My Against the Grain SPS tank

[Jeremy Blaze]

Here are some pics of my low tech low budget SPS tank. My reef keeping practices are definatly against the grain of what many others do. While I do not claim to have the best system, it is a system that works very well for me. Here are some updated tank shots. Tank was set up in April of 2011.

All corals started as frags,

FTS

Growth shot,
June

January

September

January

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

End shot

This was One polyp in June,

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

ORA coral

This Milli has been a weed,

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Non SPS corals,

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Fish,

 

[dvanacker]

nice...so what makes this tank against the grain. Also i remember your previous tank was quite nice...

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Here is the set up.

72 gallon Bowfront Reef ready tank.
20 gallon long sump

Flow return to tank, Deep Blue pump 1000gph
In tank frlow provided by 2 Maxijet 1200 with the tips cut off.

Filtration,

Large refugium with cheatomorpha
Carbon and GFO run 24/7 Filter floss before return

supplementation
Mrs. Wages pickling Lime

Fish are feed daily.


Lighting 8x54T5


No water changes
No Skimmer
No other supplements other than Mrs Wages and food.

That makes it pretty different from most SPS tanks you see these days, imo.

 

[dixiedog]

Definitely unorthodox! Looks great so far though. If it goes two years without imploding, you'll be famous.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Definitely unorthodox! Looks great so far though. If it goes two years without imploding, you'll be famous.

Then I should be already. Have had a few go that long or longer without emploding

 

[dixiedog]

Run the same way?

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Run the same way?

Yes, I have had 2 skimmers in the last 10 years.

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

what size fuge? It looks like you have a pretty light fish load, with a good size fuge I'm sure that'd work fine

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Sump is a 20 gallon long. About 3/4 of it is a refugium, suger sand a couple pieces of rubble, and cheato.

Fish load is;

1 Scopas Tang
1 Tomato clown
1 Wheeleri goby
4 Azure Damsels

Not sure if I would consider that a light load for a 72 gallon.

 

[kevlow]

I like the idea and will be following along.

My 10g is the same concept but without the sump. Low tech, great husbandry practices and patience to find the sweet spot the tank likes to be at.

Without a sump I can not use the cheato or reactor so I make do with WCs. My 10g has been running constantly for more then eight years without filtration. So it can be done.

Good Luck.

Kevin

 

[mess7777]

Is the cheato your only form of nutrient export? What lighting do you use on it and how much/frequently do you harvest it.

I love that this is working for you and it gives me hope on my setup. I am loving the keep it simple idea.

Do you run your carbon and GFO in reactors or media bags?

 

[Aquatron]

Looking good

Looking good

Hello,

Your tank is looking good How do you like your Deep Blue pump? i am THINKING about getting two of the larger ones.

Thanks,

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Is the cheato your only form of nutrient export? What lighting do you use on it and how much/frequently do you harvest it.

I love that this is working for you and it gives me hope on my setup. I am loving the keep it simple idea.

Do you run your carbon and GFO in reactors or media bags?

Cheato, carbon and GFO are are my nutrient exporters.
I am lighting the cheato with a pc gro light, harvest infrequently.
Carbon and GFO are located on a drip tray after the fuge that all water must pass through before returning to the tank, there is filter floss here as well that gets changed every couple days.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Hello,

Your tank is looking good How do you like your Deep Blue pump? i am THINKING about getting two of the larger ones.

Thanks,

Pretty happy with the deep blue pump. I was scared of them at first. Uses less energy than a MAg drive, and is much quieter.

 

[GPB]

Looking good. Whatever works!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Though its hard to see in the pics, the sandbed averages 5" as well.


One thing I do that seems to help, is I wait quite awhile before adding any fish. I add inverts first and feed the tank from the begining to help with the cycle.