Neal's Barebottom SPS & ZOA System...

[Pallobi]

Hey Everyone, I thought I would make my own system thread...

As many of you have seen, at this time, my SPS and Zoa setup includes a 75g Reef Ready barebottom display, a 40g breeder live rock refugium and a 40g breeder shared sump...

I would like to share with you my beliefs on how I want to run my system, and what I feel works for me before I get into the rest...

I believe in very high, alternating but controllable flow and turnover in a barebottom system... I believe in T5 lighting, powerful skimming, and the use of lots of carbon as well as plenty of live rock bio-filtration... I believe in shallow tanks of 21" or less... I believe in the manual application of 2 part dosing and frequent testing... I believe in regular water changes and diligent weekly as well as daily maintenance... I also believe in very lightly stocked tanks in regards to fish bioload and crowding and believe in quarantine of said fish before introduction to my system... I believe in SMALL feedings to my fish, upward of 5 to 7 times a day and the use of vitamens, as well as daily Nori for my Tangs... I also believe in starting a system with completely sterile, dry rock... I believe in double dipping my corals as well as feeding them at night, bi weekly... I believe in keeping my water as clean as possible and my nutrients as low as possible naturally... I also believe less is more, and simpler is better...

I do not believe in unnecessary gadgets such as controllers (except for heaters), calcium reactors, or dosing pumps... I do not like carbon dosing of any kind and I do not like the use of any macro whatsoever, nor do I believe in deep sand beds... the more going on, the more that can go wrong... I am NOT saying any of this doesnt work, as it has all been proven to work and work well, but its just not for me... again, to me less is more, and simpler is better...

With that said, I also want to explain to you all that i DO NOT have a reef tank, nor do I want one... for me it is about one thing and one thing only, and that is the corals (though i do love fish and inverts and have some nice ones)... Recently I posted some of my pics of my tank before I went back to what I like best, and that is simply nothing more than a display of corals... A way to allow them to grow out without interference, and to supply them with the most adequate enviroment for their benefit and growth that i can and the ability to move them at will... I do not like my corals attached to rocks, nor do i like my rocks to be contaminated with coral skeletons and/or tissue... I do my own thing when it comes to the presentation and setup of my display as you will see in the photos to come... It may not get the best reviews because everyone else is so concerned with making it look like the ocean itself, but it is what I like, and what i prefer for my animals, and again, their presentation to the my own personal eye view... in my opinion, I get great colors in my system, which you will not see from the quality of the pics at this time... I also get some pretty good growth...

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the following is a breif outline (which is also in my signature) of my system overview...

SYSTEM: 75g RR Barebottom Sps/Zoa/Paly/Clam Display w/ 2 Vortech MP40s, 8 bulb 48" t5 Teklight (4 ATI Blue Plus, 2 ATI True Actinics, 2 ATI Aquablue Special) & Mag Drive 9.5 return pump... 40g breeder Invert & Live Rock Refugium w/ Mag Drive 7 return pump... 40g breeder Sump w/ Reef Octopus 300 Extreme dual pump skimmer, Finnex 300 watt submersible heater & 2 BRS media reactors (carbon) fed w/ Mag Drive 3.5 pump

DISPLAY: 32 Sps, 9 Zoa & 4 Paly species, Purple Tang, Sixline Wrasse, 3" Crocea Clam, 5" Maxima Clam, 15 Turbo Snails, 6 Blue Porcelian Crabs

REFUGIUM: Purple Reef Lobster, Fancy Brittle Star, Arrow Crab

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My future plans are to change out the 40g breeder sump for a 65g breeder or standard 75g tank... My next display will be a 5' x 2' minimum footprint with a height no more than 20"... I will also be adding another 40g breeder at some point on the same return system as my live rock refugium, for the added volume, and as strictly a divided invert display tank to insure individual feeding and protection from other inverts... leaving jus live rock in the refugium... I will also be adding a high flow powerhead to my sump to further ensure detritus from settling and keeping it in the waer column for the skimmer to remove...

 

[Pallobi]

Ok so here are some newer pics from the last couple of days... I jus started using a Canon point and shoot, so I am obviously learning how to use it properly for this type of application, and the first set of pics have some very blue color as I am still trying to find the right exposure time, and settings for taking such pics with this basic digital camera... so PLEASE mind the quality and color, I am optimistic my pics will get better as I go... Sorry for the hold up on the photos as well, as photobucket went down last night jus after uplaoding them so i was unable to post them until today...

Also, once again, please keep in mind, for me, this is what I like, and how I choose to present my corals, though I will be raising of few of my columns here and there when I obtain more materials later this week... I also have about 10 more frags/corals that need to be mounted as well, but I may wait until I obtain a larger display, as it is already getting a little crowded for my liking... Thank you in advance for taking a look

 

[Pallobi]

First some overall shots...

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[Pallobi]

My sump and refugium...

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I am looking to add some really good flow to the sump as previously mentioned to add more flow and water movement overall... it has some really good flow for a sump right now as it is, but there is two small dead spots which allows detritus to settle... and i don't like that

 

[Falcao]

tagging along. So are you thinking of maintain corals in the setup like that or will you be adding more?

 

[IDrawFish]

Beautiful looking setups... I like the pillars of stacked frag disks to create spaciality and height differential. What's in the breeder box and what types of inverts are you planning on keeping in your divided tank?

