Building Tuna Melt's Bustling Mixed Reef

[Tuna Melt]

Great looking tank T ! Sorry to hear about yolk and the trachy as well as the shrimpy being sent back. Tank looks great I love the little crabs

Thank ya! It happens, that's the circle of life. I think a small herd of Sexy Shrimp will be needed to fill the void left by Chopsticks.

 

[LBCBJ]

Nice build, how’s the Sicce SDC 3.0 been working for you? I have a similaf setup and cant decide between the 3.0 and 6.0. What % power are you running the 3.0 and for what flow rate? Thanks!

 

[Tuna Melt]

Nice build, how’s the Sicce SDC 3.0 been working for you? I have a similaf setup and cant decide between the 3.0 and 6.0. What % power are you running the 3.0 and for what flow rate? Thanks!

Thanks!

It's great, I'm a big fan. Easy to control via the app, multiple different flow patterns, plus a temperature probe which is a nice touch.

I would say it's got 4.5 feet of head pressure so that’s ~350 GPH. I have it set at 75% speed so that looks like 263 GPH, I estimate my total water volume (after accounting for rocks and equipment) is about 30 Gallons so I'm getting 8.75x tank turnover. Not amazing but it gets the job done, I suppose I could ratchet it up to get that to 10x. I think most folks aim for 10-15x but I don't know if there is any science behind that.

 

[Tuna Melt]

Had the pumps off today for maintenance and took these top down videos. Hope ya enjoy:



It’s nearly the 1 year anniversary of the tank and I’m eons past due on an update. I’ll post an update shortly!

 

[Tuna Melt]

Well, it was a difficult fall for my little reef. Earlier this summer the tank was cruising. I was getting great growth and felt bold enough to try my hand at SPS with a few easy leproseries and cyphastrea. These grew, a few like weeds, and at Reefapolooza NY, I grabbed a Montipora Digitata to test the waters of branching SPS coral. To my delight, it encrusted, grew, and had good color and polyp extension. My rocks were hardly visible beneath a blanket of coralline algae and the tank was showing signs of maturation. I decided I was ready for a large batch of relatively forgiving SPS coral. I loaded my shopping cart with Seriatopora, Stylophora, Montipora, and a few select Acropora from Tidal Gardens and Saltwater Aquarium’s ORA shop. I wanted the hardiest possible Acropora so I chose the Acros based off the responses to these threads discussing easy/hardy Acropora. (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/w...-of-acropora-are-the-easiest-hardiest.400444/ https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/easiest-acro-is-there-such-a-thing-as-an-easy-acro.935449/ https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hardiest-acropora-in-the-hobby.404579/) I tallied up the results and chose the top three, see below. Over 30 Acros were suggested as being “easy” however I’ve only included the ones that got multiple responses, unsurprisingly Green Slimer topped the chart.

---

Shortly after, I noticed some STN working its way up a Stylophora. Within a week, it had spread to 3 Leptoseris, 2 Cyphastrea, 1 Stylophora, and 1 tiny little piece of a Tri Color Valida that broke off the main frag and I glued it to a rock (because why not). From there it spread far and wide effecting all SPS. Notably, encrusting / plating coral were hit first and hit hardest, other SPS were able to hang around for a bit. After it took out all the SPS, It moved to LPS. I was at a loss, I didn’t have perfect chemistry, but it wasn’t awful, and coral that were happy two weeks ago were now necrosing. Even my unwavering Duncan. After receiving an acceptable ICP test I strongly suspected a coral pathogen (and still do). The tank was crumbling in front of my eyes so I bit the bullet and dosed Cipro (100mg/500g, every other night, 5 total doses). The Cipro was highly effective, the STN stopped in its tracks and growth exploded. But It didn’t last, a few weeks later the necrosis was rearing it ugly head again. I had read Mike P’s article here (https://reefbuilders.com/2023/04/10/managing-tissue-necrosis/) about a similar experience he had with Cipro. He subsequently dosed 500mg/100g to great effect. I followed his dosing recommendations and the necrosing stopped. The only SPS left were small residual encrusted chips left on the rock after I ripped out the main frag. The tank stabilized and growth continued. Most of the remnants have showed substantial growth since then. However, in a devastating turn of events a .5cm montipora frag that had encrusted and grown into a 1 inch frag necrosed a few days ago after adding a few more frags and switching my feeding regime (which I’ll touch on later). Honestly, deep down I always knew the pathogen was still in my tank, waiting for the right moment to rear its ugly head. I must have stressed the small monti which gave the pathogen an opening. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/first-rtn-bleaching-experience-what-should-i-do.1004730/

