Let's talk about water quality in an SPS tank.

[JB NY]

JB NY,

I dont get it.. how come you dont have any filter sock... then how r u going to filter away those particular in your tank..??

I don't know. I never understand why people have filter socks in their tank. In my tank, if I look hard, there is some particulate mater floating around in the there. But nothing that you could notice unless you really looking for it.

As G-money just wrote, baffles in the sump should be able to remove any micro bubbles and the skimmer should help remove any little bits from the water column.

Unless there is a leak in the plumbing, micro bubbles shouldn't be an issue.

64Ivy I agree completely.

And to keep driving it home. If all you parameters are perfect, and you are still having problems, look into how long you can go between glass cleaning. It's a sure give away into how much nutrients you have in your system.

 

[MiddletonMark]

I've been thinking about that glass-cleaning measure ... I really like it. It's a great `quick' analysis of many things. Never to replace test kits, but an interesting measure.

Filter socks ... I run them if I blow off my rocks or do something that would make some debris fly. Then it's about 4-6 hours [overnight at times] of filter sock ... remove. Even that long there's lots of caught stuff decaying ... as a temporary, once a month sort of deal ... works well IMO. [as would filter floss] But I do not see reason to run it regularly [and am not looking to create another task to do that requires reaching into gunked up floss daily to replace]. Skimmer seems to get rid of most of that for me.

64Ivy, you said it great here [along with emphasis on stability]:

My advice; set the proper parameters, ignore the fads, and enjoy your tank...from the outside as much as possible.

 

[agiacosa]

Well, I very much appreciate the wisdom being shared by the SPS experts here. I had a bad experience with my first attempt at SPS, got fed up and went back to plants.

Of course, bugs bitten me again.

Some of the problems I experienced can be traced back to this topic. As I travel, I found it difficult to keep the water parameters stable while away. Attempts to use wife's help failed miserably (she bearly tolerates by irrational obsession with tanks).

I finally broke down (went broke, better said) and fully automated the system. However, several attempts to nuke flatworms killed my DSB. I believe the foul DSB kept me from water quality that was necessary.

I will be trying again later this summer and I appreciate the words of wisdom. I have a 58g that I will rebuild into a stony reef. This time however, I will focus on keeping water parameters stable using the following:

1. chiller
2. calcium reactor
3. beckett skimmer
4. auto-topoff
5. ozone
6. chaeto fuge

 

[Easily Distracted]

Even that long there's lots of caught stuff decaying ......... Skimmer seems to get rid of most of that for me.

I agree in not using a sock. Although it can temporarily clear up large particulate in the water, once the sock traps it, the detritus is decomposing in your water column.
I just removed a large sponge from my bubble trap that trapped detritus on the way to my skimmer and my ORP has been climbing steadily since.
I feel a good method is to let the detritus make it's way to the skimmer so it can be removed from the water column.

 

[G-money]

Something interesting I have noticed...
I've been redoing my tank and have held my corals and 3 fish in a 75 gallon tank for nearly 2 months. There is no sand, but I feed just as heavily as when the main 120 was up. In the time that I've had the livestock in holding, I haven't had to scrape the glass a single time. No algae grows in this tank. There is no sand. Coincidence? No nutrient export other than a Beckett skimmer. 6 gallon water change in 2 months.

 

[MiddletonMark]

How big of fish? IMO, that's probably a balanced fish-load in a 75g ... which likely goes a long way.

But still a valid, good point.

 

[aquariumclown]

Something interesting I have noticed...
I've been redoing my tank and have held my corals and 3 fish in a 75 gallon tank for nearly 2 months. There is no sand, but I feed just as heavily as when the main 120 was up. In the time that I've had the livestock in holding, I haven't had to scrape the glass a single time. No algae grows in this tank. There is no sand. Coincidence? No nutrient export other than a Beckett skimmer. 6 gallon water change in 2 months.

Not to get off track here but just a thought. When you put your livestock in the 75 did you use the same lighting or different? I've noticed that algae grow better under different lighting systems, bulbs, etc. Has anyone experienced this?

 

[G-money]

Same lights, a coral beauty, a bicolor blenny, and a mandarin.
The thing I left out is the reason I redid the 120 - bubble algae. Lots of it. Had to clean the glass about every 3 days.

The only diff is no sand (and less live rock I guess). Bioload is way heavier, as the 75 is about 2/3 full making it over twice the bioload per galllon as in the 120.

 

[aquariumclown]

Interesting, I guess many of us are coming to the conclusion that DSBs or dirty sand can cause poor water quality. Anyone have anymore thoughts on this theory?

 

[Easily Distracted]

That's a whole other discussion. There are actually several threads on the DSB vs barebottom vs shallow sand bed right now.
They are usually pretty heated, too.

 

[G-money]

Yeah, they are.
IMO, the only ones qualified to discuss such things are those who have experience with both methods. Otherwise, you're right - it's about as heated as a political or religous debate...and I find one side is usually ignorant of the other. Now that I have seen both sides (and the 120 is to be essentially BB), I have no need to debate. I know the answer.

