Reef 4.0, low tech and old school

[drtango]

Spartan inspired me to post a few crummy iPad pics of my old-school, low tech 200DD, new Hamilton 14k bulbs haven't burned in so a little blue.

Nothing fancy, 400w halide x 2, Lifereef Venturi skimmer, filter sock from a biodiesel supply place. Home-made NoPOx using glacial acetic acid and methanol keeps phosphate nearly undetectable, around 8 ppb (Hanna ultra low) and nitrate right around 2. All top off is with limewater..and that's about it. No controller, calcium reactor, refugium etc.The filter sock (its big) is a fantastic place for bacterial growth and export when I change it out about twice a week. Several big fish, including a fat Imperator, Powder blue and a blue throat trigger feed the corals with nutritious poo. Coming up on year 3 so a relatively young tank.

I dabbled with LED's year 1 but had little growth and just didn't like the look. Nothing beats halides IMO

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[low riderr]

looks great ,

 

[Capt_Cully]

I love it.

I’m on my last iteration of LED/T5. If this fails, I’m slapping halides. The proof appears to be in the pudding.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Looks fantastic, John

Looks fantastic, John

I don't want to hear any more negatives about LEDS.
I'm about to jump into them :strange:

 

[drtango]

If there's anybody in this hobby who can be successful with LED's it you Gary...just don't get cheap on the coverage and get "˜em up high!

Hoping you post some progress here; I'm among the small minded luddites who are not on social media.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

LED height seems to be one key to success with them. I could go on, but this thread is really about how FANTASTIC your low tech old school reef is, John!
Have you/ do you plan on sending any water sample for Triton to test?
Are you running any kind of refugium with macroalgae?
What's your water change schedule and exactly how do you administer kalkwasser?

 

[five.five-six]

Halide fan chiming in here too, 250W radiums in my case but the Hamilton’s are very nice too. IMO, every LED tank I have seen looks dim to me, I know the PAR values, they just look dim and blue to me. Extra points in retro category for me, I’m running a Euroreef skimmer with a mesh mod FTW

 

[drtango]

Thanks Gary! Learning about Triton is on my winter to-do list, currently I only test for alk (runs high at about 10), nitrate and phosphate. No GFO, small bag of carbon at times.

No refugium or macro, the huge filter sock (7 x16) grows mats of orange bacterial snot, smells like pine trees, which, along with moderate skimming, is the main export. Bacterial growth driven by my homemade carbon source.

Saturated limewater is in a 30 gallon brute in the basement, ice maker tubing to the tank, a $50 Avast diaphragm pump pulls it up nicely, redundant float switch in 40gallon long sump under tank. All evaporation is made up with limewater.

Water changes "œwhenever", likely averages every couple of months, I just roll another brute with around 20 gallons of fresh saltwater next to the limewater reservoir, take the feed tubing and drop it into the fresh saltwater, then skim really wet for 4-5 days.

My first reef tank was a little over 20 years ago...for me, the major "œbreakthroughs" were ditching the deep sandbed (and later a shallow sandbed), using carbon to drive bacterial growth for export and using big messy fish to feed the corals. Triton looks fascinating, I want to learn more, but I kind of like maintaining my tank with pickling lime, acetic acid, a touch of methanol and occasional fresh salt. I'll send a test sometime in the new year, though I don't know what I'd do with the results!

 

[mattgumaer]

Question- I'm surprised you can dose carbon without burning the tips of your acros with a high alk (in the 10 range). When I was dosing vodka, it seemed like an alk over 8 would cause burned tips. Any secret to your success (dosing carbon with a high alkalinity)? Curious. Thanks.

Matt

 

[drtango]

Hi Matt-

I've red about burnt tips but never had an issue. Some think high alk pushes SPS growth but in a "œlow nutrient" environment, meaning low phosphate and nitrate, the coral can "œstarve"as it grows fast thus burnt tips. My tanks is low on nitrate and phosphate but "œtemporarily" gets very dirty at feeding (and pooping) time with all those big fat fish...nutrients, I think, captured by the SPS then leftovers quickly consumed by bacteria. Just a theory of course...but seems many of the burnt tip reports are in Low nutrient tanks with minuscule fish loads.

 

[mattgumaer]

Hi Matt-

I've red about burnt tips but never had an issue. Some think high alk pushes SPS growth but in a "œlow nutrient" environment, meaning low phosphate and nitrate, the coral can "œstarve"as it grows fast thus burnt tips. My tanks is low on nitrate and phosphate but "œtemporarily" gets very dirty at feeding (and pooping) time with all those big fat fish...nutrients, I think, captured by the SPS then leftovers quickly consumed by bacteria. Just a theory of course...but seems many of the burnt tip reports are in Low nutrient tanks with minuscule fish loads.

Interesting. I don't think my fish load is low (powder blue, kole and yellow tang, 3 Bartlett's anthias, couple of fairly big fairy wrasses, mandarin, blue dot jawfish, 3 gobies and filefish in a 180) but I'm never too sure about whether I'm feeding too much or too little (a few sprinkles of pellets in the morning and probably the equivalent of 1 1/2-2 cubes of frozen at night (either Rod's or Reef Frenzy). Does this sound like a reasonable amount of food in a 180? I don't ever seen to have any visible algae except film on the glass which gets scrapped once a week or so. I seem to have mastered growing chaeto so I'm sure there is some nutrient export going on there.

Matt

 

[pascal32]

looking great!

 

[drtango]

Seems like a good amount of food.....I feed ocean nutrition big pellets almost exclusively...and a lot. Maybe a third of a shot glass daily, more if a grandkid tosses in a handful. The Emperor Angel is a huge pig and likely responsible for feeding my sps..

John

 

[saltyscotsman]

I have had my LED,S FOR OVER 3 years dose vodka and kalk growth is good on all sps and I do 25% water change ever two weeks on a 180 tank with a70 frag and a100 gall refug all tied in

 

[Spartan]

Bravo John!
The tank is stunning and more so since you're doing it with the basics.