My 270 gallon tank / Reefer Lounge

[skippyreef]

Since I have not updated the old thread in a very long time I figured I would just start over and do a quick synopsis of the progress thus far and the condition of the aquarium. I will include a few pics for reference as this tank has gone through quite a transition in the last month or so.

The original intent was to create a very low impact reef. I have stocked this aquarium to date with maricultured corals, ORA clowns, and fragments from friends. The tank was also set up in an effort to reduce electrical consumption via using Tunze products that offer a lot of bang for your watt, Eheim driven skimmer and reactor, and a red dragon return pump. The lighting is the biggest power hog at this point but using higher end reflectors I am able to use two 400 watt lights and T5's to light the tank. There have been some disappointments with my original plans and somethings I want to share so we can all learn a bit from my mistakes.

Here are some pics of the aquarium and then I will continue the post.

 

[skippyreef]

Those are the pics before. Some of the issues I have had since the aquarium was set up were hard to figure out guys so I started to work backwards through the problems. I noted that using Zeovit was difficult because there are too many additives and variables to keep track of. Too much of one thing and not enough of another wold cause this and that problem not to mention all the other parameters and restrictions. It was like I needed a chemist on staff at my home to help me adjust all of these things. The problems were even deeper than I knew though.

I pulled the Zeo off slowly by tapering down the dose until my tank was off but nothing seemed to improve. I had this strange dinoglagellate algea that persisted a long time (months) no mater how many water changes I did. I was told it could be a prolonged cycle with the reef ceramic rock that I used to do this entire aquarium so I waited it out. As I tested I noted the Nitrates were not detectable but I suspect it was because of the algeas that were growing the tank. It must be noted however that I cured these ceramics in R/O water and then Salt water using silicate and Phosphate removers for over a month.

After a few months (end of August) the algea subsided (tank was online in JUne with salt water and a few fish) but the corals I had seemed to be in distress. Looking at things again from an analytical point of view I started to wonder about the lighting because the alkalinity, PH, Temp, Mg, and Ca were all stable. I moved the lighting up a little to see if it would help because the corals were slowly lightening up on me and the polyps were staying retracted. I knew that it was not a water motion issue because of the wave box and twin 6100 streams in the aquarium. The lighting did not help at all.

I started to think more and more and then one day (as my corals were dying off slowly one by one) I decided to grab all my test kits and I started at the makeup water, moved through the mixed salt water, and then the tank water. I knew something was wrong and I was tired of not knowing what it was. My R/O DI was negative for nutrients (including PO4 on my colorimeter) my Tropic MArin salt came out the same. When I ran the full gamet of test on the tank the answer was glowing in my face!!! Nice an pink on the Nitrite and Nitrate test kits!!!!

With this information I started taking livestock inventory looking for who was missing but low and behold the 12 fish were all there. Then I started to think about the size of the fish and given the fact the the largest two are a Tomini tang and a Purple tang that would be considered medium sized at best who are living with a small school of anthias, royal gramma, leopard wrasse, pair of clowns and a multicolored angel I ruled them out as being the issue. in a system with a net volume of over 300 gallons (my sump is 112 gallons and nearly full and the tank is 270) I did not think for a minute that it was a bioload issue perse'. I dont feed heavily either. Next I looked at my skimmer which is overrated and is an H&S A-200 that I empty and clean daily. It was working. I do weekly water changes of 32 gallons and siphon all the detritus from the sump. SO what was wrong?

 

[skippyreef]

It turns out that other people I know were having a similiar issue. We all had high nitrates, sps loss, and reef ceramic rock in common. One person had already removed it and advised me to do the same. As I removed it my nitrates started to drop and the more I took out the more they dropped. Another friend of mine suggested that the ceramic either does not harbor bacteria for denitrification and /or may be causing a very different problem all together in hindering the bacterial populations themselves to take hold. This may explain why removing them from the aquarium had the results it did. I replaced over 1000.00 worth of Reef Ceramics with live rock and the difference in the aquarium is nite and day.

This is a current pic of the same aquarium - I am ceramicless and loving it now!!! No nitrates and no more STN!!!!

This is a picture of the weird sand fusion to the Reef Ceramics. This stuff is like cement and did not dissolve after over 36 hours in vinegar.

