ADA 120-P + Elos Mini dual NPS tank journal

[uhuru]

Ethan,

I am using a basic 2x4 stand that I'm going to skin later to make it look more modern. I'm thinking of doing sliding doors. I've seen it on one of the builds on RC before just have to find it.

Have you guys seen the movie IMAX UNDER THE SEA? If not, go out and rent or buy it! I liked it so much I might have to buy it. The imagery is unbelievable. A lot of azooxanthellae stuff. And man, the Dendronephthya and Scleronephthya corals get HUGE. The Dendronephthya especially are everywhere. Like right alongside the huge SPS colonies. Tons of gorgs (I think) hanging upside down. Monster crinoid feather stars that wouldn't even fit in one of our tanks. Just amazing.

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[uhuru]

This is a makeshift food reactor I've been using:

It's very simple. An air pump keeps the food suspended and a peristaltic pump pulls the food from the reactor into the tank. It is non-chilled so the major drawback with this is that it is only good for 12 hours MAX. It starts to get cloudy and will foul up the water fast after that. Additionally, I have found that it's a good idea at least for my tank to not dose the food for about 8-12 hrs per day, giving the filtration (skimmer and ozone) a chance to clean up the water again. I know this is not ideal, but without giving the tank time to "recover" from the feeding you will otherwise have to make a significant water change on a daily basis.

The other issue is the air pump is not enough to keep everything from settling. If a stronger air pump and a diffuser or some sort could be added that directed the air bubbles evenly over the bottom that would probably solve it.

Both of these issues I believe we can solve in time and I'm hopeful that we are going to figure something out soon that will allow more people to keep these corals without having to manually feed the tank every time they walk by. A lot of times I get pretty tired of it too. Also, this will be a complete "under the cabinet" solution for feeding NPS tanks so it will not detract from having the tank set up in the living room as part of the furniture which is the case for many reef keepers.

I have stopped continuously dosing Roti-Feast due to the expenses getting too high. I still dose Shellfish Diet continuously, and I dose Roti-Feast and Oyster-Feast manually, but not with a syringe pump 24/7. With the reactor I've been using I haven't had to do nearly as much manual feeding. I mostly just feed the LPS corals once a day and squirt some cyclopeeze and nutramar ova at everything 4-5 times a day if that.

 

[flying_dutchman]

Why not drill a hole and put an iceprobe chiller in the reactor? Maybe put some foam around it for isolation.

For the airpump maybe get something like this?:

Foster & Smith sells it as a "bubble disk"

 

[Luca_]

Dendronephthya & Scleronephthya food mix:

This food is very thick and does not settle, even after a week. I use a lot of Ultra Pac. As time goes on the food does become a little less viscous, probably because the bacteria are breaking down the Ultra Pac and water is released. I could even dose this with a syringe pump if I wanted to but it is so potent I feel it is safer to dose it manually in very small amounts throughout the day. I leave it out at room temp, but as summer approaches I may start keeping it refrigerated. Lasts about 1 week. Some people would say it stinks but it has become a familiar smell in this house that I've grown to appreciate I know I'm a crazy reefer!

Zooplankton food mix:

Almost everything in the tank eats this. Even the LPS corals. I mix this fresh daily. This is what I plan to dose through an automatic "chilled food reactor" in the future. This mix provides a "surge" of food that circulates through the tank every hour or so. It is largely responsible for keeping most of the corals happy and extended throughout the day. IMO an automatic food reactor that will allow for surges of food to be dosed throughout the day, 24/7, while keeping the food from going bad for at least 3 days, will be the final piece of the puzzle for the feeding challenges of an NPS tank and allow for many reefers to find success.

CRI (Constant Rate Infusion) food:

Finally I dose Shellfish Diet and Roti-Feast through 2 separate syringe pumps. This is based on the work of Chuck Stottlemire and "aninjaatemyshoe." This is the "constant rate infusion" portion of my feeding regimen. This provides the steady, moderate concentration of food in the water that feeds the microfauna, corals and other inverts in the tank 24/7. Whenever I have to leave town for a few days, or if I get extremely busy this is the only thing that gets dosed.

Ciao uhuru, reading your post I found this interesting parts on food. I have never seen those products before, could you tell me what kind of products are they? Do you dose them directly in the tank and how much per day?

 

[uhuru]

Hello Luca, Roti-Feast is made by Reef Nutrition while Shellfish Diet is made by Reed Mariculture. Both products can be purchased from the same company I know some of the sponsors here sell them but I don't know about international.

Roti-Feast is a very concentrated solution of rotifers with some additives that allow the food to stay suspended in solution. This allows you to dose the food using a syringe pump. Shellfish diet is pure, super dense microalgae. It is very thick, like syrup and also stays suspended in solution making it easy to dose with a syringe pump. For Roti-Feast I was dosing 1.10mL/hr, and for Shellfish Diet 0.40 mL/hr continuously 24/7. Right now I am looking at alternatives to continuous dosing of Roti-Feast because it is too expensive.

