My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[sahin]

I do not think Turkey is bound by CITES regulations as it is not part of EU.

I have just read on BBC website that the UK is embracing herself for the hottest day of the last ten years. My thoughts are with my fish tank. Although I had set up cooling fans connected to temperature probes, I cannot help worrying. I normally keep my tank water quite warm during the winter months in preparation for this sort of event, so that any further rise in temperature will not create any shock to my corals. So far it has worked, but whether it will work this time is yet to be seen.

I hope your tank is ok...my tank got upto 28.2C yesterday; air cooling wasnt enough. My living room was like 32C. My corals were all fine.

Today is a little milder, but I put two frozen bottles of water in the sump this morning in any event.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I came back to Sheffield last Sunday. Both my fishes and corals appeared to be very well looked after by my neighbour. God bless him. In fact, coral coloration has somewhat improved during my absence :hmm1:.

I recorded the following water parameters on the day of my return:

KH = 6.55 dKH (down from 8 dKH on 16/6/2015) (Salifert)
Ca = 420 ppm (Salifert)
Mg = 1405 ppm (Salifert)
NO3 = 0.2 ppm (Salifert)
PO4 = 0.046 mg /l (PO43-) or 0.015 mg/l (P) (Elos)
K = 360 ppm (Salifert)
Salinity = 53.2 mS (PINPOINT Salinity Monitor)

My test kits have been calibrated using FM Multi-reference solution.

Here are the latest photos, which I have just taken. The sea star belongs to the Agean sea. I found it at about 15 meter depth. I put it back to the exact spot I found it shortly after taking its photo.

 

[markalot]

Whew,

everything looks fantastic! I know I subscribed to this thread once, but apparently I had to do it again.

 

[biggles]

Glad everything went well while you were away Bulent You're lucky to have someone you can trust to keep your babies safe mate.

I'd be pretty happy to come home to this any day of the week.

 

[sahin]

Wow, your reef is looking great! :beer:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Wow, your reef is looking great! :beer:

Thanks Sahin.

Glad everything went well while you were away Bulent You're lucky to have someone you can trust to keep your babies safe mate.

I'd be pretty happy to come home to this any day of the week.

Thanks Andrew. It is nice to know that I can depend on my good old neighbour who is very meticulous in what he does. He took detailed notes of his actions. I was very impressed with him.

I have also trained my 16-year old son. He looked after my tank last weekend while I was away for fishing at the Welsh Isle of Anglesey. We have now enough supplies of Omega 3 that will last us for a good while. I would have caught even more fish if my fishing had not been interrupted by a bloody seal. My arms are still aching. I will replace my fishing tackle and go for a lighter gear like a spinning rod next time. I used a beach caster to cast 100 + meters to cover a wider area. Casting a 3 oz weight every few minutes in a 3 hour session a day requires a lot of dexterity...

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Whew,

everything looks fantastic! I know I subscribed to this thread once, but apparently I had to do it again.

Thanks.

 

[sahin]

Nice fish catch Bulent. Sorry about the seal. :lol:

 

[biggles]

BFC please Bulent, throw some blood in the water next time mate - seals don't like sharks :thumbsup:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

BFC please Bulent, throw some blood in the water next time mate - seals don't like sharks :thumbsup:

What is "BFC"? I am sure it is something very obvious. I am not very good at abbreviations. My biggest fear was to hook the bloody seal as it was chasing my catches and grabbing them while retrieving. I could feel the extra tension on the line. Regarding blood, an air riffle came to mind first, but then again I did not want to get arrested.:bigeyes:

 

[biggles]

Display tank volume in gallons divided by ten. Count your fish and divide this number by the previous tank volume number. BFC - bigglefish coefficient.......... get with the program please Bulent

A harpoon would be even quieter than an air rifle............

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Display tank volume in gallons divided by ten. Count your fish and divide this number by the previous tank volume number. BFC - bigglefish coefficient.......... get with the program please Bulent

A harpoon would be even quieter than an air rifle............

I am into metrics. I would like to know what BFC indicates. FWIW, BFC of my tank is as follows:

It is difficult to estimate the net volume (US gallons) of the display tank. For this reason, I will provide a range of values.

BFC = 6 / (50.19/10) = 1.195 (lowest estimated net volume)
BFC = 6 / (52.84/10) = 1.135 (highest estimate net volume)

These numbers will get higher as I am planning to introduce another Genicanthus sp (G. wanatabei female) in due course.

 

[biggles]

65 gal divided by 10 = 6.5 You have 10 fish so 10 divided by 6.5 = a BFC of 1.53. That's an excellent number Bulent but just under mine at 1.57 - as long as the number is over 1.00 you have a good fish poo supply for SPS habitation.

If you add the new fish you will jump to 1.69.............. :mad2:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

65 gal divided by 10 = 6.5 You have 10 fish so 10 divided by 6.5 = a BFC of 1.53. That's an excellent number Bulent but just under mine at 1.57 - as long as the number is over 1.00 you have a good fish poo supply for SPS habitation.