Some folks may be unconvinced it’s a coral pathogen, and I get it, it’s a new tank and I’m a new reefer. But my Goni’s have nearly doubled in size, my torches have added three new heads, and my Durasa clam has been growing at an alarming clip, there is always a centimeter of fresh shell growth on the rim of his bivalves. From my understanding these all require a comparable degree of water quality relative to forgiving SPS such as digi’s, stylophoras, and birdsnests. So why do SPS always die in my tank? And why does it always follow the same pattern?

---

Goni Growth (and they are deflated these days because the Clowns constantly frolic in them):

---

Torch Growth:

---

Fresh new Clam Shell:

---

My chemistry has been solid, granted it has not been perfect, but I think it has certainly been adequate to keep a digi or two alive. I test alk and po4 twice a week, No3 and Calc every week, and send ICP tests out monthly. My PH peaks at 8.3 during the day and bottoms out at 8.0-8.1 at nights and temp is relatively stable around 79 degrees. Although I don’t think the problem is chemistry related here are some of the chemistry things that could cause it:

• Consistently low nitrate – Problem here is people ran great reeftanks with no Nitrates for years during the deep sand bed age. Nitrates have always been very low since my primary method of nutrient reduction is an ATS. Historically I’ve fed LRS reef frenzy which is mostly fish and shellfish. Fish have a much lower N/P ratio than plants ~(8/1 vs 15/1), so I’m feeding 8 N for every 1 P but my ATS is extracting 15 N for every 1 P. so I’m perpetually N constrained. I was previously dosing neo-nitro to maintain my desired level of Nitrate (you'll see the spike below) but I stopped because I think it may have caused the necrosis somehow. There are a few folks out there that have experienced STN / RTN after dosing N (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/addition-of-nitrate-and-stn.961462/page-2#post-11968293). Now I’m trying to bring my N back up organically through an adjusted feeding regiment (and maybe dosing Aminos if it gets to that) so I guess well see if things go south again. Also, I view measured Nitrate as a representation of excess N in the system rather than a measure of true usable N. That's because corals prefer ammonia and that's their primary (preferred) source of N, so why does the leftovers (if that makes sense). One thing I just realized, the spike in Nitrate followed shortly after the Cipro treatment so maybe I have some denitrifying bacteria in my tank somewhere (that the Cipro knocked back), my sand bed is about 3 inches deep at the deepest so I'm not sure where it could be.
• Calcium – My calcium has not been great. It’s had some fluctuations, largely because the Hanna test kit is just not that accurate with RODI water so I never really believe the Hana Checker when the results are whacky. I realized last weekend I need to use distilled water and I expect it to be better in the future now that I can actually test it.
• Salinity – I used a BRS refractometer for most of last year and constantly recalibrated it to 35. Per that refractometer my salinity was constantly 35, however, ICP tests consistently showed a salinity of ~33.5. After much diligence on the topic, I switched to a high quality hydrometer in December, which indeed showed my water was at 33.5 ppt (it’s a real thing, refractometers drift over time someone touched on it at Macna this year). Over a few weeks I raised it to 35 using the hydrometer and my latest ICP tests have shown spot on Salinity. Obviously salinity is crucial, that being said, I have seen successful tanks that have a salinity of 33.5, and mine was always stable and not fluctuating.
• Trace elements – Always a question, but ive been sending out ICP tests and dosing individual Captivate Aquaculture trace elements per to get them in line with the below targets.
• Contaminants – I’ve always had high aluminum, this was a result of me using various ceramic media at the beginning, but I’ve slowly been pulling it out and now its down to 40 ug/l. The other big question is Tin. I usually use reeflab’s ICP but I occasionally send out ATI ICP tests. Reeflab does not test for tin but ATI does, I have Tin levels around 24 ug/l… Now I’m fairly certain this comes from a few pieces of tubing in my tank but from what I understand elevated Tin is very common in our tanks (since PVC and tubing leaches it), and usually not a big problem at this level. Maybe the combination of the two is doing it.

