I don't know if you've stumbled on BigE's thread "Top Down Shots"
Its on Reef Central in the Northern Ohio Reefkeeper section.
He's got some of the deepest acro colors around and a pretty simple philosophy.
I'm curious to hear your take on it.
Howard
I've seen his tank on here, as well as some of the other amazing tanks in the SPS forum and elsewhere. I'd have to spend a bit more time reviewing it, but it does look like he follows KISS (though he does have a skimmer and has done vodka/carbon dosing). I'll have to do some more reading on it though and get back to you with an informed opinion
Also, World Wide Corals has some beautiful acros.. Their main display tank is like 1100 gallons, and houses some of the most colorful SPS you can find anywhere.
The list of gear in their sump is as follows:
- Old school calcium reactor
Yep, that's it. KISS works well for most
That's partially true. They do advocate moderate >10ppm nitrates and moderate to high phosphates, but remember they're busy maintaining their tank 24/7, and have almost unlimited resources to maintain their tank, particularly with labor and water change water... But yes, amazing system (though I haven't seen it in person; I was at the store about 10 years ago, but they weren't the SPS/hobby juggernaut that they are today).
Hi! Did you add a bigger return pump to your tank. I skimmed the first few pages of your thread, but didn't see it.
Hi Ritten, I did, but not intentionally. The tank had the original pump in it until that pump died, then I replaced it with my waterchange pump, a Cobalt maxi-jet 900, so thats what it is now. I really don't rely on the rear pump for flow, I more rely on the in-display propeller powerheads to drive the flow game.
He's also KIS.
Bare bottom
No filter socks
Two part dosing Ca and Alk
10% weekly water change
Overdriven t5s with ice cap ballasts.
7 or 8 hour photo period, no ramping.
Good flow
Oversized skimmer
He feels like the filter socks steal detritus he wants going to the skimmer.
And algae scrubbers, and refugiums are taking coral food away. Uses clean up crew for algae, and a tank full of SPS to soak up the nutrients. I like this saying he has, I'll paraphrase:
I support that style of running a tank (though I prefer having a sand bed). I also am still on the fence about algae scrubbers and refugiums (I assume that means algae-growing refugiums, not pod-creation refugiums). We have to remember that
most people who see this post, or are browsing reefcentral aren't at the level that he is. They'll say "oh, he gets great color by keeping nitrates higher" and then that person has always had an algae problem, and then they start letting nitrates creep up, and their algae never goes away, and they get frustrated and quit the hobby never having achieved success.
That's why I'm so adamant that when people start talking about letting nutrient levels rise, they use it in the context of that their tank is mature, they've had plenty of time and experience running at low to no nitrates and phosphates, and they understand how to gradually let those levels rise in a controlled fashion.
I think that most people on this website should/need to shoot for 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate first and foremost. Then once you've got great growth, and you're looking for the next way of increasing coloration in your tank, you can let your nutrients slowly rise.
"There is a difference between a Zero nitrate tank lightly fed with few fish and pale corals and a well fed tank full of fish with deeply colored corals and zero nitrate."
100%, but it's always easier to add nutrients in to deepen colors than it is to lower nutrients and beat back algal swarms. I think it's great that the hobby has in general advanced to a level where people can pretty easily and readily reduce their nitrates and phosphates to 0. Fantastic. But you still have to play it safe raising them again without exploding algae everywhere. That balance is the new frontier.