 

[John Brancheau]

Joe,

First off let me say that your tank is one that has inspired me many times to really read and understand things before I do them, every time I have seen your tank in a post, I felt like I was doing something wrong, but after trial and error, I think I am finally starting to get the hang of this sps thing.

One simple question for you, how long did it take your tank to get to this point? I mean with the level of no glass cleaning type scenario, I understand that with proper maintenance it will all work itself out, but 1-2 maybe 3 yeras all together?

Again, your tank is truly phenominal, and after seeing that side shot, I applaud you for your efforts.

John

 

[alanseah]

alanseah,

How big is your sump?
If you have a sump that is somewhat long (say 30" or longer is best), you can buy some sheet plexiglass and make some baffles for it. I have nearly 2000 GPH going through the overflow on my 120 to a 40 gallon long sump (48"). With a 5 baffle arrangement, I have no microbubbles getting back to the tank (Beckett skimmer and all).

The middle section is about 24" long and due to the way the baffles make the water flow, the section serves quite well as a settling cmopartment - even with all that flow. If you're interested, I could snap a pic.

Hi G-Money,

I will be more then happy to see some pic of how you make the baffles. Thanx alot...

 

[alanseah]

I agree in not using a sock. Although it can temporarily clear up large particulate in the water, once the sock traps it, the detritus is decomposing in your water column.
I just removed a large sponge from my bubble trap that trapped detritus on the way to my skimmer and my ORP has been climbing steadily since.
I feel a good method is to let the detritus make it's way to the skimmer so it can be removed from the water column.

Hmm this is interesting cause in my 3 yrs plus in reefing I'm make to believe that using a sock help remove dirty... it never occur to me to take it out.
That's explain why no matter how I try I never able to get n03 close to 0 where all my water parameter r in 0 range.

Whenever I use cotton/sock as filtering it will get very black in 2 weeks time.. and it make cleaning very tiring. Either I have to wash and wash to reuse the cotton or I will have to go down to LFS to get new cotton.

Think I should remove all my cotton and see an improvement.

Thanx for the info.

 

[acro bat]

Wow!JB mentioned that if you clean your tank glass every day perhaps your tank water contains too much nutrients!(He goes almost 7 days without cleaning his)My questions is I once filled my tank with freshly NSW(water was collected a few miles from the shore)how comes the next day my tank glass needed to be clean?Maybe our tank water is actually more clean that NSW?Is it the heavy skimming we do?The ozone we use?Activated carbon?I'm thinking now that perhaps we're providing our corals with much cleaner water that there are from?TIA

VINA

 

[JB NY]

John Brancheau, Thanks for the kinds words. Comments like those makes posting in these forum worthwhile.

It took me a while to get the water quality to were it is not. Probably two years, but mostly because I just wasn't doing the water changes and carbon enough in the past. When I had a partial tank meltdown when using CS salt I was doing lots of water changes on a daily, then weekly schedule. After, I started to notice how much better the tank looked from the weekly water changes and kept doing it. I just started to go back to every two weeks but am changing out 20% not 10%. So I'll see if it works better. If not I'll go back to the weekly.

Wow!JB mentioned that if you clean your tank glass every day perhaps your tank water contains too much nutrients!(He goes almost 7 days without cleaning his)My questions is I once filled my tank with freshly NSW(water was collected a few miles from the shore)how comes the next day my tank glass needed to be clean?Maybe our tank water is actually more clean that NSW?Is it the heavy skimming we do?The ozone we use?Activated carbon?I'm thinking now that perhaps we're providing our corals with much cleaner water that there are from?TIA

VINA

Why would you belive that the water a few miles off the Atlantic coast has less nutrients than freshly mixed ASW? NSW can also vary greatly in quality when pulled from the shore (I think the shore is considered a hundred miles or so). I believe aquariums that use NSW filter it, as well as run it through things like UV and such to "clean" it up before going in tanks. Also I would assume the ocean water in Indonesia is different from what we have here in the east and even west coast. That's really the only explanation I can give you as to why the ocean water might have high nutrients.

 

[Easily Distracted]

Isn't there also a certain amount of die-off within the first 48hrs of collecting NSW?

 

[John Brancheau]

Your welcome,

I understand the weekly stuff, in fact I change 30 gallons a week on my 180 and run carbon and a polyfilter which get changed out weekly also, but I have t tell you, I cannot let my tank glass go without a wipe for more than 3 days.

I do feed rather heavily though, and I stopped running my phos remover after my humulis started to close up its polyps.

I may have forgotten, but do you run ozone or uv?


John

 

[JB NY]

Maybe you need to kick start it. Do like two 20% changes in a week or so then go back to the weekly. See if that helps.

I run ozone.

 

[John Brancheau]

Thanks Joe,

I will give it a try.


John