Here are my trace elements over the last 8 months, these are all Reeflabs ICP tests with the exception of month 4 and 8, those are ATI ICP hence why there seems to be alot of big swings in those months.

---

So if its not chemistry, maybe its biology. I sent an acquabiomics tests out before and after the CIPRO treatment (FYI I think they are a terrible company see here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aquabiomics-a-terrible-company.1025673/#post-12047959 but that’s a story for another day). Its very very cool, but I did not find it very helpful, my vibro was not hyper dominant and I did not have any coral pathogens above the average level. I don’t think that the entire microbiome of a reeftank can be summarized with one Swab. Each coral has its own unique microbiome, and each part of the coral’s body also contains its own unique microbiome. Anyway, below are the before and after snap shots of my tanks microbiome.
Before Cipro: After Cipro:

---

So long story short, I’m at a loss. I’ve considered getting some TBS live rock to reinvigorate the microbiome, who knows maybe I’m missing a few crucial microbes. I’m going to try and keep my chemistry as stable as humanly possible, and hit the below target levels. I’m also going to try to get my nitrates to 100x phosphates. Maybe the tank will hit some unseen threshold and suddenly be ~mature~. Maybe I’ve overengineered everything and things cannot find equilibrium. It’s frustrating and disappointing. Any Advice would be more than welcome. Anyway I'll upload some pics of the tank for your time below:

---

Trapeze artist Pom Pom Crab:

---

One of my favorite microcrustaceans, the Pederson Cleaner Shrimp:

---

And the herd of Sexy Shrimp who hang out under their gargantuan cousin the Blood Red Fire Shrimp:

 

[Tuna Melt]

A few vids worth sharing!

---

A FTS

---

Feeding Time

---

This pom pom crab and Fire Shrimp scrambling for food

---

Life at ground level

---

And perhaps the coolest of all, this RFA spawning

---

 

[Tuna Melt]

Well, I’m disappointed in my inability to keep SPS. They grow a bit, encrust a bit, then boom RTN! But…. I’m no craven. God didn’t put me on this earth to be scared of some little pieces of coral…. I’ve resolved to keep fighting the good fight until I figure it out. There are a few things I think could be the culprit and I plan to address them all over a three month “transition period” and then leave the tank to its own devices for the remainder of the year. It starts tomorrow… Here is my 5-step plan of attack:

• Improve the microbiome – I’ve long suspected the biggest issue is the microbiome… Some articles and anecdotal evidence like this( https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/ )has only reinforced that view. I’ve got 8 pounds of KP aquatics live reef rubble curing in a 5 gallon bucket which I plan to add in a week or two. I’m also going to add some live sand or reef rubble from Tampa Bay salt water once they resume shipping in May. The name of the game here is diversity. I’m also going scuba diving in Curaco in May and plan to grab a small piece of rock and bring it home (shhhh don’t tell anyone)!!
• Elevate the PH – My PH averages 8.25 during the day and 8.0-8.1 during the night, I’d like to get this up so the average is 8.3. I’m installing a Co2 scrubber, hooking it up to my Milwaukee PH probe, and making it recirculating as well. I’m convinced Co2 is the root of my PH issue since I’m in a Manhattan condo with my GF and the PH jumps noticeable when the windows are open. If the Co2 scrubber doesn’t suffice ill add a kalk stirrer during the evenings… Again, not accepting defeat here.
• Improve lighting – While folks have successfully kept SPS under ReefLed 90s, its not quite optimal in terms of spectrum, distribution/shadowing, and to a lesser extent PAR. I plan to supplement with 2 AI Blade Glows which will combat shadowing which is a problem with my vertical acquascape. Prior to installation I’ll retest my Par to re-establish what levels all my coral are at. Then I’ll install the Blade’s and play around with them for a few hours until I achieve my desired par / aesthetic. After that I’ll revert to the old lighting and set the blades on acclimation mode on for 100 days to slowly transition from the previous lighting to the target lighting. This will hopefully get me a bit more par on the awkward spots in my aquascape and a bit more spread for SPS.
• Raise Nitrates – as noted above, my nitrates have consistently hovered around 1 ppm. I believe this is because I have some anerobic spots in my sand bed where denitrification is taking place. I’m slowly syphoning out sand until its 0.5”-1.0” deep. If this works and my nitrates climb above 10 I’ll begin carbon dosing to keep them around 10. (Maybe its occurring in the rock but I read a Chinese paper disproving the whole “denitrification happens deep in the rock”.)
• Leave it be: sounds simple enough, but over engineering may be my biggest kryptonite in reefing. After I get the ship pointed to True North with these changes, there will be no more tinkering for the rest of 2024 (I’m still going to spend a fortune on coral though regardless ).