 

[invincible569]

Glad to see things are working out for you now. I have also heard that reef ceramics are troublesome. I wonder how Nick is doing with his tank now that he removed his ceramics and put in all LR. I like your aquascape better anyways

 

[skippyreef]

Yes they are a problem Edward. There are problems with them and using these as a substitute for live rock is a gamble especially if you have SPS in the tank. Nicks tanks basically has been in a 15 month crash and no matter what he put in the tank it lost color and died. He lost a ton of limited frags from Sniper SPS when he added a couple custom covers for strainers and was dismissed basically that these could not be the cause. His tank was never right and he had that prolonged algea bloom as well. Even though I cannot release exact information because it was a condition of my friend testing these I would caution anyone to rethink this.

 

[boozeman]

thank you for posting this thread. I was considering this type of 'rock' for my set-up and now will think twice !

 

[skippyreef]

Think twice and then order live rock.

 

[Bax]

I like your LR better too. It looks great, good work getting though it without throwing in the towel.

 

[skippyreef]

never throw in the towel just took out the trash so to speak. I had them tested by a friend but because of our agreement I cannot publish the results. I can say however that if I had known then what I know now I would have never of used them at all.

 

[bigtyguyy]

i love the new aquascaping! looks really realistic

 

[skippyreef]

Thanks

The Ceramics just don't do it an honestly all of the pictures I looked at prior to even setting this tank up should have given me a clue but alas on to the fad wagon.

I think low structures with midwater open area are really nice and a great environment for a large anthias school. I am going add more female lyrtails and maybe a couple different leopard wrasses to the tank. I am afraid to add another genre of anthais because of the Lyrtails seem to be aggressive especially my male and I fear them beating down Bartlettes or dispars.

 

[blue angel2]

What are the dimensions of your tank ( 72x36x24)? I just bought a 270 from TruVu and it arrive last week and the dimensions are 72x24x36. Also, it has the same center overflow.

 

[skippyreef]

72-36-24 . it was built by a local acrylic fabricator

 

[d-town tony]

Mike,

Are you growing any plants in the sump?

tony

 

[skippyreef]

Tony I pulled the Chaeto after I added the live rock. I was using it however when the ceramics were in teh tank. I got it from Jeff (stiffljp from MR) and added it because of all the film algea I had. Lets just say it did nothing at all pretty much Tony.

Typically when you add chaeto and use light in Nitrate rich waters it grows and should grow like gang busters. Not the case here. Without though things might have been worse but it is hard to say.

John and I talked about the issues I thought I was seeing but just wasn't believing at the MR swap in August 2006. I started pulling the Zeo shortly after that Tony. No improvements were noted other than I was not frantically trying to adjust doses and buy new things to counter act what "might" be my problem.

I am not even close to the only person this has happened to an I have gotten PM's from people with the same symptoms - High Nitrates and nothing they are trying is working to mitigate the issue. I was on the edge of a Nitrate reactor Tony and then I decided to sit down again and review what was happening and walked backwards though the tank one more time. As the ceramics were removed the Nitrates dropped and the corals recovered. The other intersting point is when I removed them I had to break pieces apart to save teh crabs I could not get to. The pieces were dry in the middle and my sand bed was attached to the stuff I removed.

 

[clekchau]

wow i am glad i didn't get the reef ceramics that i initially planned to

 

[skippyreef]

When my friend Nick added pieces to his tank it nuked it. Same thing was reported by soeone else and that person finally removed all the stuff he added becasue of Nitrate spike and SPS issues and went with Buan Branch Rock. LAst I knew his Reef Ceramics were in the basement collecting dust. I call it a loss and would not have felt comfortable trying to sell that stuff to someone else after my losses and issues - it's just unethical IMO

 

[drummereef]

Honesly skippy, your reef looks 1,000,001 times better, imo. I personally can't stand the look of reef ceramics. Glad to know we are getting some hard facts on this stuff and other reefers can learn about the possible down sides. To bad it was your tank that was the guinea pig though.

 

[skippyreef]

It's hard to look at a 10.00 garbage can with 1000.00 worth of this stuff in it somedays. My understanding is the "sand" for this is bought in several ton batches so I question qualoty control and chemicle composition. I did send samples to another person to test other things such as leaching but again given the way the sand bed fused to these (its a serious bond beyond calcium carbonate precipitation because a 36 hour vinegar bath could not break up even a little piece of that). I had a real hard time maintaining ALK levels in the tank to and I think it was because the sand bed was reacting with these things locally and fusing. I have anywhere from 6-12 inches fused around the pieces and given the amount of them that were in that tank that comvered pretty much the entire sand bed area. The same thing was observed in my friends tank when we took his out the very next day. We re-aquascaped two large tanks in a weekend because we had identical Nitrate issues and SPS loss. The thing we both had in common was the Reef Ceramic Rock!

 

[clekchau]

were the makers of reef ceramic rock ever informed of your tests/findings ?