 

[Pallobi]

tagging along. So are you thinking of maintain corals in the setup like that or will you be adding more?

my plan is to keep it as is as far as the style, though a 75g standard RR is not a good tank for this type of approach... I will be raising most of them a bit more, such as the ones in the back and far corners in particular... but all will come up another inch or two for the most part... I will always be adding more corals as my long term goal is to have a large, shallow grow out system like a 6 or 8 foot by 3 foot wide coral propagation tank... I hope to literally have a couple hundred different sps and zoa/palys and have them large enough so i can frag off 5 or 10 decent frags without even putting much of a dent in the colonies, and being able to sell some very nice frags here and there... of course, they have aways to go before that happens... again, I am thinking long term at this point, like 2 or 3 years down the road... and of course given nothing bad happens... I will be adding a good battery backup system and obtaining a small generateor, hopefully by the end of this year as well to help prevent tragedies from occuring for any silly reason....

for now, i will jus get a couple more frag racks and I will keep any nice or "in need of some love" frags I add to my collection on them for the time being... I have had very good luck bringing damaged, bleached, and browned out frags back to life... I hope to have a new tank by the end of the summer/next fall... but we will have to see what happens... even though the 75 isnt well suited for this type of setup and idea, it will do the trick for at least another 5 or 6 months i am thinking before things really start to take off and grow out horizontally...

anyhow, this current setup will give you an idea of what i am trying to acheive...

 

[zhangg3]

A clean look!...wondering how are you keeping up with your calcium demands, if you are achieving that by water change alone, what kind of salt and how often?

 

[Pallobi]

Beautiful looking setups... I like the pillars of stacked frag disks to create spaciality and height differential. What's in the breeder box and what types of inverts are you planning on keeping in your divided tank?

for now in my 40 breeder I have a couple inverts... a purple reef lobster and a arrow crab that is getting quite huge as his legs are more than 6" in length... I feed him like a pig daily, and all he does is eat... I have a small conch in there to work the sand... in the small breedr box is my small blue coral banded shrimp and a couple nassurus snails. I leave the shrimp in there as he is very small and I fear for him as my arrow crab is a monster compared to him, and lobsters are very good at killing small fish and inverts, so its jus a good place for him until i setup my invert display...

I know i mentioned another 40 breeder for the divided invert display, but I think i am gonna use a 30g breeder for this instead, as it is perfect height, and i already have a drilled one with both return and drain, in my garage now... So its jus a matter of adding dividers, which i am not sure if I am gonna jus use acrylic, or have some glass cut... and I also have the wood to make a double stack stand for the 40g refuge I have now, and the invert display i will be using... it will require some work, but will be worth it imo...

I thoughts of inverts are a nice pair of harlequin shrimps, and some chocolate stars for them to eat off of, and a designated compartment for a few of these starfish to change out and allow them to heal while one is being utilized as food for said shrimp... some more delicate small crabs such as pom poms... some fire shrimp, hopefully a mated mair like i used to have, and jus any cool invert of any kind I come across... as well as a red reed lobster, cuz i love the reds and purples as it is... i wold also love another mantis shrimp or two of different ones...

Jus some thoughts, but you get the jist

 

[Pallobi]

A clean look!...wondering how are you keeping up with your calcium demands, if you are achieving that by water change alone, what kind of salt and how often?

at this time, i use 2 part bi-daily... I do half in the morning and the other half before bed, to help reduce the amount of change in levels that takes place upon adding 2 part by hand rather than a dosing system which does it a bit more slowly and steadily... at this time, I add 3.5 ounces of BRS calcium, and 2 ounces of BRS alkalinity additive daily... and this is only going to increase in time, but I really do not want to have a reactor... regardless of how much the two part gets up to in usage and cost... I use instant ocean sea salt, the regular stuff, and i change aobut 10g's a week with my 120 total gallon volume... when I add the invert tank and also change out my sump, which is hopefully soon, i will up that to 15g's a week...

my calcium stays pretty steady at 440 to 460, and my Kh is usually at about 9 even...

 

[sploke]

Interesting setup. Your setup is basically the polar opposite from mine, but if it looks good to you, then that doesn't really matter. In any case the corals look great, and if you are able to grow out some great stuff and spread it around, then it can't be bad!

 

[Pallobi]

thanks sploke!

ps: PM me about that pump if you are still interested

 

[sploke]

Yeah I've been meaning to take pics of some corals to see if you're interested in a partial trade...I'll try to get to it tonight. Got too much crap going on, but I want the pump regardless. Thanks

 

[my2girls]

I agree with much of your methodology, especially bare bottom and good flow. I'm a huge fan of a clean looking tank and you've certainly accomplished that. Most of all I give you props for knowing what you like and not caring about other negative opinions. If you plan on adding corals on a regular basis, you definitely need to dip and/or quarantine them. You wouldn't want one bad coral ruining your entire display.

Good looking corals for sure :thumbsup:

 

[mtc1966]

its kind of reminds me of a art exhibit very clean looking layout. btw zoas are now fully open and i really love them .

 

[Pallobi]

its kind of reminds me of a art exhibit very clean looking layout. btw zoas are now fully open and i really love them .

art exhibit... that is a very cool compliment thank you

and I really like those zoas as well, there arent too many I have found that have that color and pop... one solid reddish-orange color throughout the mouth, body and skirt, but they are sweet

GLAD YOU LIKE THEM!

 

[IMM3DOORSDOWN]

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Looks good!!!!!!!

 

[Pallobi]

a little bit better than the last 2 photos of my clams... still very blued, but much clearer...

this rock also shelters 6 blue procelian crabs... jus cuz they are cool

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[Pallobi]

and a few pics of some of my zoa/paly collection...

<a href="http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/System%202011/?action=view&current=00027.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/System%202011/00027.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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[Pallobi]

and the ones MTC mentioned...

<a href="http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/System%202011/?action=view&current=00019.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/System%202011/00019.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>