Thinking of taking the plunge to teh dark side

[abhishek@1985]

HI Friends,

I am Abhishek from India and have recently moved to Minneapolis , USA.
This is probably my best chance to have a shot at a dream tank , a NPS tank.

The aim is to create a reef tank only for Tubastraea, Dendrophilia and Balanophyllia along with some rhizos . In the future , if everything goes well, will aim for gorgorians .

The plan is as follows :-

1. Tank - 36 in x 18 in x 18 in
2. Sump - 24 in x 18 in x 15 in
3. Skimmer - AquaMaxx ConeS CO-2
4. Water Movement - Eihem 1262 as return pump and Vortech MP 10.
5. Lights - Aquatic Life T5HO fixture (Thinking of 4 bulb) .
6. Testkits - Hanna phospahte meter and Salifert Nitrate test kit.
7. Filtration -
a. NP reducing biopellets reactor and BRS carbon and GFO reactors.
b. Zeovit system with vertex reactor.
I am confused as to whether go for biopellets or Zeovit system for reducing Nitrates/Phosphates. Please advice.

8. Reefkeeper Lite controller
9. Tunze ATO.
10. Salt - Instant Ocean
11. Substrate - Fiji sand and dry rocks from macrorocks
12. Food - Fauna marin and reef nutrition mix fed manually 4-5 times a day - Hope feeding 4-5 times a day will be enough to keep Tubastraea, Dendrophilia and Balanophyllia.
13. Ozone - I am not sure if I need it from the very beginning . What will be the benefit?
14. Dosing - Do I need to setup a doser for calcium and alkalinity? Does this matter in a NPS tank?
15. Water changes - Plan to perform 20-30% water change every week.

Please let me know if I am missing anything in my plan. What changes do you propose?
Also i am not sure where in USA can you source Dendrophilia and Balanophyllia as Tubastraea is very common.

Hope getting some help as i am a total newbie in an azoox tank.

 

[MarcoBO]

Hi and welcome to the dark side

Some comments from my side

Points 1 - 3 fine, also the skimmer is, at least for my opinion oversized. But I'm not a friend of heavy skimming even in Azoo tanks
4. Eheim is fine. I have a MP10 too but in your case would think about two of them. Changing the flow and imitating tidal patterns will help to remove detritus
5. Lighting secondary also some black Tubastreas are reported to have simbiotic algae. This is specially true for Tubastrea micranthus.
6. is fine
7. For Zeovit, you will have to ad a carbon source. With the Pellets, you have the carbon source where the bacteria will grow - in the reactor. Zeovit on the other hand will reduce Nitrate by adsorbing Amonium. There is almost no effect on Phosphates withe Zeovit, except you add a carbon source like vodka.
8. - 10- is fine
11. I would personally always go with life rock. Especially in an azoo tank, there are many interesting things that could come out of the rocks. And they will help to build up a good biology by adding a high diversity of bacteria
12. All Large polyp azoo corals like meaty stuff like artemia, mysis or calanus. And they need to be target fed daily. With the mentioned food and especially with random feeding, you will not be able to make them happy. But this is actually good news, because you only need to feed once a day and if the corals are really well fed, even every second day would be enough. In case you get very degenerated animals from your LFS, you will have to put quite some effort to motivate them to open the polyps. Tubastrea are pretty easy but Dendrophyllias can be a real challenge. For Balanophyllia and Rhizotrychus I have no personal experience because it's almost impossible to get them in europe. If you want, you can feed your corals with brine shrimp naupliae. I have a Life food dispenser (self built) that triggers small amounts of naupliae 24 times a day. The corals love to catch living prey and even the Dendrophyllias show a very positive reaction
13. No need for ozone with this corals but if you upgrade to gorgonians it could be an option
14. Calzium no (replacement by water changes should be enough) but Alk eventually yes. If you have a high level of natural denitrification, you will have a substantial loss of alk. But this needs to be tested (buy a good test)
15. I change 10% weekly. My personal observation is that some of the corals do not like heavy water changes at all. But you will have to find out

Depending on the temperatures you are going to have in summer, you will seriously have to think about an efficient chilling. All the pumps you run in your tank will heat up the water and cooling is important for Tubastreas and co. My personal observation is, that Tubastrea show signs of discomfort starting at 28°C and show irreversible damage after longer time (2 days) at 29°C and above.

Good luck with your tank and keep us posted

Marco

 

[noy]

Note- in my response I use sun corals in a general sense encompassing all those corals you mentioned.

3. Skimmer - AquaMaxx ConeS CO-2

Not familiar with this brand but big fan of Sicce pumps

5. Lighting

Buy your lighting based on display needs. I find sun coral show a lot better under 10K non-actinic lighting.


I7. Filtration -
a. NP reducing biopellets reactor and BRS carbon and GFO reactors.
b. Zeovit system with vertex reactor.

Go with the biopellets (imo) AND the GFO. Because of the live foods you are introducing, your phosphate levels will rocket and you need to have a very effective means of keeping it low. It may seem like double duty but you will need it. I have both GFO and biopellets and occasionally run Phosban in a bag to address any spikes. I find you can control algae growth by choking the phosphate levels (and worry less about nitrates).