I’m also moving all the wires and power strips out of the stand into this small wire cabinet on the side, I figure its cleaner and safer, and more importantly makes room for the additional power bricks for the Blades..

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Well, I’m disappointed in my inability to keep SPS. They grow a bit, encrust a bit, then boom RTN! But…. I’m no craven. God didn’t put me on this earth to be scared of some little pieces of coral…. I’ve resolved to keep fighting the good fight until I figure it out. There are a few things I think could be the culprit and I plan to address them all over a three month “transition period” and then leave the tank to its own devices for the remainder of the year. It starts tomorrow… Here is my 5-step plan of attack:

• Improve the microbiome – I’ve long suspected the biggest issue is the microbiome… Some articles and anecdotal evidence like this( https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/ )has only reinforced that view. I’ve got 8 pounds of KP aquatics live reef rubble curing in a 5 gallon bucket which I plan to add in a week or two. I’m also going to add some live sand or reef rubble from Tampa Bay salt water once they resume shipping in May. The name of the game here is diversity. I’m also going scuba diving in Curaco in May and plan to grab a small piece of rock and bring it home (shhhh don’t tell anyone)!!
• Elevate the PH – My PH averages 8.25 during the day and 8.0-8.1 during the night, I’d like to get this up so the average is 8.3. I’m installing a Co2 scrubber, hooking it up to my Milwaukee PH probe, and making it recirculating as well. I’m convinced Co2 is the root of my PH issue since I’m in a Manhattan condo with my GF and the PH jumps noticeable when the windows are open. If the Co2 scrubber doesn’t suffice ill add a kalk stirrer during the evenings… Again, not accepting defeat here.
• Improve lighting – While folks have successfully kept SPS under ReefLed 90s, its not quite optimal in terms of spectrum, distribution/shadowing, and to a lesser extent PAR. I plan to supplement with 2 AI Blade Glows which will combat shadowing which is a problem with my vertical acquascape. Prior to installation I’ll retest my Par to re-establish what levels all my coral are at. Then I’ll install the Blade’s and play around with them for a few hours until I achieve my desired par / aesthetic. After that I’ll revert to the old lighting and set the blades on acclimation mode on for 100 days to slowly transition from the previous lighting to the target lighting. This will hopefully get me a bit more par on the awkward spots in my aquascape and a bit more spread for SPS.
• Raise Nitrates – as noted above, my nitrates have consistently hovered around 1 ppm. I believe this is because I have some anerobic spots in my sand bed where denitrification is taking place. I’m slowly syphoning out sand until its 0.5”-1.0” deep. If this works and my nitrates climb above 10 I’ll begin carbon dosing to keep them around 10. (Maybe its occurring in the rock but I read a Chinese paper disproving the whole “denitrification happens deep in the rock”.)
• Leave it be: sounds simple enough, but over engineering may be my biggest kryptonite in reefing. After I get the ship pointed to True North with these changes, there will be no more tinkering for the rest of 2024 (I’m still going to spend a fortune on coral though regardless ).

I’m also moving all the wires and power strips out of the stand into this small wire cabinet on the side, I figure its cleaner and safer, and more importantly makes room for the additional power bricks for the Blades..

Sounds like a great attack plan! Hopefully that'll allow you to keep some amazing sps!

