FarmerTy 215-gal No Water Change SPS Tank

In the beginning I was concerned with flow and had 2 MP40's and 2 WP 45's on a jbjwave box. As I was getting everything dialed in, I would notice that everything was encrusting well but not going vertical. I had always suspected it to be due to too much flow. I just recently decided to turn off the jebao's and let my MP40's handle the flow in the tank. So far, all of my PE is about the same so that's mean nothing has changed in my corals reaction to the flow. Fingers crossed to some vertical growth soon!!!
 
I tend to follow the "if your sand isn't moving, you could stand to increase flow" philosophy.


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Jndragon79 said:
In the beginning I was concerned with flow and had 2 MP40's and 2 WP 45's on a jbjwave box. As I was getting everything dialed in, I would notice that everything was encrusting well but not going vertical. I had always suspected it to be due to too much flow. I just recently decided to turn off the jebao's and let my MP40's handle the flow in the tank. So far, all of my PE is about the same so that's mean nothing has changed in my corals reaction to the flow. Fingers crossed to some vertical growth soon!!!
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Strong flow gives you pretty decent tabling effects as well on acros that table out. But yeah, it can stymie some vertical growth.
Bpb said:
I tend to follow the "if your sand isn't moving, you could stand to increase flow" philosophy.


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I'm of the same philosophy... Just barely enough that I don't have bald spots but enough to see sand move around every once in awhile.
 
Do you buy frags or mini colonies and if how long does it take you from a frag to a colony ?


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jakub said:
Do you buy frags or mini colonies and if how long does it take you from a frag to a colony ?


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Some are mariculture colonies and some are homegrown. I think everything I put on the new 'scape is homegrown except 4 colonies. That's 1/4 that is mariculture and 3/4 homegrown from a frag.

Depends on the species. The red planet, Red Robin Stag, and purple bonsai grow quick and you can grow a colony within a year or 2, whereas the Oregon tort colony took me 5-6 years to grow to that size, granted I do frag it a lot.
 
Bulldog88 said:
I'm going to try and follow the same no water change philosophy. Tank looks amazing, your angels don't bother any coral?
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The potters angel is the worst with nipping but there isn't usually any damage from any of the angels, other than the emperor who used to straight up eat the Hawkins Echinata on occasion. It was so infrequent that the coral grew just fine. Zoas and LPS on the other hand, all bets are off.

Are you employing media reactors? calcium reactor? Large skimmer?
 
Got happy snapping pictures in the frag tank:

Goni with some real potential
ee23fdc5f6a350468b80725ec565565e.jpg


Random tenius
b08f21fd4c48507b2026290bec8c96ec.jpg


Sexy Corals Orange Passion
b430c80ceeeff3592ea0f5200432ba78.jpg


Random frag
03a94728bf61eff3efd75c681d5961ce.jpg


Another random frag
07314a91a44269c498d7318426acabea.jpg
 
FarmerTy said:
The potters angel is the worst with nipping but there isn't usually any damage from any of the angels, other than the emperor who used to straight up eat the Hawkins Echinata on occasion. It was so infrequent that the coral grew just fine. Zoas and LPS on the other hand, all bets are off.

Are you employing media reactors? calcium reactor? Large skimmer?
Click to expand...


In my 120g build, I have a Regal octo 3000int skimmer and I'm planning on using a Calcium reactor as well as a cheato reactor. Hopefully the stick and clams will consume the nitrates.

Do you think you would have introduced your regal or potters angels in your tank if it was mostly frags?
 
Bulldog88 said:
In my 120g build, I have a Regal octo 3000int skimmer and I'm planning on using a Calcium reactor as well as a cheato reactor. Hopefully the stick and clams will consume the nitrates.

Do you think you would have introduced your regal or potters angels in your tank if it was mostly frags?
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Nice setup! Hopefully the chaeto combined with uptake via corals and clams will address any nutrient issues. Just monitor nitrate and phosphate and and adjust accordingly but it seems like you have a good plan moving forward.

I always have a mix of colonies and frags in my tank so I don't think it really matters. It comes down to personality honestly, despite how much you feed. Some just like to nip but when you have more coral mass, the nipping is spread out. I honestly never had any bad effects from the occasional nipping.
 
FarmerTy said:
Nice setup! Hopefully the chaeto combined with uptake via corals and clams will address any nutrient issues. Just monitor nitrate and phosphate and and adjust accordingly but it seems like you have a good plan moving forward.

I always have a mix of colonies and frags in my tank so I don't think it really matters. It comes down to personality honestly, despite how much you feed. Some just like to nip but when you have more coral mass, the nipping is spread out. I honestly never had any bad effects from the occasional nipping.
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Thanks man, that's the plan a more natural approach to see where that leads. You hear so many horror stories of ULN tanks being wiped out by not addressing an issue correctly with aquaforest or Zeovit. But you some tanks that have been literal tanks lol like Sanjays etc that don't take ULN approach and withstand changes in their system.
 
Bulldog88 said:
Thanks man, that's the plan a more natural approach to see where that leads. You hear so many horror stories of ULN tanks being wiped out by not addressing an issue correctly with aquaforest or Zeovit. But you some tanks that have been literal tanks lol like Sanjays etc that don't take ULN approach and withstand changes in their system.
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I think Aquaforest and Zeovit users enjoy tinkering. Its just a dangerous line if you screw up, and with both systems, it seems there are just enough additives to do that. More variables equals more opportunity to mess something up in my opinion.

At worst, I don't top off my biopellets and my nitrates slightly go up or if I don't replace my GFO media, phosphates slightly go up. Neither will have catastrophic tank-wide dieoffs as you should notice in your corals when some are not happy with the increasing nutrient levels.

There are a million ways to run a tank, just make sure foundation elements are being replenished and nutrient levels ideal and the rest will take care of itself.
 
I feel like with a calcium reactor it buys you a lot more time on no water changes. I feel like those who just dose soda ash and calcium chloride, or use kalkwasser alone are the ones that will really start to run into minor element imbalances. Water changes for nutrient export is a fools errand. You'll never keep up. But they can help supply a steady balanced minor element profile, even if it's in small percentages that way you never drop to zero in something


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Bpb said:
I feel like with a calcium reactor it buys you a lot more time on no water changes. I feel like those who just dose soda ash and calcium chloride, or use kalkwasser alone are the ones that will really start to run into minor element imbalances. Water changes for nutrient export is a fools errand. You'll never keep up. But they can help supply a steady balanced minor element profile, even if it's in small percentages that way you never drop to zero in something


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Click to expand...
You bring up a great point. Out of the 7 years of doing this over 3 systems, the last two years I starting keying in that the CaRX may be the most critical part of my no water change routine.
 
Bpb said:
I feel like with a calcium reactor it buys you a lot more time on no water changes. I feel like those who just dose soda ash and calcium chloride, or use kalkwasser alone are the ones that will really start to run into minor element imbalances. Water changes for nutrient export is a fools errand. You'll never keep up. But they can help supply a steady balanced minor element profile, even if it's in small percentages that way you never drop to zero in something
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Click to expand...

Very good point...
 
I would agree with having a calcium reactor being crucial. I run a grow out tank that does not have a reactor and I can see the swings affect my frags at times. now I'm looking for a reactor but on a budget.

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Enjoyed your last video, and those are some sweet looking frags! I gotta find a SC orange passion some day.
 
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