8. Reefkeeper Lite controller

Unless you have invested in this - I would recommend an Apex. Nothing to do with NPS specifically but I have both and find the Apex much more functional.

12. Food - Fauna marin and reef nutrition mix fed manually 4-5 times a day - Hope feeding 4-5 times a day will be enough to keep Tubastraea, Dendrophilia and Balanophyllia.

I find sun corals (and I use that term generally) need meatier foods than fauna marin and reef nutrition. I actually find that the tentacles don't show that much of a response to small coral foods. Brine/Mysis/Blood worms/chopped shrimp/chopped scallops work well. This is especially true with Rhizos. I have never kept Balan's - can't seem to buy them. You can feed them every other day. Rhizo's (imo) need to be fed daily. Target feeding is the only practical means (I have a thread with videos on here).

13. Ozone - I am not sure if I need it from the very beginning . What will be the benefit?

Don't ever need this for NPS. As far as I know ozone increases ORP which is not really an issue with NPS tanks. As for improving skimmate - that still a controversial issue.

14. Dosing - Do I need to setup a doser for calcium and alkalinity? Does this matter in a NPS tank?

You don't need a dosing pump but the real question is whether you need to keep your calcium and alk levels up for NPS. This is actually (imo) a very complex question. The short answer is to get a good salt and test occasionally and manually dose as required. The long answer is that there are different forms of sun corals. Some are plocoid (bushy e.g. Tubeastraea coccinea), some are dendroid (tree - dendrophyllia arbuscula) and some come in a clamshell (rhizo). The underlying skeletal structure is calcium carbonate and will require calcium for growth. The million dollar question (and one I suspect is true) is whether these corals can get the calcium through their foods - but that's another thread and a much longer discussion.

15. Water changes - Plan to perform 20-30% water change every week.
Sounds right.

Reef Hobbyist magazine will have a fairly substantial article on NPS in the upcoming issue (not out yet).

 

[Reef Frog]

Abhishek, a few responses below:

You could go with less intense lighting if you want. These are NPS corals after all. Lower intensity & only having the lights on when working with or viewing the tank should keep algae to a minimum, along with a location that gets no natural sunlight. Personally I'd go with a LED fixture with 1w LEDs that looked pleasing to the eye as long as you have no photosynthetic corals to support.

I'm not sure a ZEO tank is a good idea. You can control dissolved organics & nutrients with many other methods like GFO,bio pellets or vodka, GAC, good skimming, mechanical filtration, water changes etc. Zeo is usually used for SPS where ultra fine control of nutrients is pursued so virtually no algae develops. Plus the time, effort, expense & precision needed is significant with Zeo. On a dedicated NPS tank, it makes sense to have a few reactors, carbon etc at the ready, but you can employ most nutrient control tactics as the need arises if you monitor the tank carefully.

NPS LPS like dendros don't need to be fed 4-5 times per day. 3 to 4 times per week is fine. But Gorgs & small polyp NPS need high levels & in some cases a constant supply of planktonic sized foods.

Salt- A reef grade salt with higher CA-ALK-Mg levels than standard IO Might make dosing easier down the road. Following recommended water parameters for a LPS
tank is fine. Dosing may be required as stony coral growth ramps up over time but many variables will come into play.

Ozone - No

Good test kits and/or meters are your essential tool & best friend. You would need a PO4 kit plus calc ALK Mg kits.

A really good productive refugium can be a great asset for your NPS tank.

Best of luck!

 

[SantaMonica]

Good question on the calcium. I have not heard of anyone's nps corals growing fast enough to need lots of it. And of course there will probably be little coralline.

 

[GreshamH]

What do you mean by Reef Nutrition is not meaty enough? Mysis, brine shrimp, fish eggs and Copepods aren't meaty enough?

 

[stunreefer]

Mysis, brine shrimp, fish eggs and Copepods aren't meaty enough?

:thumbsup:

 

[abhishek@1985]

Thank you so much guys for all the valuable info.
Its great that I can now spend only one third on lights that I had planned.

I think I would stick to the following for filtration :-

1. A powerful skimmer - Thinking of Aquamaxx ConeS CO-2 although I always wished for a deltec APF600 or a Bubble king 180.

What are your views on the skimmer choice?

2. JNS Alpha 2 Biopellet reactor with BRS Biopellets
3. BRS Carbon and GFO reactors.

Will use vodka+vinegar along with the above mentioned ones.

Now, the question arises about the food.
What food do you suggest for Tubastraea, Dendrophilia and Balanophyllia?

Also would like to know about the flow? Should i go for a MP10 with a Tunze Wavebox or 2 MP10s?

 

[MarcoBO]

Hi

If there is all the stuff mentioned by GreshamH in the reef nutrition product, then you can use it for sure. The products are unfortunately not available in Switzerland and therefore, I'm not familiar with them. I would love to test the products on my gorgonians and chilli corals
I feed my Tubastreas and Dendrophyllias live Artemia naupliae 9 times a day with a automated feeding advice. Especially the Dendrophyllias and some picky Tubastreas respond very well to them. I think that the movement of the naupli triggers a very good feeding response. Unfortunately, the Aiptasias love them too. In addition I feed every 3rd day frozen Mysis, red plancton and Calanus with large pipette directly to the polyps.

Marco