90gal Sps And Zoa Garden (pic Heavy)

[scubasteve]

Well im at 17 weeks (4.25 months) with absolutly zero water changes and only adding tap water treated with prime for my ato (approx 3.5gal every 2 days) and dosing to maintain levels (all aquavitro by seachem). Until the 13th week everything was fine except phos was slowly creeping up but adding 3/4 cup of phosban dropped that back down to norm real quick where it has stayed. Still waiting for that 6 month mark and will continue doing things the way i am until i start to see some sort of ill effects. As of right now all corals have new growth and very bright colour (sps, zoos, gorgs and a couple chalice) and not a single speck or fin damage on any of my inhabitants (2-blue/green chromis, 2-three barred damsels, 2-black and gold chromis, false perc clown, tomini tang, gold head goby, snowflake eel, 2-blood shrimp, 2-peppermint shrimp, 1-tuxedo urchin 1- rock borer urchin, and for snails super tongan nassarius, zebra cowry, stomatella, mexican turbo, fighting conch, and banded trochus.

Now thats what i consider a fully equipped cleanup crew

The reason i am doing this and risking the close to $3000 in coral is to show what is actually possible with good understanding of a reef ecosystem and to encourage others to use knowledge through research instead of what everyone says you have to do.... i have obviously blown some of those " you have to do this to be successful" right out of the water so anyone wanting to ask a question about anything im doing either message here or pm me im pretty open about things and nothing should be a secret in reefing its hard enough as it is.

I know this will inspire a few to venture outside the box of normality and explore other options. Sticking to one way is keeping us reefers in the stone age.

 

[reef keeper]

Very nice! Are you worried about a cataclysmic failure? Or do your levels stay nice and even. In Hamilton we run around 170 TDS out of the tap and I know Branford is pushing over 700.

What are your TDS and do you think that has any kind of bearing on your success? Aren't your nitrates starting to get a little high? If not, how are you managing them? I'm not being contrary, I'm interested in what you are doing, because I'm gonna have an awful lot of water coming up and although I'm going to use RODI, the other things you are doing might help me be more successful.

 

[scubasteve]

i havnt checked my tap tds for a while now but when i did it was on average 220 ppm but spiked up to 420ppm and higher in spring. i kinda dropped it and broke it and im too broke to buy another but its the least thing on my mind yo be honest. i just double the dose of prime during spring runoff and fall heavy rain my skimmer pretty well clears up all the crap that the prime binds to. i get alot more skimmate in spring which backs my theory.... im nowhere near worried my params are very very stable i actually keep my mag and cal a little higher than most people and found my sps grows a little faster now.

i do run an algae scrubber 24/7 tho so thats where my nitrates go they never even hit 5 but i keep them barely detectible. i get better pe then. my overflow box on the outside portion is covered in sponge along with my sump baffles so that helps phosphates and my diverse cleanup crew ensures every crevice gets picked of any uneaten food or algae formations.

I was planning on a deep sand bed but had issues since was adding into a stocked system so i held off for a while to let things stabilize again, only got about 1" in there at the moment but my goby sure keeps it looking like new. I also have a fuge that foes have a deep sand bed with caulerpa spaghetti chaeto and mangroves so that helps suck the nasty out as well.

Your ever near cambridge should pop by and check it out.

 

[reef keeper]

I will. I'm (im)patiently waiting for my tank to ship so I can get going on this. I miss it so much! I'm looking forward running a fuge. It's going to be somewhere around 40 or 50 gallons so it should definitely help nutrient levels

 

[EricTMah]

Great news Steve. I love seeing people step outside the box and prove that you can be successful through different methods. Kudos to you for doing it.

If you're good at observations and not get lazy. You could be very successful using your method.

I ran a system back in the mid 90's that had a plenum system with a fuge and I went close to 2 years without a single water change and no skimmer either. Mind you it was a softy and lps tank. But it was growing corals like mad. Both @Kman and mysrlf tried many different ways in the past. All with good success.

Glad to see you're doing something that goes against most peoples "must do" ways.

Keep it up buddy!

Sony Xperia Z3

 

[Kman]

My last reef tank was set up for 10 years and in that time I rarely did a water change, I bet only 4 times in a year. For 8 of those years I didn't even run a skimmer. I did run carbon to make sure that any chemicals from all the soft corals and Caulerpa didn't build up. My top up water consisted of me taking water from my tap and putting some prime in it and dumped it directly into my tank.

It really depends on what you are trying to keep. I would not do that now with my mostly dominant SPS mixed reef. But if I had LPS, zoes, mushrooms, soft corals and the occasional sps I would.

 

[scubasteve]

Great news Steve. I love seeing people step outside the box and prove that you can be successful through different methods. Kudos to you for doing it.

If you're good at observations and not get lazy. You could be very successful using your method.

I ran a system back in the mid 90's that had a plenum system with a fuge and I went close to 2 years without a single water change and no skimmer either. Mind you it was a softy and lps tank. But it was growing corals like mad. Both @Kman and mysrlf tried many different ways in the past. All with good success.

Glad to see you're doing something that goes against most peoples "must do" ways.

Keep it up buddy!

Sony Xperia Z3

My last reef tank was set up for 10 years and in that time I rarely did a water change, I bet only 4 times in a year. For 8 of those years I didn't even run a skimmer. I did run carbon to make sure that any chemicals from all the soft corals and Caulerpa didn't build up. My top up water consisted of me taking water from my tap and putting some prime in it and dumped it directly into my tank.