 

[Tuna Melt]

Well, @https://www.reef2reef.com/members/gumbies-r-us.202126/ used a pic of my tank for a small thumbnail on a random thread and I gotta say, I’m flattered and it gave me the inspiration to update this my very neglected build thread of mine. I’ve executed on my (above) plan of attack, and each change had varying degrees of success. The cumulative impact has been great, this little tank of mine is humming now, Montis and Birdsnests are exploding, Acros are puddling out and coloring up, and Euphyllia are splitting left, right and center! Knock on wood (and then knock a few more times to be sure)!

---

I have to say the most impactful change by far, has been improving my microbiome. I added live rock rubble from KP aquatics (Florida live rock), and Pristine Marine Aquariums (Australian live rock). After curing for a few days I put the rubble in the display for a week or two to let the beneficial microbes spread and then threw it in a high flow area of the sump. I grabbed some live sand while scuba diving in Curacao and easily got it through customs, but the reefs in Curacao were riddled with SCTL disease so I ultimately decided against adding it to my tank. I gotta say despite the SCTL the reefs in Curacao were still magnificent! With this new found microbial diversity, things just feel healthier, its difficult to say with empirical certainty this was the missing piece of the puzzle, but if I had to bet I would say this had the biggest impact.

---

Next I installed a Co2 scrubber and hooked it up to the skimmer via a three-way motorized ball valve so its on an inverse schedule from the tank lights. The Skimmer draws ambient air from noon to 10, and then the ball valve flicks on and it draws air through the Co2 scrubber from 10-11:59. This has worked like a charm and my PH is now consistently nailed to 8.3.

---

I’ve also continued with monthly ICP testing and trace adjustments using captivate aquaculture. For traces I’m basically targeting these levels https://www.faunamarin.de/en/knowledge-base/. A few parameters I am deviating from based off papers I've read and the advice of various experts in the hobby. I had been trying out a few different ICP providers and as many folks can attest, they all provide slightly different results. I decided it was best to pick one and stick with it so I’ve been religiously using ATI ICPs. That being said, I may switch to Oceamo since its MS. This has been monumental for water chemistry, and I also think this has played a big part in the SPS growth over the last 6 months.

---

While these three changes have all improved the overall health of my system, one change has had the total opposite effect. I long suspected increasing nitrates to be a catalyst for STN / RTN in my system. Several others have had this experience and I’ve harped on about this enough in this thread. I decided to try one last time to raise the level of available N in my tank. I bought a second Reef Dose and hooked it up to a bottle of ammonium chloride. I dosed a miniscule amount, (cant exactly remember how much since it was a few months ago, it was based off Randy Holmes-Farley's recommendation from his Ammonia dosing build thread). The next morning... Boom RTN. A few leptoseris which had been chugging along for months were necrosing. I immediately turned off the dosing head and its remained idle ever since. I can't conclusively say it was the ammonia dosing that caused this… but I certainly will not be risking the health of my system again for some incremental benefit from N dosing…. Atleast for a while

---

I still have not changed my lights, partly in respect of the 5th action item above, “leave it alone”… but things are starting to get shaded-out more and more and I think I’ll need to upgrade the lighting system soon. I’ve been toying with the idea of an ATI Straton Pro, the coverage, power, and sleekness all appeal to me.

---

A quality of life change I’ve made has been moving the powerstrip and power blocks out of the sump and into a small white box next to the tank, makes for a much cleaner sump and gives me some more space!!


Before:


After:

---

I've been tracking my alk consumption religiously, I built a model that accounts for (i) dosing (ii) water changes and, (iii) measured alkalinity. I updated the model every week for that weeks movements:

---

Now that we got all that out of the way, here are some pics! Feel free to hit me up on IG @theGramercyReef

---

Anddd a few videos:

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Your tank is simultaneously gorgeous and aspirational, and seeing how much goes into it makes me think hmm, maybe I don’t want a bigger tank, haha

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Well, @https://www.reef2reef.com/members/gumbies-r-us.202126/ used a pic of my tank for a small thumbnail on a random thread and I gotta say, I’m flattered and it gave me the inspiration to update this my very neglected build thread of mine. I’ve executed on my (above) plan of attack, and each change had varying degrees of success. The cumulative impact has been great, this little tank of mine is humming now, Montis and Birdsnests are exploding, Acros are puddling out and coloring up, and Euphyllia are splitting left, right and center! Knock on wood (and then knock a few more times to be sure)!

