100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

Hello everyone and sorry for the long absence, dental school is a lot of work! Tank has been on cruise control with no water change from the inception. I have also been keeping true to the bleach dosing schedule. The only inhabitant as of now is a possum wrasse.

Coral has been doing well and no loses so far. Colors are subdued due to an accidental bleaching caused by the light being stuck on, and no measurable NO3 or PO4. My plans for the livestock are to add 2 clownfish of some sort, that's probably it.

Here are some pics, I know it's not a good looking tank yet!! I went with some biodiversity in coral choices so I could see if this method would effect anything short term. I plan to trade out most of these with SPS frags. I was playing around with a fish eye as well so I apologize for the weird pictures.

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[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

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[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

I've also upgraded the stock return pump (211 gph) to the jebao dcs 2000 (520 gph), and added two random flow generator (RFG) nozzles from VCA. The jebao is LOUD but I'm hoping it will settle in. The flow in the tank is so much better and less linear now. Much less dead spots in the tank and the RFG create a wave action. Hopefully, this will help the SPS necrosis you can see in spots.

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[reefmutt]

SO far so good.. yes, corals do look a bit pale or browned out..
Still curious to watch the tank progress.

 

[Shark.Bait]

SO far so good.. yes, corals do look a bit pale or browned out..
Still curious to watch the tank progress.

Agreed, they're on their way back at least! I'm curious as well. Part of the problem is it being such a new tank that everything is still settling in and being tweaked.

 

[reefmutt]

Absolutely.. agreed. Your tank has a lot of maturing to do..

 

[Shark.Bait]

Did a bit of re-scaping. I'll be away from the tank for 6 weeks. Interested to see what it looks like when I get back!

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[Shark.Bait]

Finally back to my tank! Everything is looking good and the coral have grown. I haven't lost anything over the 6 week period.

I brought a lot of coral back.... I may have overpacked. Among the stock list are:
4 tridacna
A bunch of sps, acans and zoas
Aquaculture pair of clowns, watchman goby and pistol shrimp, 2 x blue line gobies, purple psudeochromis, Pom Pom crab.

Now to mount everything and let it grow!

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[zoa1988]

Finally back to my tank! Everything is looking good and the coral have grown. I haven't lost anything over the 6 week period.

I brought a lot of coral back.... I may have overpacked. Among the stock list are:
4 tridacna
A bunch of sps, acans and zoas
Aquaculture pair of clowns, watchman goby and pistol shrimp, 2 x blue line gobies, purple psudeochromis, Pom Pom crab.

Now to mount everything and let it grow!

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Nice build

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[DesertReefT4r]

Everything about adding bleach to a running living reef tank to me just screams NOOOooooooooo. A skimmer would really help the tank out especailly with little or no water changes. You need to remove that waste from the water and a skimmer is the best way to do that. I would highly recommend stopping the use of bleach asap, its basically chlorine and kills good things as well as bad. I just cant see it not stressing the corals every time its dosed. To each his own though. Good luck and happy reefing.
PS. Have you thought about doing a Triton water test?

 

[Shark.Bait]

Here's a small update. Not too much to report. I'm thinking about going bare bottom, or very close to it. Without a skimmer and with added carbon dosing I'm getting a lot of detritus. I think positioning the power head on the floor behind the rocks will help keep that suspended quite a bit. I'm just worried about my goby/ pistol shrimp combo. Thoughts on this?

Still trying to get used to the iPhone and learning how to take some good pics. Here's what I have for now

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[Shark.Bait]

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[Shark.Bait]

Everything about adding bleach to a running living reef tank to me just screams NOOOooooooooo. A skimmer would really help the tank out especailly with little or no water changes. You need to remove that waste from the water and a skimmer is the best way to do that. I would highly recommend stopping the use of bleach asap, its basically chlorine and kills good things as well as bad. I just cant see it not stressing the corals every time its dosed. To each his own though. Good luck and happy reefing.
PS. Have you thought about doing a Triton water test?

Triton water test is not out of the question but more in the sense to fill curiosity down the line.


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[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

Here's a few pics for an update. Since my last one I've added a piece of live rock and a few more corals. SPS are encrusting and growing and I'm happy with my little experiment so far. I haven't done a water change in months and I've been sticking to the bleach schedule.

I can say this is by far the easiest way I've kept a tank and grown SPS to date. The tank has an ATO, dosing pump, and is on a feeder. My only chores are simple... Once a week I clean the glass, rinse filter socks, and dose bleach. I change carbon bi-weekly. That's it!

At what point can you say that this experiment is successful? Well, short term I'd call it a success. I haven't had the tank up long enough to draw any long term conclusions.

I'm confident enough in the method to upgrade though! I'll be setting up an Innovative Marine SR-80 gallon tank and swapping over livestock this summer.

Any new thoughts or comments on the bleach, no skimmer, or no water changes? I'm interested to see if anyone has changed their mind or has any questions.

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[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

Orange passion

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[Shark.Bait]

Getting a little crowded

The new tank! Needs some elbow grease...

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[Shark.Bait]

 

[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

I haven't started a new thread yet but here's a little update on the new tank.

Most coral are looking really good, I left the tank for over a month without seeing it. I have a friend that fills the ATO reservoir once a month while I'm away. During that time my establish corals grew like crazy, while the new additions didn't really do much.

Besides that, I seem to have a GHA explosion besides having 0 detectable phosphate. Might have been due to problem with the auto feeder but working on getting that under control.

Still dosing my bleach and haven't changed any water yet.

 

[Shark.Bait]

100% Aquaculture, Bare Bones SPS Lagoon

Some more pics