 

[uhuru]

Why not drill a hole and put an iceprobe chiller in the reactor? Maybe put some foam around it for isolation.

For the airpump maybe get something like this?:

Foster & Smith sells it as a "bubble disk"

The chilling part of the reactor I think has been solved - hopefully we can see within the next week or so how it works out.

The bubble disk idea looks interesting I'll have to look into that further as well. I was thinking even a rigid airline tube with holes drilled in it and pointed towards the bottom might work.

 

[oldreefer76]

the bubble disk will definitely keep everything in suspension and is a great idea, I can't wait to see the chiller idea you told me about today and how it works out

 

[Luca_]

Thank you for the information!

 

[herring_fish]

Referring to the reactor issue below:
I haven't tried it yet but I bought a 6 inch funnel from Grangers to under 3 dollars and glued it to the bottom of my 6 inch tube. I will feed the air line from the top so that I can manually move it around and tune it for best results. I think that if the air is introduced right at the bottom of the funnel, it should keep everything will mixed.

Actually, I am setting this up to grow artemia so I have an exit tube at the bottom of the funnel to draw off the water. I want to use some powders that have been formulated for me so I expect settling. The air line will hopefully keep a good bit of the food suspended but what can't stay in the water column can be drawn off before it can to do much fouling.

In your case, you could cut of most of the nipple at the bottom of the funnel and put silicon in the hole to make it a cone. You could place the con in the bottom of the reactor and seal off the top of the cone with silicon so that water can't leak around the funnel.


I quickly drew up what I am talking about. The fist one is my artemia tower at a smaller scale. The one on the right is what I though might help keep more food suspended. The point where the air would be introduced is not shown but would be at the bottom of the cone.

 

[uhuru]

Thanks for the diagram and explanation herring fish. I may mess around with some ideas when I have more time this summer. Speaking of summer - I'm getting a little worried. I need to simplify this hobby. I'm going to be doing some traveling due to externships and such, and need to make everything "so easy a cave man could do it."

Oddly enough it's not really the corals I'm worried about because the food reactor even as I have it now DOES WORK - even the LPS can eat and survive on the food that gets dosed for extended periods of time. It just needs cleaning and replenishing every 12 hrs. or so.

What I'm worried about are the fishes. My butt head angler still only eats live shrimp. My OSFF requires multiple feeding throughout the day, and as such, also requires lots of water changes in his tank. I'm considering selling off or giving away my difficult fish, but it breaks my heart to think about it right now. What to do, what to do...

 

[flying_dutchman]

I hear ya, I really want to setup a NPS system now, but traveling this summer for two months won't make that happen.
Maybe a reefing buddy can keep them for you while your away?

 

[flying_dutchman]

also, can't you just setup a tank for the feeder shrimp? Feeding the angler would be as easy as to scoop out a shrimp and throw it in the tank twice a week.

 

[DFason]

I'll take the OSFF and put him in the new macro tank

-Dave

 

[uhuru]

also, can't you just setup a tank for the feeder shrimp? Feeding the angler would be as easy as to scoop out a shrimp and throw it in the tank twice a week.

Yes that is what I do now (I have a little 5g tank and keep about 1 week's supply of ghost shrimp in there). It sounds easy to us to catch a shrimp and throw it in another tank but my parents will be house sitting for me and to them it would be quite a challenge. I might just pick up a few SW shrimp and throw them in the tank before I go. My frogfish is a little strange in that he doesn't eat more than 1 shrimp at a time, then has to poop before going for another - so the chance of him overeating is pretty slim.

I think the OSFF will be ok too once I get an automatic water changing system set up (which I've been wanting to do anyway). He eats flakes and pellets so he'll be good as far as feeding is concerned. Sorry Dave! Of course there is the risk of something going wrong with the water changer while I'm gone but it's a risk I have to live with.

I'll probably ask a reefer to come by a few times a week just to make sure everything is running ok.

I need to decide on a reef filler dual head pump to do the water changes or the litermeter 3 automatic water changer (more expensive).

 

[DBarsotti]

This tank is AWESOME! nice work!
Almost makes me wanna get rid of my sps.. almost:lol2:

 

[uhuru]

LOL, eventually we'll be able to push you over the edge DBarsotti

I just wanted to share this website:

http://www.aquariumdesigngroup.com/index2.php?v=v1

These guys do some sick installations! They were taught by Takashi Amano the founder of ADA. If you look in their reef tank gallery, they have an ADA 120-P with overflow which is the exact same tank I have. Looks really nice.

 

[dainiusiva]

ohh,the famous aquarium design group they hooked me onto aquariums a few years ago

 

[flying_dutchman]

Did you ever write the nTOTM article?

 

[uhuru]

Yes I guess I forgot to link it here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1845922

 

[uhuru]

Sorry for the poor quality of this video, and the dirty glass (I hadn't cleaned it for a week when I took this). Just a quick one of my frogfish catching a small ghost shrimp. You might have to replay it a few times to see it

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