RB Article - Unique Corals

[dtum]

So, I've been enjoying latest Paletta's article where he visits Unique Corals and the following paragraph caught my eye:

"Besides seeing how many corals each vat contained it was just as impressive what they did not contain: algae. Despite the bright lights and the regular feedings that the corals are given in these tanks, none of them has even any hair, thread or nuisance algae in them of any type. The only algae present, was a healthy amount of coralline algae, which covered some of the surfaces underneath the egg crate containing the coral colonies and fragments. This lack of any significant algae showed their hobbyist's commitment and understanding of how to maximize their coral's growth."

The question I have is what type of algae control must they be utilizing? I can't seem to achieve anything close to that in my tank - while my display tank does not have an algae problem, my frag tank that is plumbed into it is growing algae like it's nobody's business. My nitrates are 0 (I have to dose some to get good colors) and my phosphates are about 0.04.

Do these guys run nitrates and phosphates at 0? Is there something else to it?

 

[dtum]

Any ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

 

[Coelli]

Any ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

I've been to Unique for an event last year and it was really impressive. One thing to consider (if I had to guess) is the sheer volume of water in the system relative to the bioload. There are some fish in the runways, but not a ton. So they're probably not introducing a lot of food that turns into waste like in our tanks, again relative to the size of the system.

The owners are great (I talked to one of them about Kessils, they had them over a runway and over a freshwater planted tank in his office). I know you're in Canada but maybe you could use Google Voice or Skype to give them a call?

 

[sticky polyps]

Just guessing but maybe a super established extra large system that has been professionally maintained around the clock in conjunction with a healthy population of algae grazinging fish and invertebrates.

 

[moatdaddy]

Anything in the frag tank leaching phosphates? Eggcrate? Different LR? What is frag tank made of?

 

[dtum]

Anything in the frag tank leaching phosphates? Eggcrate? Different LR? What is frag tank made of?

Frag tank is connected to the main system. Same live rock, I have a custom made frag rack out of acrylic, so can't be egg crate. Tank is made out of acrylic as well.

 

[organism]

How are you exporting nutrients? Skimmer, filters, GFO/carbon, fuge?

 

[o2manyfish]

Dtum,

I get the opportunity to see the tanks at Unique pretty regularly, and for the past couple years I have been visiting the racks are always amazingly clean.

While we feel that we (as hobbyists) understand the principals of reefkeeping and biological filtration there is alot that happens in mother nature that we just don't understand.

My system is larger than most at around 1000g volume. My rock is 12+ years old. A little over 2 years ago we had a kalk incident that wiped out 90% of the corals and fish. (100's of corals and over 100 fish). There were 20 fish that survived the crash, and 100's of polyps and xenia that survived. The reason I mention the crash is to show that my biological filtration has been established for years even with the kalk hiccup.

Last spring I had my 400g display tank, and a 250g rock tub which sits outside in direct sunlight. In the display tank I have a couple of small patches of bryopsis that grows near the overflow but no other nuisance algae. I have to wipe the front panel of the display tank 3 times a week. The outside rock bin has a good population of chaeto but no nuisance algae.

When spring came up last year I put my 140g frag tank back on line, it also sits out in the yard in full sun. With a week the 140g tank was filled with hair algae. Within another week I harvested enough long green hair algae out of the frag tank that it filled 1 and 1/3 5 gallon buckets. For the next 2 months I harvested approximately twice a week each time almost filling a 5 gallon bucket. The only thing in the frag tank was a couple of rocks of xenia and some pieces of PVC pipe.

All my tanks are connected as 1 system. The hair algae didn't appear in any other tank. Not as a problem, but not at all.

After 3 months the hair algae population just went away. Through the summer the glass on the frag tank needed to be razorbladed to see through it weekly. It had just sheets of solid algae growing on it. When i razorbladed off the thick algae I just let it float away, and it got carried throughout the system, but it never appeared anywhere as a problem in the other tanks.

Now as of the last 3 months, I haven't had to clean algae off anything in the frag tank. While the display tank still needs the glass wiped 3x a week. The frag tank, out in direct sunlight has some algae on the glass, but you can clearly see through the glass.

The eggcrate in the frag tank doesn't have any algae on it.

The point of my long winded story, is that as hobbyists we are trying to contain mother nature in a small box in our homes. But we really can't. There is very little reason that your tank or mine - should have 2 connected volumes of water and one volume has algae issues and one doesn't.

And coming back to the original post regarding Unique, they have a large volume of water, with a super high population of corals (which are filter feeders) and minimal fish load. You asked about their phosphate levels. At the end of each raceway they have a dry erase board with the parameters of each raceway, and it lists them for the past couple of weeks. Their phosphates are around .2-.4 . They are trying to maintain phosphates and are not targeting zero but targeting a higher value.

Dave B

 

[dtum]

How are you exporting nutrients? Skimmer, filters, GFO/carbon, fuge?

Skimmer, add GFO and Carbon when I feel like it. I have to dose Nitrates.

 

[dtum]

Dtum,

I get the opportunity to see the tanks at Unique pretty regularly, and for the past couple years I have been visiting the racks are always amazingly clean.

...

Dave B

Dave, thank you for your opinion. Now are you referring to 0.2-0.4 levels of phosphates or 0.02-0.04? According to some (not all) a level of 0.2 could mean disaster to SPS color and an algae infestation.

 

[o2manyfish]

Dtum,

There are lots and lots of people that say you should strive for zero.

Then there are some people that say at zero you are starving the corals and you need to have phosphates in the water for the corals to feed.

That wasn't a typo on the Unique phosphate, they target .2


Here are some photos of my tank from October. This tank for the past 18 months has had phosphate levels around .85. At one point it hit 2.0. (not a typo - two point zero).

These values were tested with a Hanna Colorimeter and then confirmed using Triton ICP testing.

My personal opinion, not based on any scientific principals, but just experience, is that a lot of aquariums have just enough filtration to get by. Lots of people worry about overcrowding, because if they add a couple more fish their parameters become unstable.

However, with a massive amount of biological filtration the systems capacity to maintain stability is much greater, and then some parameters become less consequential. Unique corals raceways are over 2000 gallons each.

My system has over 750lbs of rock in the display tank, a 250g bin packed with live rock and a 5' fluidized sand filter.

If someone posted my tank parameters online and said I can't keep corals, you're right the consensus would be fix this, and fix that, and oh-my-god your phosphates are out of control and that's your roblem.

And yet with my parameters, corals are colorful, corals are growing, fish are spawning, there are no algae issues.

The other thing to remember is in this hobby there is always at least one person that has had success with every imaginable situation...

There are people that run without skimmers, people that run with no rock, people that run with bioballs, people that run with undergravel filters, people that run with mud, there are so many different ways that people have been successful. There is some method out there that will work for anyone, but that won't work for everyone.

To follow up on my earlier post about my own outdoor frag tank. Since I posted I have been outside doing tank maintenance. I have 2 egg crates that are a little over 2x2 in the frag tank. I just harvested about 250 stalks of xenia off the frag racks. the tank gets unfiltered sunlight and has a yellow tang, imperator angel, and six line wrasse. There wasn't any algae at all on the frag racks. Not even green fuzzy algae...

Now in this same tank there is probably 15+ square feet of pulsing xenia. Perhaps the xenia is pulling out so much that there is nothing left for the algae to feed off of. But it's also the same water with the ,85 phosphates.

My point, after all this storytelling, is phosphates aren't always a problem.

Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

Full tank shot