Skimmer and ATS for two different group of corals

[uwiik]

Hi all,
I am a coral exporter and I am maintaining my water with strong skimming, carbon dosing, good water movement, no3@3-7, po4@0.03-0.05, ph@7.9-8.2, mg@1290-1320, ca@390-420, k@390-410, and lately I have been increasing my kh to 8-9 where previously I used to run 7-7.5

My acros are happy and deeply colored, frags are growing quick, no problem with SPS. I used to struggle with euphyllias and plerogyras, seems like really easy corals to keep in home aquarium but I am handling hundreds of them at any given time and they just die for no reason even after weeks of seemingly good health in holding system. I keep exactly how they are found in the wild, in deeper pools with very gentle current and deep blue polycarbonate filtered natural sunlight (par 40-80). After I increased my kh to 8-9 things has improved a lot, much less mortality and they just looks a lot happier and definitely fatter.

Yesterday I visited a friend of mine who owns a very old school LFS, I haven't seen Him for a really long time and I was literaly shocked when i saw his ponds...All of His plerogyra are expanding like there is no tomorrow, really really fat with luminous green color and all of His euphyllias are doing the same too...His pools are so old school that you will laugh when you see it...skimerless, way less than ideal flow to almost standstill, big fiberglass filter with lots of caulerpa inside and thick gravel bottom which I am sure collect so much detritus...

Now I am losing sleep over this (2 AM here), my system with expensive equipments able to keep all corals perfect but euphyllias and plerogyra, although things has improved a lot after kh raise, still my friend's old school system kick my system out of the water when it comes to euphyllias and plerogyra (most notably plerogyra).....

Now I am thinking about converting my LPS system to skimerless and using big refugium and big ATS....I remember when I was still actively dive few years ago, most LPS and often the most colorful ones are found on reef with almost no current and lots of detritus...I can only relate this to my system, sometimes a system that is too clean does not necessarily serve its purpose for certain corals...

Can anyone share their experience with LPS (mainly plerogyra and euphyllia) in regards of skimmer vs skimmerless+ATS? I am seriously thinking about stop using skimmer and employ ATS instead. At least to one of my system and see the result..

Thanks in advance folks!!

 

[madadi]

I had good results with skimmerless and LPS. water changes was enough to keep nutrients acceptable. if your system has a lot of die off from corals you are bringing in very often I would expect your nutrients to be high. maybe running a deep sand bed or lots of live rock and lots of macro algae somewhere in the system will be good.

 

[Subsea]

I am in the opposite situation as you. I have been skimmerless for 40 years and just did begin carbon dosing. If I feed heavily, I don't think I would have to carbon dose. I agree with what mad said about multiple nutrient pathways with DSB and some live rock. For certain use macros to export nutrients. Unplug your skimmer as James Fatherree did in the latest Advanced Aquaria article.
Patrick

 

[Timfish]

Please do post your experiences! I suspect many of the so called "SPS" that are found in back reefs and lagoons and in deep water environs would do well in the systems you are proposing.

Here's one of my skimmerless systems: http://youtu.be/UjMFWHC4uBM

 

[wildman926]

If you go skimmerless, I would advise to head into the direction of skimming dry, adjusting to the point of where only the largest, heaviest of doc makes it out of the skimmer. Even then, I would not remove the skimmer, just for the o2 aspect it provides.

 

[Subsea]

If you go skimmerless, I would advise to head into the direction of skimming dry, adjusting to the point of where only the largest, heaviest of doc makes it out of the skimmer. Even then, I would not remove the skimmer, just for the o2 aspect it provides.

James Farherree turned off his skimmer. Feature Article on this months Advanced Aquaria. It is off and in the sump as a back up if required.
There are many ways to provide oxygen in reef aquaria.
Patrick

 

[Subsea]

For oxygen in reef aquarium, surface tension between the water air interface is the single most effective method of gas exchange. This can be addressed in several ways. The most effective is with a surface overflow that skims the top of the water from the display tank, removing any organic skum.
Then gravity drains water to the sump/refugium. For my money, I use bioballs in a wet dry configuation as an effective gas exchange process. Not only does it assist with oxygen but it is an effective degasser for excess carbon dioixide.
Patrick

 

[Subsea]

Timfish,
Are these personnal tanks or do you maintain them for others and how long in operation?
Patrick

 

[Timfish]

Timfish,
Are these personnal tanks or do you maintain them for others and how long in operation?
Patrick

Yes. Up to 22 years old.

 

[Timfish]

Uwiik, You might read up on Steve Tyree's Zonal System (you might recognize his name). He's been raising a multitude of so called "SPS" corals without skimming for years. Also, there are videos floating around in the cloud of Julian Sprung's system and near as I can tell he's been running his systems skimmerless since the late '90's. Tropicorium is another grower that uses pumpless systems akin to Lee Chin Eng's methodology.