Lots of opinions wanted

[Caesra]

OK, I think I have finally decided that my 150 sitting in my basement, emtpy, is going to be an NPS tank. My aim is to run it a lower temp, 74ish probably.

So the question is, if you had a 150g to work with, what things would you be concerned about. Most concerned, what things would you 'worry' about, what things would you absolutely do, not do...etc.....

 

[chasedasea]

First off would be leaks, I would check for that first depending on what is has been used for in the past. I have a 125g that I bought for $300 bucks in 2001 and it has been moved in moving trucks about every two years since then so I always check that first. Prior to 2001 it was used as a reptile enclosure.

 

[h20player101]

Decide the whole layout of the system before installing anything. Draining a tank to drill a different overflow is frustrating, then draining the tank to get a taller stand to hold the fuge you want makes you (and your friends helping) want to hit something. I would add figuring out all the spacing, and always leave a little leftover.

Best advice ever? Just give up and send me the tank, I could always use another 150!

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Consider that the most expensive/work-intensive aspect of an NPS tank is the feeding. For the types of NPS corals that require constant broadcast feeding, such as NPS gorgonians and NPS soft corals, the amount of food you need is huge and expensive even for small tanks. When you broadcast feed, the amount of food you give needs to be in direct proportion to the volume of the tank. Assuming you will be stocking some of these more challenging NPS corals, a larger tank, such as your 150 gallon, will require an incredibly large amount of food overall. Check out some of the more successful tanks on this forum, calculate how much they are spending on food a month per volume of their tank, and you'll see what I mean.

However, you could keep some of the easier NPS corals that can survive on target feeding 1-2x a day, such as sun corals and Dendrophyllia sp.. IMO, these are the corals that are better suited for such a large tank, unless you have tons of disposable income.

 

[Caesra]

Things like drilling the tank, I am just going to use a hob overflow on the tank. So that is not much of an issue. I understand food cost is an issue..along with nutrient export. So I will look into that more.

Things like Sun coral and dendros require hardly any care. My fish get more attention by far than the suns and dendros. I have been keeping them for as long as I have been reefing, comming up on 18 months, and never had any issues at all with care for them. Although I certainly do not feed them 2x daily, as I have found that can cause serious tissue damage if the size of food being fed is too large.

i suppose disposable income is relative....

Any other 'need to knows' for NPS tanks or larger NPS tanks?

 

[Aquabacs]

As mentioned already budget...take into consideration for feeding/waterchanges and so on a azoox only tank can easily run over $200 a month for a tank that size. What is most important is time and dedication to the tank, you get out of the tank what you put into it. I will be covering in my thread shortly on the subject but the demands of a azoox tank take considerably more time than your average sps or lps tank. So if besides finances I would weigh in the amount of time you will be able to put into the project long term.

Mike

 

[slapshot]

as mentioned already budget...take into consideration for feeding/waterchanges and so on a azoox only tank can easily run over $200 a month for a tank that size. What is most important is time and dedication to the tank, you get out of the tank what you put into it. I will be covering in my thread shortly on the subject but the demands of a azoox tank take considerably more time than your average sps or lps tank. So if besides finances i would weigh in the amount of time you will be able to put into the project long term.

Mike

+1

 

[Caesra]

I will be very eager to read your thread. I have had a hard time finding 'need to knows' regarding NPS. I read plenty on sun corals and what not, but I find most of the threads I read total overkill. I have very solid growth on them with little care, but i know the harder NPS are a different ball game. Suns and what not are not difficult at all IMO...

This is why I am asking such a blanket question for this 150 before proceeding. 200+ a month is probably more than I am looking for, so I would love to read/hear more in regards to that. I know with most tanks LPS/NPS/macro/breeding (what I have)..much of the 'lots of time' can be narrowed down by a bit of thought. I have almost 1000g of saltwater running, 100s of fish...soon to peak over 1000 and I spend roughly 1 hour a day. Sometimes more because i am playing or observing (being curious)...but it is sounding like an NPS tank is a different ballgame.

Is it best so to start with a small tank so I can get a feel for NPS? Again, things like dendros and sun coral are no more difficult, IMO, than caring for SPS (feed a few times a week, keep paramters stable..they flourish)...maybe I just play with my tanks too much...so I feel that way. I expect to be running drips and supplementing live foods, but that is nothing on top of what is already occuring in other tanks. Already buy algea from Reeds for breeding and I would assume that would be sufficient supplent for NPS along with other live foods that I already culture.
I am very curious regarding thoughts on this topic.

my thought process actually is to actually plumb this into my breeding setup. Seperate, but not. Currently New water comes to the breeding setup from my main system. The thought is to send new water to my display system every day or two, send that water to the NPS tank and send the 'waste' to the breeding setup. The breeding system is pretty heavy filtration....and the 'waste' from the breeding setup into holding tanks for cultures. The total new water introduced into each system would tally to roughly 1% per day.

 

[Aquabacs]

If you set up somthing small, get your feet wet this this type of system before going large. SPS is a whole different ball game compared to azoox, atleast in my own opinion. Setting up a small tank with tubastrea and dendrophyllia would be the best route to start on your journey. They can be kept thriving with daily feedings cyclop-eeze and mysis and in a weekly feeding of Fauna LPS+ pellets. Work on the direct feeding and observation of the corals. It is a good stepping stone before emerging into more difficult species that require more individual direct care.

Mike

 

[Caesra]

As stated, I have been caring for them since I started in this hobby. They require very little care IMO. I have well over a hundred heads of tubastrea and dendrophyllia.

So I am not looking for info on those...I am looking more towards gorgs and that type of good stuff.

 

[Terryz_]

Just my opinion, I have much more success with Gorgs, Dendronepthyea, those azoox soft corals... I tried keeping sun coral but not much success with them...

Maybe because of the feeding I do for my tank is more suited for these soft corals? I use the Dendronepthyea system from FM...

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Just my opinion, I have much more success with Gorgs, Dendronepthyea, those azoox soft corals... I tried keeping sun coral but not much success with them...

Maybe because of the feeding I do for my tank is more suited for these soft corals? I use the Dendronepthyea system from FM...

This is a very good point/observation. IMO, there is no one-size-fits-all for an NPS tank. Some NPS corals seem to thrive in conditions that are not ideal for others.

As far as the types of corals you want to keep, I think your best bet is definitely to start smaller. Keeping a small tank attached to your large system would be the best way to start out with these NPS corals. The idea is to keep a certain concentration of food in the water column at all/most times with broadcast feeding. Therefore, the smaller the volume, the less food and filtration will be necessary overall.

 

[Terryz_]

Just a point to add... I learnt it the hard way when I convert my 135g tank into Azoox, the amount of food to be dosed continuously is very high, I did a lot of trial and error on the dosing interval and the amount..
I am using 2.5g of each of the food by FM and mixed in 500ml of water... That is what I dose now with much success on the gorgs and dendro... The food will last me 3 months or so befor needing to buy a new ones..

Not only the food, the skimmer must be oversized to handle the constant feeding... I am also using Biopellet and GFO to handle the Nitrate and Phosphate...