---

I have to say the most impactful change by far, has been improving my microbiome. I added live rock rubble from KP aquatics (Florida live rock), and Pristine Marine Aquariums (Australian live rock). After curing for a few days I put the rubble in the display for a week or two to let the beneficial microbes spread and then threw it in a high flow area of the sump. I grabbed some live sand while scuba diving in Curacao and easily got it through customs, but the reefs in Curacao were riddled with SCTL disease so I ultimately decided against adding it to my tank. I gotta say despite the SCTL the reefs in Curacao were still magnificent! With this new found microbial diversity, things just feel healthier, its difficult to say with empirical certainty this was the missing piece of the puzzle, but if I had to bet I would say this had the biggest impact.

---

Next I installed a Co2 scrubber and hooked it up to the skimmer via a three-way motorized ball valve so its on an inverse schedule from the tank lights. The Skimmer draws ambient air from noon to 10, and then the ball valve flicks on and it draws air through the Co2 scrubber from 10-11:59. This has worked like a charm and my PH is now consistently nailed to 8.3.

---

I’ve also continued with monthly ICP testing and trace adjustments using captivate aquaculture. For traces I’m basically targeting these levels https://www.faunamarin.de/en/knowledge-base/. A few parameters I am deviating from based off papers I've read and the advice of various experts in the hobby. I had been trying out a few different ICP providers and as many folks can attest, they all provide slightly different results. I decided it was best to pick one and stick with it so I’ve been religiously using ATI ICPs. That being said, I may switch to Oceamo since its MS. This has been monumental for water chemistry, and I also think this has played a big part in the SPS growth over the last 6 months.

---

While these three changes have all improved the overall health of my system, one change has had the total opposite effect. I long suspected increasing nitrates to be a catalyst for STN / RTN in my system. Several others have had this experience and I’ve harped on about this enough in this thread. I decided to try one last time to raise the level of available N in my tank. I bought a second Reef Dose and hooked it up to a bottle of ammonium chloride. I dosed a miniscule amount, (cant exactly remember how much since it was a few months ago, it was based off Randy Holmes-Farley's recommendation from his Ammonia dosing build thread). The next morning... Boom RTN. A few leptoseris which had been chugging along for months were necrosing. I immediately turned off the dosing head and its remained idle ever since. I can't conclusively say it was the ammonia dosing that caused this… but I certainly will not be risking the health of my system again for some incremental benefit from N dosing…. Atleast for a while

---

I still have not changed my lights, partly in respect of the 5th action item above, “leave it alone”… but things are starting to get shaded-out more and more and I think I’ll need to upgrade the lighting system soon. I’ve been toying with the idea of an ATI Straton Pro, the coverage, power, and sleekness all appeal to me.

---

A quality of life change I’ve made has been moving the powerstrip and power blocks out of the sump and into a small white box next to the tank, makes for a much cleaner sump and gives me some more space!!


Before:


After:

---

I've been tracking my alk consumption religiously, I built a model that accounts for (i) dosing (ii) water changes and, (iii) measured alkalinity. I updated the model every week for that weeks movements:

---

Now that we got all that out of the way, here are some pics! Feel free to hit me up on IG @theGramercyReef

---

Anddd a few videos:

Glad the tank is still going strong!

 

[Tuna Melt]

Your tank is simultaneously gorgeous and aspirational, and seeing how much goes into it makes me think hmm, maybe I don’t want a bigger tank, haha

Thanks for saying that! Honestly, I have wayyy overcomplicated this little tank, but alas that's just who I am. I probs would have better results just sticking with All-for-Reef, a Skimmer, and a few less fish!

 

[Tuna Melt]

Coming soon:

 

[Tuna Melt]

The new light has been up and running for about a month and a half and the corals are loving it (at least I think so, alk consumption is up materially). The fixture is easy on the eyes as well!

 

[Tuna Melt]

I’ve also had great success with one of my Tubastrea, I put it directly under the feeding hole in my lid so twice a day it catches a few particles of frozen. It’s added ~6 new heads in 4 months. The other has never really opened up despite constant attempts to feed it.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Looks amazing! Fish Garden of Eden!