If you add the new fish you will jump to 1.69.............. :mad2:

65 (US) gallon is my net overall volume, including sump. Whereas in my calculation I used my display tank's net volume as you mentioned "display tank volume" in your request.

Furthermore, I only have six fishes at present. My seventh fish, Bartlett's anthias, died shortly before going on holiday. I cannot keep anthias in long term despite feeding them at least three times a day. Having said that I was successful with Pseudanthias bimaculatus in my previous tank.

Finally, I find your metric quite intriguing. Have you worked out empirically what the upper limit ought to be?

 

[Scotty freddy]

Wow Bulent! Tank is looking awesome buddy, keep doing whatever your doing coz it's working!

 

[biggles]

We aren't worrying about rock and coral volumes Bulent. 6 fish divided by 6.5 = 0.92.

I must point out that the only two people under the widely accepted minimum optimal BFC of 1.00 would both appear to be from the UK.......... early days but i'm seeing a very strong trend developing here :reading:

 

[reefmutt]

wow... this guy biggles is everywhere.... there's no escaping his bff business...
he's trying to make lifelong friends everywhere he goes but he's really just annoying everybody!!

Bulent, i just read your whole thread.. Very nice system and beautiful big colonies.
I love your reasoned and methodical approach to reef husbandry..
I'm glad you have beaten your cyano problem.
I've always loosely shot for the redfield ratio of 16 to 1 for n to p ratio.. ten to one is certainly in the ball park.. having said that, using biopellets, cheato fuge and remote dsb, i have a 1ppm nitrate and .o6 p which is a pretty good ratio and i still have a bit of cyano.
Interestingly, when i was at 4ppm n and .13 p, I had no cyano whatsoever...
i will be following your experiences with interest.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

We aren't worrying about rock and coral volumes Bulent. 6 fish divided by 6.5 = 0.92.

I must point out that the only two people under the widely accepted minimum optimal BFC of 1.00 would both appear to be from the UK.......... early days but i'm seeing a very strong trend developing here :reading:

This gives me a good excuse to go and get a few more fishes then.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Wow Bulent! Tank is looking awesome buddy, keep doing whatever your doing coz it's working!

Thank you Scotty.

wow... this guy biggles is everywhere.... there's no escaping his bff business...
he's trying to make lifelong friends everywhere he goes but he's really just annoying everybody!!

I like empirical research. I won't be surprised if "BFC" is widely cited in the mainstream reef literature in the future :reading:. However, Biggles' metric may require some fine tuning as poo contribution to a reef tank and its frequency vary from one species to another. I think Sahin has already made a similar comment.

Bulent, i just read your whole thread.. Very nice system and beautiful big colonies.
I love your reasoned and methodical approach to reef husbandry..
I'm glad you have beaten your cyano problem.
I've always loosely shot for the redfield ratio of 16 to 1 for n to p ratio.. ten to one is certainly in the ball park.. having said that, using biopellets, cheato fuge and remote dsb, i have a 1ppm nitrate and .o6 p which is a pretty good ratio and i still have a bit of cyano.
Interestingly, when i was at 4ppm n and .13 p, I had no cyano whatsoever...
i will be following your experiences with interest.

Thank you for your kind words and taking time to read my rambling.

Unfortunately, to my disappointment cyanobacteria made a comeback a few months after writing my cyano post last year and never left ever since. Having failed on my methodology, I have turned my attention to proprietary products that claim to tackle cyanobacteria, such as KZ coral snow and KZ zeobak/cyano clean. Although they have not eradicated cyano, they have reduced the frequency of its reappearance after its removal from sand bed and/or rocks.

A lot of fellow reefers like you report that cyano are linked to nitrate/phosphate (im)balance. I am increasingly interested in this observation as I have noticed that since I started to use Tropic Marine NP bacto balance at the end of February this year, cyano have significantly reduced and have been confined to certain sections of sand bed and a few rocks. They are not spreading anymore. This product aims to reduce both nitrates and phosphates in a balanced way while maintaining them at low levels, so that corals do not get stressed. For a very long time, I measured zero ppm or very close to zero ppm nitrates (Salifert). Nowadays, I am getting 0.2 ppm or slightly higher while phosphate readings (Elos/Rowa Merck) are up to 0.015 mg/l in P terms (almost close to Redfield ratio) from zero-0.008 ppm. While this is happening, coral coloration has also improved. By adding more fish (read this as increasing "BFC"), I am likely to increase nitrate/phosphate readings further while maintaining their balance. As a result, I am expecting that coral coloration will continue to improve and cyano will decrease further. Watch this space ...

Sorry I have rambled again :headwalls:

 

[markalot]

Sorry I have rambled again :headwalls:

I love the ramblings, keep it up! :reading: