ps2cho
Well-Known Member
Wanted to sort of showcase all my trials and failures over the past 3 years. I've learned a LOT and am finally beginning to have success at keeping corals alive, and not STN/RTN'ing.
This is for my frag tank. I have a 29 biocube as my main display, but its only 90 days old, so I am just testing a few corals in it bit by bit.
The Frag tank:
Tank: Standard Petco 40 Breeder
...Flow: Vortech MP40 + Tunze 6025 (740gph)
...Lighting: Reefbreeders Photon 24 + 2x T5 retrofit (Blue+ and Aquablue Special)
..................lighting gets 300 PAR on the top level, 200 par 2nd level and 80 par at the floor.
Sump: Eshopps R-200
Skimmer: Aquamaxx ConeS Q-3
Return: Jebao DC
ATO: Autotopoff.com dual float /w Aqualifter
Controller: Apex Jr
Livestock
Sixline Wrasse
Kole Tang
Cleaner Shrimp
Have some random SPS and everything seems to be thriving so far. It seems as if the tank is consuming about 0.3 dkH per day, so must be a good sign right?
Quick photo, although its almost sleep time:
Things I have learned:
I don't have much to show for yet, but I am no longer losing corals at all, which is a huge step. These are the biggest success factors that seem to just WORK:
1) Use SEASONED live rock
The most success that I have had so far over these past 3 years has actually been using seasoned live rock. That large rock in this tank is about 18mo old. Every time I have restarted a tank, its never been successful for about a year. I've always used dry rock.
2) Stable Alk
Not much to say about this...just keep it stable within ~0.3dkH. I've had best success keeping it at either 8.0 or 8.5 dkH.
3) If I cannot read NO3 or PO4 its too clean
I viewed all the TOTM's and they all seemed to be zero everything...I learned after so much failure that this didn't work for my setup. Every since keeping NO3 between 3-5ppm and PO4 0.02-0.06 it eliminated coral losses alone. I was so afraid of over feeding. Now I feed small amounts daily. Fresh frozen is far better and pollutes far less than anything else.
Near Future:
1) I'm planning to find an ikea cabinet to put off to the side and mount my electronics in hopefully this week. Since a number of the wires are not long enough, I ASSUME everybody just buys extension cords so it can reach?
2) Then I need to get my 2-part dosing pumps working so I can stop having to manually dose each day. I'm opting against Kalk because its not stable and the room the frag tank is in heats up a lot in the summer, so it'll be all over the place.
This is for my frag tank. I have a 29 biocube as my main display, but its only 90 days old, so I am just testing a few corals in it bit by bit.
The Frag tank:
Tank: Standard Petco 40 Breeder
...Flow: Vortech MP40 + Tunze 6025 (740gph)
...Lighting: Reefbreeders Photon 24 + 2x T5 retrofit (Blue+ and Aquablue Special)
..................lighting gets 300 PAR on the top level, 200 par 2nd level and 80 par at the floor.
Sump: Eshopps R-200
Skimmer: Aquamaxx ConeS Q-3
Return: Jebao DC
ATO: Autotopoff.com dual float /w Aqualifter
Controller: Apex Jr
Livestock
Sixline Wrasse
Kole Tang
Cleaner Shrimp
Have some random SPS and everything seems to be thriving so far. It seems as if the tank is consuming about 0.3 dkH per day, so must be a good sign right?
Quick photo, although its almost sleep time:
Things I have learned:
I don't have much to show for yet, but I am no longer losing corals at all, which is a huge step. These are the biggest success factors that seem to just WORK:
1) Use SEASONED live rock
The most success that I have had so far over these past 3 years has actually been using seasoned live rock. That large rock in this tank is about 18mo old. Every time I have restarted a tank, its never been successful for about a year. I've always used dry rock.
2) Stable Alk
Not much to say about this...just keep it stable within ~0.3dkH. I've had best success keeping it at either 8.0 or 8.5 dkH.
3) If I cannot read NO3 or PO4 its too clean
I viewed all the TOTM's and they all seemed to be zero everything...I learned after so much failure that this didn't work for my setup. Every since keeping NO3 between 3-5ppm and PO4 0.02-0.06 it eliminated coral losses alone. I was so afraid of over feeding. Now I feed small amounts daily. Fresh frozen is far better and pollutes far less than anything else.
Near Future:
1) I'm planning to find an ikea cabinet to put off to the side and mount my electronics in hopefully this week. Since a number of the wires are not long enough, I ASSUME everybody just buys extension cords so it can reach?
2) Then I need to get my 2-part dosing pumps working so I can stop having to manually dose each day. I'm opting against Kalk because its not stable and the room the frag tank is in heats up a lot in the summer, so it'll be all over the place.
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