It really depends on what you are trying to keep. I would not do that now with my mostly dominant SPS mixed reef. But if I had LPS, zoes, mushrooms, soft corals and the occasional sps I would.

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys they are always much appreciated.... @Kman ya i knew with sps was gonna be tricky thats why i picked up a few extra test kits but i pretty well know my tanks consumption rates i just test every 3 months now to match growth rate

 

[jeffopentax]

Very nice! Are you worried about a cataclysmic failure? Or do your levels stay nice and even. In Hamilton we run around 170 TDS out of the tap and I know Branford is pushing over 700.

Brantford tds is 400 (if anyone in the area is wondering)


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[Nonuser]

Brantford tds is 400 (if anyone in the area is wondering)


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We win!

 

[derrick orosz]

Well im at 17 weeks (4.25 months) with absolutly zero water changes and only adding tap water treated with prime for my ato (approx 3.5gal every 2 days) and dosing to maintain levels (all aquavitro by seachem). Until the 13th week everything was fine except phos was slowly creeping up but adding 3/4 cup of phosban dropped that back down to norm real quick where it has stayed. Still waiting for that 6 month mark and will continue doing things the way i am until i start to see some sort of ill effects. As of right now all corals have new growth and very bright colour (sps, zoos, gorgs and a couple chalice) and not a single speck or fin damage on any of my inhabitants (2-blue/green chromis, 2-three barred damsels, 2-black and gold chromis, false perc clown, tomini tang, gold head goby, snowflake eel, 2-blood shrimp, 2-peppermint shrimp, 1-tuxedo urchin 1- rock borer urchin, and for snails super tongan nassarius, zebra cowry, stomatella, mexican turbo, fighting conch, and banded trochus.

Now thats what i consider a fully equipped cleanup crew

The reason i am doing this and risking the close to $3000 in coral is to show what is actually possible with good understanding of a reef ecosystem and to encourage others to use knowledge through research instead of what everyone says you have to do.... i have obviously blown some of those " you have to do this to be successful" right out of the water so anyone wanting to ask a question about anything im doing either message here or pm me im pretty open about things and nothing should be a secret in reefing its hard enough as it is.

I know this will inspire a few to venture outside the box of normality and explore other options. Sticking to one way is keeping us reefers in the stone age.

how much and how often do you dose cal and alk?

 

[reef keeper]

Bad part is brant fords is 400 in the SUMMER. you lose megatron!

 

[scubasteve]

how much and how often do you dose cal and alk?

I dose half my required amount twice a week to space it out nicely and keep it even but aqua vitro uses alot less than other brands. The alk is a dual attack method they have eight four that helps keep ph at 8.4 and then they have a buffer they call balance as well to stabilize the carbonate/ bicarbonate ratios and potassium(i dont even use an alk test just carbonate hardness test kit which is a little different but gives a proper alk reading if all othr affecting levels are correct). I use the calcification and keep my cal at 460ppm why???? Just because i like to lol. i also dose the ions for magnesium and keep it about 1460ppm but it also contains strontium and boron at proper ratio to match amount of mag then i also use vibrance for iodide and fuel for trace elements and amino acids and also polyp booster mixed with reef roids.

I have found these levels increased my sps growth drastically and brightened up my colours even more.

Right now my tank consumes about 12 ppm of cal and 6ppm of magnesium. My ph and carbonate hardness stay very stable and dont need much to maintain and varies depending on time of year which i narrowed down to the hardness of my source water which helps maintain it since i dont use ro.

Hope that answered your questions i know aqua vitro has an imense amount of info posted on the net and even more when you start asking about specific things if you want details about each product and what it exactly does. Its honestly really amazing stuff i just prefer prime over their alpha for some reason i find it works better but all aqua vitro products can be dosed within minutes of each other without negative effects which is pretty cool and makes things easy

 

[scubasteve]

oops forgot to say i have to add about 1/8th a cup of salt once a month to maintain 1.026 salinaty(i calibrate my sybon at 1ppm as per instructions) and use hanna checker for phos

 

[scubasteve]

Well i had 2 more nubs snap off my hydor koralia circulation pump guard and because i own 4 i got 4 brand new ones coming this is either the second or third time now all free and aparently they changed them a bit

 

[jeffopentax]

How the hell do those break? You must have some vandal fish!


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[scubasteve]

How the hell do those break? You must have some vandal fish!


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no its because the thrust from the smart wave making them stop and atart puts alot of stress on that lil nub aparently its common and they changed the style of cage now to stop that. Sicce are the only ones that use a clutch to ramp up speed to max but thats just another part to potentially break i like the kiss rule KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID lol

 

[jeffopentax]

Seems rather cheap. Good on them for repeatedly replacing them!


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[scubasteve]

Seems rather cheap. Good on them for repeatedly replacing them!


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all i know ia they sure move water i have crazy turnover rates and every time i emailed hydor they have reaponded within literally 2-4 hours the same day if anyone deserves a 5 star rating for customer support its definately hydor they fully stand behind their products.... and all are well over a year old which most places would have said warranty is over

 

[scubasteve]

holy crap thanks to erics over generosity i have a huge dilemma with "where do i put everything" lol i am already packed so i guess ill be full now. its gonna take alot of epoxy and glue for this one.

heres them floating

and heres where i need to put them lmao now this is gonna be fun

 

[Nonuser]

Hobbyists can be the best people