and this is a definite pattern related to scrubber cleaning.

When I cleaned off the screen this time, I did it very thoroughly. I tried to remove all red algae and leave only what is in the squares behind.

Other SPS/LPS have zero issues. Any thoughts?

[SantaMonica]

Well it's the first time I've heard of the opening-closing pattern, but it does coincide with the known pattern of nutrient spikes after cleaning the whole screen. Maybe if you can clean just half the screen each time and see if anything changes.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Well, that might be the case if they were closing up after cleaning the screen. They are opening up after cleaning the screen. As if they like the additional nutrients? In fact, they look better today, and I just cleaned the screen last night. It's as if something that builds up on the algae screen is irritating to them. Or maybe it's the amount of 3D growth and a lowering of O2 or something?

[SantaMonica]

It's the nutrients; they go up after a cleaning. Works good for softies. No reasoning on the birdsnet, though.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Maybe this is something I'm not getting about corals then. Frogspawn and Branching Hammer are LPS. I thought LPS liked cleaner water i.e. low nutrients?

[Ace25]

Maybe this is something I'm not getting about corals then. Frogspawn and Branching Hammer are LPS. I thought LPS liked cleaner water i.e. low nutrients?

Honestly, I think that is a complete myth and I have no idea how or why it started.... corals liking cleaner water. If I were to guess I would say that when saying came out (70's/80's) the concept of "cleaner water" was much different than today. Now we know SPS corals like the most nutrient rich water, and actually consume more food from the water than any other type of coral. Maybe back in the 70's when people said "cleaner water" they meant something along the lines of RO/DI water vs Tap water and also no ammonia/nitrites and low nitrates (under 100) and low phosphates (under 2.5). Today those things are a given and almost any properly running tank will have good RO/DI water to start with, no ammonia or nitrites, and very low Nitrates (under 10)/Phosphates (under .1) compared to 30+ years ago. Just my thoughts on the matter.