Aquarium: 90-gallon with single overflow. Tank was plumbed in early August 2017. Fishes added in third week of August, followed a few days later by corals. Subject for another thread: Why is the recommendation made that corals must be added to a ‘mature’ system?
Fishes: Lightly loaded: 3 Chrysiptera damels totaling 6 inches body length.
Corals: 1- Acanthastrea species, 2 - Acropora (formosa?), 1- Acropora species, 1- Cyphastrea ‘Meteor Shower’, 1- Euphyllia, 1- Pavona/Leptoseris ‘Jack O’ Lantern’, 1 – Montipora capricornis, 2- Montipora species.
Artificial sea salts: Fauna Marin mixed with RO/DI water.
Feeding: Fishes – SeaChem Probiotic marine flakes and San Francisco Marine Cuisine frozen food. Fed several times a day. Corals – Fed PolypLab Reef Roids daily.
Rock: Appears to be mined rock. Unsure of source.
Sump: Trigger Systems Ruby Sump 36 (gallons)
Filtration, mechanical: Filter sock filters water between overflow and sump, followed by filter floss.
Filtration, skimmer: Reef Octopus
Filtration, biological: Tank was seeded with 10 pounds of live sand from an active tank, followed by 40 pounds of CaribSea’s Araga-Live Fiji Pink sand. Base is coarsely crushed aragonite gravel.
Filtration, chemical: A few ounces of extruded activated carbon in a nylon bag is in the sump’s overflow. Changed monthly.
Circulation: 1-Tunze 6255 (tested and run at full speed to produce ~7,100 gallons per hour) and a Danner Mag 9.5 return pump with flow accelerator (about 400 gallons per hour.) True tank volume is about 80 gallons, so 'turnover' is about 90x hour.
Lighting: Currently using a Chinese ‘black box’ Evergrow LED luminaire. I plan to upgrade soon. Light is placed directly on eggcrate material resting on top of tank. An appropriately sized piece of clear acrylic protects the light from salt spray.
Top-off System: Done manually through use of a small peristaltic pump. Alkalinity or calcium supplements are alternately added.
Water Changes: 10 gallons changed about every two weeks.
Testing Regimen:
Alkalinity (Weekly): Titration of sample with sulfuric acid to a pH of 4.2. Typical Value: 8-9 dKH
Ammonia (Occasional, though about to install a Seneye device capable of frequent, automatic monitoring): Hach Company Salicylate method and read by a Hach DR890 colorimeter. Typical Value: 0 ppm.
Calcium (Weekly): Sequential Hardness test, using Hach reagents. Typical Value: 400 -450 ppm. Kalkwasser is added to the skimmer via a peristaltic pump. This allows for good mixing, with the possibility of phosphate removal (via formation of apatite) and ammonia blow off (possibility of raising pH locally to a value that causes ammonia to de-gas. Maybe.)
Magnesium (Weekly): Same test as for calcium, with typical values of ~1,200 ppm. Oddly, I have not had to add magnesium as its concentration has remained fairly constant.
Nitrite (Occasional): Hach reagent and measured by a colorimeter. Typical Value: .001 ppm.
Nitrate (Weekly): Hach cadmium-reduction method. Typical Value: 0.7 ppm as Nitrogen.
Oxygen, dissolved (when curious): Hach IntelliCal D.O. sensor. Typical values typically at saturation point for temeperature and salinity.
pH (Continuous): Hanna pH probe. Typical Value: 8.2, with kalkwasser additions to raise pH to ~8.5 in order to control dinoflagellate growths.
Phosphate (Weekly): Hach reagents with analysis with a Hach colorimeter. Typical Value: 0.01 ppm as phosphorus.
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR; as needed): Apogee MQ-500 meter, with correction for immersion effect. Typical Values: 100 (bottom); 400 (top.)
Specific Gravity: (~3x weekly): Calibrated refractometer. Typical Value: 1.025.
Temperature (~3x weekly): Calibrated thermometer or thermistor in Hach oxygen sensor. Typical Value: 77°F.
Water Motion (occasional): Measured by a Marsh-McBirney FloMate 2000 electronic digital water velocity meter. Typical Value: 6 inches per second around corals. High velocity within the tank keeps fish waste solids in suspension so they eventually enter the overflow and are hence removed by the filter sock. There is probably some maceration of fish waste by the propeller pump making fine particles available for capture by the corals.
Problems so far: Dinoflagellate outbreak, but kept in check by occasionally raising pH to 8.5. High flow velocity shears long dino growths off rocks. Bleaching of two corals when lighting program failed and intensity went to 100% on both channels resulting in loss of one. Acroporas and Montipora capricornis are growing, Cyphastrea and Pavona are starting to encrust, Acanthastrea growing multiple new heads. Other corals maintaining color and doing OK.
Pictures soon!
