Trying something new... Revisiting old methodology.

[WDLV]

Well corals will seldom RTN out of the blue. There's usually an indication before hand. Like discoloration, bleaching or polyp retraction.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I lost a PM frag too while I was on my honeymoon. - Free from a friend. If I decide to keep another I'll probably pay as much. I'm not gonna risk an experiment on a coral that costs a huge amount of money. I'm keeping common Acros and montiporas and easier SPS for the most part. I've got an efflo and some other more sensitive corals in the mix too but I'm not gonna just sit there while the whole tank slowly crashes. If I see a detrimental effect I'll act accordingly.

 

[WDLV]

Here's what it looked like in January. It was mostly baserock with a little rubbel rock. The right side had a little LR. Most of that was man made.

This is what made me start back at square one in February. What you're seeing is about a pound of kalk that was accidently added to the system while I slept. I've used a Litermeter ever since.

Here's some shots from last month.

I think it's progressed pretty well considering I've only added frags (except one purple monti) and I've done things in a way that most people would expect to cause a tank crash.

 

[Frankysreef]

"but I'm not gonna just sit there while the whole tank slowly crashes. "

Have you just answered your own question?

RTN and STN happen overnight! The whole colony will be dead in days.... and then it has to adjust to whatever caused the problem, while you are changing parameters to fix the problem.

Frags are easy to take care of, when they mature into colonies the difficulty level goes up.

Change flow - rtn
high alk - rtn
low alk - rtn
low calc - rtn
nitrates - rtn
amm - rtn
and the list goes on..

I have colonies going on 6 yrs old right now, and almost every one of the older ones has rtn'd on me at least once. Luckily saved a frag and regrew it..

How are you planning to remove oils and fish excrements..? That stuff will not float to the bottom of the sump, and you may not get most of it out with water changes.

Find a good used skimmer...I got a EuroReef cs6 for $200 from a friend .. works great.

I try to be the master of NO maintenance in my system...But I run 2 skimmers, filter socks, carbon, and a fuge, and water changes every 2 weeks.

I have 11 fish, and about 80 species of coral. Most of my rock is covered with coral right now...200+ lbs of rock.

I wish you luck but a skimmer would make your life a lot easier.

Welcome to sps.

 

[WDLV]

I'm not saying I will never use a skimmer again. Just that I want to see if this can be done. I didn't just start doing this yesterday. I have been reefing for 9 years now and I have a pretty good idea of what I can get away with and when something needs to be fixed or changed.
Give it a little time. You can poke fun at me if I fail.

Thanks for the dialogue. Dispite our opposing views it's been nice talking with you about this.
Walt

 

[Frankysreef]

If you are as insane of a reefer as I am you won't fail...

But you'll discover that it is too much work, and you'll buy a skimmer !!

 

[WDLV]

LOL!

 

[acroboy]

Good luck wetsleeves,

If you do the water changes you will not fail. There are many people who keep tanks this way with no trouble. If you are diligent in your water changes there is no buildup and trce elements are constantly refreshed before exhaustion. there is lots of talk on time lenth of skimming and what, if any, are the problems of over skimming but with the water changes it doesn't matter. In effect it is the same result if not better.

 

[WDLV]

Agreed. I've heard many people say that they try to imitate nature in their reefs to the best of their ability. No one's tank really does this. We just sort of pick and choose which elements of the equasion we want to emulate and run with it.
What scares me most is that I will create my next system in the 2-5K gallon range with all the sophisticated equipment i can afford just to have one element fail while I'm on vacation and kill everything.
I just want to see how natural a tank can be and still be able to support its own needs. A natural reef gets a 100% water change about once every 6 hours. When the tide goes out it gets the nutrient rich warm water from the estuaries and the shoreline. When the tide comes in it gets a blast of cold, ultra-clean water from the ocean. I would like to simulate this on my current system by drawing from a separate sump that is permitted to get cold on a six hour cycle (I might even add a skimmer to it.) Then have a circulation pump kick on that will allow it to mix with the tank water.and chill it five or so degrees.
I know temperature fluctuations like this are something else people will probably not agree with but when I was swimming on the GBR a few weeks ago, I found that there were temperature variations that were easily 10 degrees F.
I work with medical devices for a living and one thing that this has taught me is that redundancy and simplicity are tremendously important factors to consider when engineering a system of any kind. This is why I'm trying to stray away from traditional types of filtration devices that rely heavily on electricity and move toward more stable and reliable forms of nutrient export like water changes.

 

[salty joe]

redundancy and simplicity are tremendously important factors to consider when engineering a system of any kind.

Amen to that, Brother Wetsleaves!

 

[acroboy]

I noticed the same thing in the caribbean. I was all over the virgin islands and there were tempature changes by the foot. There were Acropora(staghorn and elkhorn) + Pocillopora all over. It's funny because there were branching staghorns in 20 feet of water which seemed odd because of what we are told about lighting.

 

[acroboy]

You know it's like anything else, it depends on how much time one has. Me? With all the crap in most cities tap water and dealing with R.O. units and preping salt water, no thanks. But for some one with time, it will work just fine.

 

[WDLV]

I'm fortunate enough to have a very good water supply here in Baltimore. I'm not even using RODI water any more. Water preparation entails filling a 100 gallon rubbermaid tub with a hose and two bags of IO salt and letting it mix for a couple of days. Then all I need to do is syphon the crap out of the bottom of my 100 gallon rubbermaid sump until it's empty and refill it with new SW. It takes me about an hour. At the cost I pay for a 200 gallon box of salt it costs me under $20.00

 

[acroboy]

If I was in your situtation and Phosphate was truly low in the public water supply (which is the only reason I purchased as good of an RODI topoff system as I did) I would do the changes too. That was the keey to the aquarium hobby to begin with. Anyone who was a breeder of fresh water fish knew how powerful weekly water changes were to fish growth and spawning. So water replacement was so much better than filtering. I mean I would rather dring a cup of cold stream water from up north then recycled waste water, wouldnt you?

 

[WDLV]

LOL. No shat. No Pun intended!

 

[Frankysreef]

I used to have cool dreams of surge devices, and all sorts of cool ideas... then after 1 yr of work my tank was finally finished...

Now I have a son, a dog, a wife, and a reef tank and a working at my store 6 days a week...

No time other than maintenance for me....

 

[WDLV]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8329525#post8329525 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frankysreef
No time other than maintenance for me....

That sux.

 

[acroboy]

I'll never forget the time I came home from work and found the latest addition of fama in my reef. Kids are a wonderful thing.

 

[antonsemrad]

WetSleeves..... I love your aquascaping. Great out of the box thinking. So open.

Nice job:thumbsup:

 

[WDLV]

Thanks! That was designed with anthias in mind. It also had a lot to do with going bare bottom. I didn't want a lot of glass showing.
If I had it to do again in this house I'd have built a 6x6x3 peninsula tank with the same aquascaping front to back.

 

[Cody Ray]

Everyone tries to recreate nature and IMO anyone that has a succesful system has done it. Nature has great lighting, high water flow, low nutrient levels, and high diversity. As long as you manage to recreate these factors does it really matter how it is done?