Any “Top of the line" GAC and GFO free SPS tank?

therman said:
Tim is a relic of reefkeeping history who only rarely rears his ugly head on forums and hassles Jeremy at Premium Aquatics for equipment ;)

He has had a reef system running for the past 8 years again, 8x longer than this Sang guy has ever kept a tank running without tearing down and selling everything...
Click to expand...

Haha you know me well dude!:p
 
IMO, Iwasakis and Radiums are the two best SPS bulbs, I often imagine what it would be like to have them side by side in the same reflector.

I've decided to set up a low tech tank and hopefully relive some of the good ol days with easy SPS success.

Also hoping this light will give be the best of both worlds, adjusting spectrum between 20k and 65k throughout the day.

Kinda excited, wish me luck!
 

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mellotang said:
IMO, Iwasakis and Radiums are the two best SPS bulbs, I often imagine what it would be like to have them side by side in the same reflector.

I've decided to set up a low tech tank and hopefully relive some of the good ol days with easy SPS success.

Also hoping this light will give be the best of both worlds, adjusting spectrum between 20k and 65k throughout the day.

Kinda excited, wish me luck!
Click to expand...

I did that 15 years ago. Two 400w Iwasaki and two 400w Radium over a 180g SPS reef. It was lovely. Corals frags grew from 2" to 20" in 2.5 years with excellent color. Coral growth increased significantly when I bumped alk from 8 to 10 dkh. At one point, I had to slow coral growth because it was getting out of control. Lowered alk to 7.5 dkh to help with slowing growth.
 
All kinds of old-timers in here. I remember Therman's reef tank as well, it was definitely one of the nicest I had ever seen. I think I received frags via Los? Phillstone? that came from your tank:)

I have a newer (September 2013) 120g acro tank that is running with an 8-bulb T5 fixture that Jeremy hooked me up with. The 15 or so frags are growing, but the polyp extension has been poor on a couple that were hairy as can be. I found this thread searching and decided to remove the bag of GFO that was in my sump.

I don't have any fish that are picking at the frags, but I do have some green fuzzy algae that is on the rocks. I added additional clean up crew in hopes to eradicate this algae, but was running GFO as well. Not sure what is fueling the algae beside light as nitrate is zero and phosphate is .02. Either way, I think occasional use is probably OK, but they aren't to be relied on as the only fix.
 
Hey Nanook! I think you did receive some frags via Los and Philliam. Don't still have any of them do you? :)

I looked back through some old photos the other night and couldn't believe the variety of SPS I managed to acquire in 2001. 5 years later they all started getting fancy names and price tags to match. I may start a thread and start posting them just for the heck of it.

You can clearly see there is no shortage of algae in that system ;) Corals loved it though.
 
Hey Nanook! I think you did receive some frags via Los and Philliam. Don't still have any of them do you? :)

I looked back through some old photos the other night and couldn't believe the variety of SPS I managed to acquire in 2001. 5 years later they all started getting fancy names and price tags to match. I may start a thread and start posting them just for the heck of it.

You can clearly see there is no shortage of algae in that system ;) Corals loved it though.
 
Hey Tim,

Since we had talked over the last week I had looked for some pictures of your tank. It's nice to see a few.

On the topic.............I never used GFO and carbon for over 10+ years of keeping Sps. I'd occasionally run GFO for a week or two, but that's about it.

With my smaller tank and T5s I do run carbon passively in a bag.

I vinegar dosed for 2+ years of late, but stopped almost 3 months back when I updated my skimmer.

I have never really changed anything over all this time although I have been active and seen all these additives ect. come and go. I still run the basic Berlin method.
 
therman said:
Hey Nanook! I think you did receive some frags via Los and Philliam. Don't still have any of them do you? :)

I looked back through some old photos the other night and couldn't believe the variety of SPS I managed to acquire in 2001. 5 years later they all started getting fancy names and price tags to match. I may start a thread and start posting them just for the heck of it.

You can clearly see there is no shortage of algae in that system ;) Corals loved it though.
Click to expand...


I think still have a few corals from Carlos and Phill:) Phil was the first person I visited with a tank ful of sps. He also sent me home with a box full of free sps. Oldies but goodies. What a glorious day it was.
 
I have tried GFO a few times and got dead clams and STN for it. For some reason my tank is very sensitive to excess iron levels and GFO is a no-go for me. I have not had issues with keeping phosphates low even without it, I have used various carbon dosing systems with varying degrees of success but I have been very stable now for the better part of a year with NP biopellets and now All-in-one biopellets. If the all-in-one pellets contain some sort of GFO it gets skimmed out immediately.

GFO can easily be overdosed, and other than the "Too low nutrient" issues others have spoke about here, too much Iron can trigger STN in a carbon dosed tank in my experience.

My tank - All in one biopellets and a big skimmer only:
picture.php
 
I have never used GFO in any of my tanks. I will use GAC if I am treating for something, like red bugs, but not as part of my normal,operation. I believe things should be a simple as possible. My system is high flow and an oversized skimmer with 10% water changes once a week for filtration.
 
mhucasey said:
I have tried GFO a few times and got dead clams and STN for it. For some reason my tank is very sensitive to excess iron levels and GFO is a no-go for me. I have not had issues with keeping phosphates low even without it, I have used various carbon dosing systems with varying degrees of success but I have been very stable now for the better part of a year with NP biopellets and now All-in-one biopellets. If the all-in-one pellets contain some sort of GFO it gets skimmed out immediately.

GFO can easily be overdosed, and other than the "Too low nutrient" issues others have spoke about here, too much Iron can trigger STN in a carbon dosed tank in my experience.

My tank - All in one biopellets and a big skimmer only:
picture.php
Click to expand...

Thanks for your post. Your tanks looks really nice. :beer:
 
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